THE BORDER BUZZ 

 
BORDER BUZZ is a roundup of the latest news and general interest items related to life and the work of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in the US-Mexico Border region.  If you have a news item you would like to share with your peers from across the region send these to malaura@alianzafronteriza.org 

BPP NEWS   

BPP MEMBER NEWS 

NCTC and Citi have received the Best Partnership award from the U.S. Chamber  of Commerce Foundation's Business Civic Leadership Center for their work with Financial Aid U. More than 11,500 online votes were cast by the public for this award. With funding from the Citi Foundation, Financial Aid U has helped put more than 8,000 students across the U.S. on the path to earning a college degree. The program helps steer students through the complex financial aid process, and unlocks millions of dollars in federal and state aid and loan funding. For these students, financial aid is a crucial determining factor in their decision and ability to pursue a college degree.

Now 20, a joint U.S.-Mexico project to develop poor border communities grows up.Now 20 years old, a joint U.S.-Mexico governmental project that funds infrastructure projects in poor border communities is all grown up. The North American Development Bank, commonly known as NADBANK, is making a concerted effort to expand loans from wastewater treatment and potable water projects to alternative energy -- wind, solar and other renewable energy ventures. The move includes an $811 million investment into a number of solar, wind and biodiesel projects. Read more. 

Save-the-Date! Kino Border Initiative's Fifth Anniversary Celebration! The weekend of January 24 to 26, 2014, the Kino Border Initiative will be celebrating its fifth anniversary. There will be a Mass of Thanksgiving in Spanish at Cristo Rey (Christ the King) Parish in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico on Friday, January 24, 2014, at 6:00pm and a Mass of Thanksgiving at San Felipe de Jes�s Parish in Nogales, Arizona on Sunday, January 26, 2014 at 1:00pm. Stay tuned for more details.

Consul Prado, UTEP President Natalicio and Mexican Sculptor Sebasti�n Announce Centennial Gift to Honor Relationship between Mexico and UTEP. On Thursday, Nov. 21, the Honorable Jacob Prado, Consul General of Mexico in El Paso, officially revealed the details of a gift to honor both The University of Texas at El Paso's Centennial in 2014 and the strong ties between the people of Mexico and UTEP. The artist selected to create the gift is the acclaimed Mexican sculptor Sebasti�n, who began receiving awards for his work in the 1960s and continues to be broadly acclaimed today. Although best known for his large-scale sculptures, Sebasti�n's other creative endeavors include architectural design, painting, jewelry making, public art, costume design and multimedia productions. Read more.

Doctor to the stars now helps Mexico's poor. His life as a doctor has spanned the spectrum, from the opulence of Aspen to the poverty he found at the Sierra Madre of Mexico. After almost 30 years practicing as an orthopedic surgeon, to Dr. Michael Berkley operating on actor Jack Nicholson or a Tarahumara Indian is the same. When he lived in the valley, 15 years ago, Berkley used to operate on the richest of Aspen - including Nicholson. These days he treats and operates on the poorest at the Mission Tarahumara Hospital in Samachique, Chihuahua, Mexico. The poorest don't complain so much". Dr. Berkley recently won the 2013 FECHAC award for his work. Read more.

US-MX Border 2020 Program meeting announcements & funding opportunities. U.S. Funding Opportunities: EPA Announces Request for Applications for the 2014 Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program. New fact sheets, meeting minutes, and materials from past webinars have been posted on the Border 2020 publications page. Border 2020 Meetings: December 4: TX-NM-CHIH Waste Task Force; December 6: Tijuana River Valley Recovery Team;

December 6: AZ-Sonora Emergency Response Task Force. December 17: Webinar "Composting and public-private sector market opportunities". Border 2020 Partner Meetings: December 5, IBWC Citizen Forum San Diego; December 19: Southeast Arizona Citizen Forum.     

2013 Nonprofit Compensation and Benefits Report. The ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Innovation has recently completed the 2013 Nonprofit Compensation & Benefits Report, which is now available for purchase. This study, compiled every three years, helps nonprofits to make informed decisions by providing information on salaries and benefits for dozens of position titles, organized by budget size and organization type (arts, education, etc.). This report provides valuable compensation data across 50+ nonprofit job positions, as well as findings on employee retirement, insurance, paid time off, and other benefits. Click here to view a brief highlight publication of this year's report.

