Pivotal New Mexico

Collaborating to help tax-exempt agencies in New Mexico get the support and funding they need to achieve their goals. 
  • 5 years as partners
  • 26 joint projects
  • 17 proposals
  • 62% success rate
  • $1,764,674 in collaborative proposals for community efforts
 
Many non-profit and community leaders have fantastic ideas for new ventures, but lack the community connections and grant writing skills to get funding to move forward.

Enter Pivotal New Mexico. The organization helps unlock the potential of mission-driven agencies by connecting them to the funding tools they need to accomplish their charitable goals. 

Pivotal grew out of a collaboration between The Grant Plant (TGP) and Grow New Mexico. In their work with nonprofits around the state, TGP leaders recognized that a lack of highly trained grant professionals inhibited organizations from getting the funding they needed; simultaneously, they could see the need for greater efficiencies in the field to successfully compete for game-changing grant funds. They started The Grants Collective as TGP’s nonprofit educational arm to offer grant writing training and an online platform to facilitate collaborative proposals. 

At the same time, Terry Brunner saw a similar problem from the funder’s viewpoint in his role as state director for a government agency. “We could see how much money was being left on the table,” he says. So, he started Grow New Mexico to help communities around the state advance. As a founding board member of The Grants Collective, Grow New Mexico became a fiscally-sponsored program of the nonprofit.

“We’re stronger together when we combine the vision of the future with the technical work needed today.”
Tara Gohr
President and CEO
The Grant Plant

Realizing that they were working towards the same goal and helping some of the same organizations, The Grants Collective and Grow New Mexico merged in 2019 to become Pivotal New Mexico. Since its inception, Pivotal has helped dozens of organizations thrive.  

Terry and the Pivotal team focus on capacity building for local governments and for non-profits, especially younger organizations, in several ways. Pivotal offers grant writing training; connects agencies to share ideas, advice, and resources; and provides individualized advisory services on designing programs for funding, using funds effectively, and maintaining compliance with funder guidelines. 

Pivotal brings in TGP team members when their research would be helpful or when the charitable organization is ready for the full-service support TGP offers. Likewise, TGP introduces prospective clients to Pivotal if they need help getting off the ground with advisory services and training. “We’re proud of this unique model we’ve built,” says Tara Gohr, President and CEO of TGP. “Between the two organizations, there are multiple entry points for support.” 

It helps that the organizations’ offices are side by side, which Tara says fosters creative connections. It’s not uncommon for a Pivotal team member to just walk down the hall with a new client to get ideas from the TGP team, or vice versa. And the groups regularly share industry insights. “We have the benefit of knowing each other very well, so we can share information and our broad expertise to guide clients,” says Terry. “We’re adaptable and we take a customizable approach to working with the diverse group of organizations in New Mexico.”