Friday, August 20, 2010

Jemez Pueblo Creating Education Endowment

In partnership with the New Mexico Community Foundation, the Pueblo of Jemez is creating an education endowment to ensure that any pueblo member who wants to go to college can.

The endowment, named the Jemez Pueblo Foundation Fund, will be a permanent pool of money that will be managed by the NMCF, a press release issued yesterday by the pueblo stated.

The goal is for the pueblo to raise $50,000 in one year. The NMCF, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, will match half of what the pueblo raises at $25,000 if the pueblo reaches its goal by Aug. 20, 2011.

The endowment is being kicked off today with a fundraising drive at the Walatowa Visitors Center. The pueblo plans to create a tribal employee giving program as well as solicit area businesses to raise money. The Jemez Health Board and Health Department will kick off the drive with a $25,000 initial investment toward the fund.

“Every year approximately six college-bound students are denied funding because we do not have enough money for all of them,” Pueblo of Jemez Governor Joshua Madalena said in the release. “However, education is a priority, and this endowment will open new doors and provide some great opportunities for our people. It will also help support some of our innovative educational programs.”

The Jemez Pueblo, a non-gaming tribe, will become the second tribe in New Mexico and the 16th in the nation to establish an endowment, according to a report on Native American philanthropy by the First Nations Development Institute.

For information about the Jemez Pueblo Foundation Fund or to make a donation, go to www.nmcf.org/POJEF.

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