FAMILY ASSET BUILDING     

Wednesday, December 4, Impact Matters: Building Financial Empowerment through Policies and Programs | Income and wealth inequality are at historic highs. To tackle the crippling financial challenges faced by a growing majority of U.S. households, diverse stakeholders are coming together to share wealth-building strategies aimed at ending poverty and building inroads into the middle class. Join the California Asset Building Coalition (CABC) at their 4th Annual Conference for a day of learning and sharing best practices - from innovative new models to proven strategies - that help Californians become financially empowered. Diverse organizations will discuss the power of asset building. See the full program and register here. 

NALCAB recognizes its family of funders. NALCAB--National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders is thanking their financial partners who have invested and furthered their mission to build financial and real estate assets, as well as human and technology resources in Latino families, communities and organizations. The generous support of funders and sponsors allows NALCAB to engage in dynamic partnerships with local member organizations. Collectively, NALCAB and its supporters are transforming the asset building potential in predominately Latino communities across our nation. Read more.   

HUD awards nearly $4 million to spur next generation of housing, neighborhood transformation. Nine communities to craft plans to revitalize housing, communities. U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced that nine communities across the U.S. will receive Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants. The $4.37 million awarded today provides these communities the resources they need to craft comprehensive, community-driven plans to revitalize and transform public or other HUD-assisted housing and distressed neighborhoods. Read more about these local planning efforts.

Why Policy for Results? The Center for the Study of Social Policy presents an introductory video to the new Policy for Results site. CSSP believes policymaking should begin with the concrete results we want to achieve and that using reliable data leads to better decisions and ultimately to improved outcomes for children, families and communities. CSSP has expanded, refreshed and restructured the PolicyforResults website, which provides data, holds hundreds of resources and highlights our public policy agenda. Policyforresults.org is a streamlined and modern tool that features strategies, funding resources, policy papers, briefs, blogs and more authored by CSSP and other experts.  

The Kludging of Higher Education. Why does applying for student aid seem to require an advanced degree in accounting-and yet college keeps getting more expensive? Why does accreditation involve countless hours and mountains of paperwork-and yet many college graduates still don't learn very much? Why are so many things in higher education complicated and ineffective at the same time? The answer can be summed up in a single word: "kludgeocracy." The term, coined by Steven M. Teles, an associate professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University, comes from computer programming. A kludge is a... (read more)

HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT      

UTEP professor recognized for international work providing

CULTURE AND COMMUNITY  

Border art gets breathing room. While many curators harbor a fear of open space, guest curator Kate Bonansinga allows individual works the freedom to breathe in her "Art at the Border: 21st Century Responses" installation at 516 ARTS. The nicely hung show features works by seven individual artists and several collaborative pieces. The show dramatically begins in the atrium with Adrian Esparza's Vitrina de Colonias, 2013 an 18- by 16-foot construction symbolizing an ad hoc neighborhood where workers live near the USA/Mexican border. The large construction represents the haphazard street layout which is the product of spontaneous construction to fill basic needs. Read more.

Exhibit looks at Arizona Native American communities. It was during the early 20th  century that Edward S. Curtis, a famed ethnologist and photographer, began producing what would become an important photographic record of American Indians living in the U.S. The Arizona State Museum at the UA has introduced "Curtis Reframed: The Arizona Portfolios," an exhibition that will spotlight his work and the lives of American Indian people who lived in Arizona more than 80 years ago. Read more. 

DEMOGRAPHICS   

Restless America: state-to-state migration in 2012. This interactive graphic shows migration patterns among states in 2012. Approximately 7.1 million Americans moved to another state in 2012. That's over 2.2% of the U.S. population. The United States has a long history of people picking up and moving their families to other parts of the country, in search of better livelihoods. Some interesting facts include: 566,986 people left the California in 2012 for states like Texas, Nevada, Washington, and Arizona, presumably for the lower cost of living. Texas is the second-largest destination for migrants. Over 500,000 people moved to Texas in 2012.   

UPCOMING EVENTS

27 November, Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) webinar in Spanish: Discover a world of information on industrial pollution in North America using Taking Stock Online | A Spanish webinar showcasing the CEC's Taking Stock Online, the North American Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) database that brings together data reported by facilities to the Canadian, Mexican and United States' PRTRs.

December 4 and 5, Mexico Auto Industry Conference, Puebla, Mexico, Puebla Conference Center | This is the final in the 2013 series of Mexico manufacturing conferences produced by Mexico's leading industrial trade magazine, Mexico Now. Speakers at the event are experts on various aspects of Mexico's automotive industry.

