A Message from our Founder and Executive Director

Dear Wonderful Appleseed Family,

There are heartbreaking problems in New Mexico that we have somehow collectively agreed to live with. We have deemed them "unsolvable." I just completely disagree with that diagnosis. I think New Mexico’s problems are not only solvable, but that the solution is well within our reach. Solving them requires vision, execution, and funding. New Mexico Appleseed has the first two in spades. What we need to do our work is the funding. 

Consider the fentanyl crisis flooding our child welfare system. The standard response—removing substance-exposed infants from their mothers—creates exactly the kind of early trauma that neuroscience tells us produces lifelong disadvantage. We are building the first program in the country that keeps these mothers and babies together through evidence-based recovery support. This is strategic intervention at the moment when families can either be permanently fractured or genuinely preserved.

Or consider homeless high school students, who graduate at a rate of 13% not because they lack intelligence, but because survival and education are fundamentally incompatible without economic stability. We created direct financial support—not as charity, but as the foundation for a genuine path out of poverty. We are the only organization in America doing this work.

New Mexico has the highest WIC eligibility rate in the nation but the lowest participation rate. We understand why. The amount of money is anemic and the burden to go into the clinic is insurmountable. While others have documented this failure, we are creating solutions to both the enrollment and the quality of the support.

These interventions address root causes rather than symptoms, build genuine partnerships rather than deliver services, and operate at the systems level rather than the individual level. When you invest in New Mexico Appleseed, you are not funding temporary relief. You are purchasing permanent change in the systems that trap families in poverty. Most philanthropy rents solutions. Donating to New Mexico Appleseed is buying them. Your capital can serve families one at a time, or it can change the architecture that determines whether families succeed at all. Thank you for your loyalty and generosity. We hope that we continue to make you proud.

Best,

Jennifer Ramo
NM Appleseed Founder and Executive Director

A Message From Our Board Chair 

Throughout my career at KPMG, I examined countless investment portfolios—each evaluated through the lens of risk, return and long-term value creation. Yet none have delivered returns as profound or enduring as those I've witnessed at New Mexico Appleseed. Over the past eight years, I have observed this organization confront some of our most intractable social challenges with discipline, innovation, and measurable impact. 

My continued commitment to Appleseed stems from a rigorous evaluation of opportunity cost. The economics of inaction are staggering—nutritional deficits impeding cognitive development, cycles of intergenerational poverty that erode economic productivity, perpetuating systemic inefficiencies, and substantial federal allocations remaining unclaimed. These are not abstract problems; they are compounding liabilities on society's balance sheet whether acknowledged or not.

As a fiduciary by training and conviction, I recognize in Appleseed an exceptional value proposition: a catalyst for systemic change, executed with the precision and efficiency of a well-managed enterprise. This is not philanthropy in the traditional sense—it is strategic social investment, producing demonstrable returns in human and economic capital.  

I extend an invitation to discerning investors to consider Appleseed as part of a truly diversified portfolio. In my professional estimation, the marginal utility of capital invested here far exceeds that of conventional investment vehicles, while the cost of inaction grows with devastating precision.

Many thanks,

Caroline Garcia
NM Appleseed Board Chair, TXNM Energy and Former KPMG Partner

A Message from Our Past Board Chair

Dear Appleseed Friends,

I have spent my entire career as an architect and business leader trying to make New Mexico a better place to live, raise a family, work and have a business. New Mexico, in many regards, is truly the Land of Enchantment. We have it all here: weather, authentic culture, natural resources, national labs, great research universities—however, New Mexico continues to stagnate as states around us are thriving.

So much of what holds us back in our state is that the desperate levels of poverty and suffering have been waived off as unsolvable “problems." These “problems” can only be resolved through strategic, aggressive, targeted action. We need entrepreneurial thinking and people whose commitment to families and children is unwavering—and that is what the Board and staff of New Mexico Appleseed are laser-focused on. Appleseed’s work is solution and action-oriented, using data to connect the dots and then challenging the status quo to innovate in finding creative “solutions” through public policy, coordination of services and cooperation of providers. If you are like me, you want your philanthropic dollars to make a dramatic difference in people’s lives and our community.

I am asking you to join me in making as big a gift as you can, so that New Mexico Appleseed can continue to impact the lives of our fellow New Mexicans who are most in need.

Sincerely,

Dale R. Dekker
Past Chair, NM Appleseed Board of Directors

Ways to Give to New Mexico Appleseed

Donate securely Online

Donate by Check

Kindly make your check payable to New Mexico Appleseed and send to:
New Mexico Appleseed
901 Rio Grande Blvd NW Suite G156A
Albuquerque, NM 87104

other WAYS TO givE

• Planned Giving

• Retirement Distributions

• Stock and Property Donations

For more information, please contact:
Jenny Ramo, Founder & Executive Director
jramo@nmappleseed.org • 505-903-3086