December 5, 2013, Book Presentation by Alfredo Corchado, Warren Auditorium, SOLES University of San Diego | Midnight in Mexico is the story of one man's quest to report the truth of his country-as he raced to save his own life. Presented by The Justice in Mexico Project, the Department of Political Science and International Relations, and the Latin American Studies Program at the University of San Diego.  

December 6, New Mexico Community Foundation 30th Anniversary Gala | NMCF is proud to honor ten Luminarias, exceptional individuals who share their time and resources to improve the lives of their fellow New Mexicans. Luminarias are chosen by NMCF volunteers and donors. 

December 11, webinar: Accountability and ethics can make or break your organization |The giving public no longer holds a "blind trust" in nonprofits or their appeal messages. At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will know the steps required to document the organization's work as a community benefit, value fundraising performance analysis to document effectiveness and efficiency, and understand the challenges to organization's in demonstrating ethical conduct.

U.S. - MEXICO RELATIONS

Former Mexican president honored. By Sandra Dibble. The Institute of the Americas honored former Mexican President Felipe Calder�n Hinojosa with its Leadership in the Americas Award, in recognition of "outstanding contributions to economic and social reforms in the Americas." In accepting the award, Calder�n spoke of how Mexico confronted the global economic crisis during his administration. "I served my country in very difficult moments. However, I don't complain about it," said Calder�n, who held the presidency from 2006-12 and is also known for his war against drug cartels. "To serve Mexico in such difficult moments has been a double honor and a singular... (read more)  

ECONOMY AND BUSINESS

Tijuana, San Diego airports to share terminal at US-Mexico Border: Find out why.   Construction got under way last month on a new terminal which will join an airport in San Diego with its cross-border counterpart in Tijuana, Mexico. The long-awaited project -- which has been under consideration since the early 1990s -- is expected to be up and running by the end of 2014, and planners hope that it will streamline traffic across the border, especially for San Diego travelers who have long used Tijuana's airport for international flights and who, upon their return to California, face long waits at the border crossing. Read more. 

Unisys Provides CBP with Scanning Tech at Busiest U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing. Unisys has collaborated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection to deploy a pedestrian crossing technology intended to help the agency secure traveler passage through the U.S.-Mexico border. The kiosk-based radio frequency identification system installed at the San Ysidro, Calif., border crossing works to scan pedestrian documents as travelers wait for CBP officers to process their passage as part of the Land Border Integration program, Unisys said Thursday. Read more.

US natural gas exports into Mexico to continue growth. Natural gas imports into Mexico from the US-its largest supplier-increased 24% to 1.69 bcfd in 2012, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration cited by law firm Mayer Brown in a legal update on US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permitting of NET Mexico Pipeline Partners LLC's cross-border gas export project. FERC issued a Presidential Permit and Granting Authorization Nov. 8 (under Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act) allowing NET Mexico, a subsidiary of NET Midstream, Houston, to build a 2.1-bcfd gas export site at the US-Mexico border. Read more.

BORDER RESEARCH AND STUDY

Indigenous students from Guatemala, Mexico visit Tucson. About 20 college students from indigenous areas of Guatemala and Mexico visited Tucson as part of a leadership program at the University of Arizona that teaches about democracy and education in the United States. This is the fifth year that the UA hosts the Study of the United States Institute, where young adults experience leadership in another country. "What has surprised me the most, is discovering that there is another reality, that there are other people who may be similar to me but in reality, we live in different worlds," Karen Quim, a native to Guatemala and one of the students in the institute, said in Spanish. "Even though it's a different world though, we can share our experiences." Read more. 

IMMIGRATION

Number of Mexicans crossing US border lowest in decades. Even as immigration remains a dominant political issue in Washington, particularly the issue of providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the amount of Mexicans crossing the US border has come to a virtual standstill. An estimated 12 million people are thought to have entered the US from Mexico over the past four decades, both by legal and illegal methods. Yet according to a recent survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, an arm of the Pew Research Center, the weakened US economy and tougher border enforcement are among the factors that have contributed to the sudden drop. Read more. 

Long-lost U.S. son found after 35 years illegally crossing Mexican border. For a while there, Kathy Amaya thought her long-lost son was gone forever. He was 2 years old when her estranged husband took the boy to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to visit grandparents. That was 35 years ago, and that was the last time Amaya, now 60, saw her son. Then, the U.S. Border Patrol called her this month and said a man who spoke only Spanish was claiming to be a U.S. citizen -- and that she was his mother. At long last, the day that Amaya thought would never come finally arrived. Read more.

When migrants crossing the US-Mexico border get into trouble, 911 is there. The callers are usually Spanish speakers and their cell phone reception can be poor. One man, who said his name was Joel, called for help in the middle of a June day when the temperatures hit the triple digits. "We are dying," he said in a quick, panicked voice in Spanish. "We need help." On the other end of the line was a dispatcher in Arizona, at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. He also looped in a Border Patrol agent. The two agencies often work together to rescue migrants. But the remoteness of the desert region and the kind of phones that migrants tend to carry can make it hard to trace their location very precisely. Read more.    

Anthropologist works to return migrants' remains. Last year, U.S. border officials  recorded 463 migrant deaths, the second-highest number in 15 years. Half of them were in Texas. Brooks County, Texas, 950 square miles of tough desert terrain, has experienced more deaths than most. Just this year, 82 migrants have died in Brooks County alone. Most of them are unidentified. But one person is trying to change that. Lori Baker is a forensic anthropologist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and director of the "Reuniting Families" project, which attempts to identify the remains and match them with family members back home. Read more.     

10 immigrant entrepreneurs in the US. According to a new report, the Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity released by the Kaufman Foundation, immigrants were twice as likely to start businesses as native-born Americans in 2012. The number of new Latino entrepreneurs has also nearly doubled, from 10.5 percent to 19.5 percent since 1996. Click here for a sampling of some immigrant pioneers in various fields.

TRADE & INDUSTRY 

Proposed county trade-zone expansion could create jobs, attract companies. Do�a Ana County officials are considering a proposal that could create local jobs and spur new capital investment in the county by companies involved in international trade. The move is expected to bolster an already-robust growth spurt centered upon binational commerce in Santa Teresa and a $400 million Union Pacific Railroad yard and shipping facility under construction there. County commissioners will vote on whether to seek a federal approval to expand the coverage within Do�a Ana County of what's known as a Foreign Trade Zone 197, a geographical area that's treated -- for U.S. customs purposes -- like foreign turf, even though it's solidly on domestic soil. Read more.

Toyota is looking for local suppliers for the assembly plant they have in Tecate, Baja California. According to the Catalog of Industry Suppliers in Mexico, 20 maquiladoras will participate to meet requirements for 139 products. Toyota is looking for suppliers to meet their needs for different products, including pieces for the armrest, automotive pipes folding and cutting, metal stamping, cold forging, injection molding, machining, among others. In addition, Toyota is looking for local companies to buy direct and indirect supplies, such as plastic pieces plating, high precision mold machining, recruitment outsourcing, plating of all kinds of metals, software and telecommunication services, among others. Read more. 

NONPROFITS AND PHILANTHROPY 

How to create an effective social media campaign for a nonprofit organization. Creating a social media campaign for a non-profit organization can be a daunting task. As a twenty-five year fundraising veteran, I am all too familiar with the challenges that face those who have to develop and launch a social media campaign that will generate new donors and consistent funds being raised. It is key to develop a strategy prior to launching one's social media tactics. This is a common mistake that is made not only with fundraising committees, but in businesses around the world. Read more.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announces the WKKF Community Leadership Network, a new program that constitutes a renewed commitment to leadership development. This fellowship is rooted in WKKF's mission of supporting vulnerable children and their families, with a focus on racial equity and community and civic engagement. In alignment with their grantmaking strategies, a total of 100 fellows will be equitably selected from U.S. priority places-Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans-and will do their work there. Another 20 fellows will be selected from outside the priority places and will function as a national cohort whose work will focus on racial healing and equity.

FROM THE FRONTERAS DESK

•  New Mexico Governor Proposes Spending Big On Water Projects. New Mexico, like much of the Southwest, is looking for new and cost-effective ways to quench its thirst amid a years-long drought that has depleted its reservoirs to historic lows.

• The Cost Of Tradition: Holding On To Quince�eras In The US. Families empty their pockets to throw a party, sometimes bigger than a wedding, for their little girls.

• The Big Bend And Boquillas: An Experiment On The Border. An experiment designed to relaunch destroyed rural border economies an both sides of the Rio Grande appears to be successful.

For more information on the Border Buzz, and to share your news and information related to the U.S.-Mexico border region, contact:

US-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership

malaura@alianzafronteriza.org  

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