New Mexico Community Capital Expands as it Helps Native-Owned Businesses Launch & Grow

Left to right: Liz Gamboa (Mexica/Apache) Managing Director of Entrepreneurial Services; Warren Montoya (Santa Ana/Santa Clara Pueblo), Outreach Coordinator; Kalika Tallou (Diné/Ute), Social Media Strategist; Henry “Jake” Foreman (Absentee Shawnee/Filipino), Program Manager; and Clare Zurawski, Grants Specialist & Management Advisor (Courtesy NMCC)

New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC) continues to add management staff and programs as its growth path builds to bring entrepreneurial skills to emerging Native-owned businesses, currently serving 20 different tribes in 6 different states.

As part of its mission to create an organization that is “by, for and about” Native Americans, NMCC has named Liz Gamboa (Mexica/Apache) Managing Director of Entrepreneurial Services, Henry “Jake” Foreman (Absentee Shawnee/Filipino) as Program Manager, Warren Montoya (Santa Ana/Santa Clara Pueblo), as Outreach Coordinator, Kalika Tallou (Diné/Ute) as Social Media Strategist and Keegan King (Acoma Pueblo) as Project Coordinator. These assignments reflect a succession plan, as outlined by Peter Holter, who will be stepping down as Managing Director, and retaining a position as Senior Management Advisor.

In handing over management duties to Ms. Gamboa, Holter said, “Poverty is more than a lack of money. It is also reflected by a lack of hope. The NMCC programs, led by Native Americans and Indigenous people, who have ‘been there, done that’, provide not only the technical business skills readily, presented on a peer-to-peer basis, but also a growing, safe, interactive community of learning to build confidence and hope.”

NMCC got its start as a social enterprise venture capital fund, and in its early years identified a clear need among Native entrepreneurs, not only for entrepreneurial skills and training, but also for the development of a Community of Practice where emerging Native business leaders could find a network for safe engagement and well developed peer to peer learning.

Having received a key multi-year federal grant from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) in the area of sustainable employment and economic development strategies, NMCC was able to design and implement a long term program called Native Entrepreneur in Residence (NEIR) designed to support the NMCC mission. Becoming fully operational in 2014, the NEIR program has delivered these impacts to date:

35 Native Entrepreneurs graduated
157 new jobs created
76% of those jobs are Native hires
$9.6 million in new gross revenues

Additional NEIR funding is anticipated going forward as part of an effort to broaden the NMCC reach to additional tribes and states throughout the U.S.

Based on its performance with NEIR, NMCC was awarded $1.2 million in funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to design and launch a Financial Literacy/Business Basics program throughout New Mexico, with further expansion in the mid-western U.S. In its initial phases, this program is already showing early impact and results in these areas, working with pueblos in mid-and northern New Mexico:

As the first cohort, Santa Clara Pueblo participants paid off $16,760 in household debt and saved $1,236 in the six months between intake and annual survey. Other positive results include:

68% of participants report using the Chromebook laptop they received on a daily or weekly basis
94% of participants report using the organizational and business tools they received in the course (a weekly planner, an account ledger, a Square reader, and a cash box)
81% shared what they learned or experienced in the course with family or friends
69% invested the stipend they earned in the course in a business activity
75% of participants report that they track household spending on a daily or weekly basis
87% of participants voluntarily took part in the Community Action Project (Santa Clara Pueblo holiday bazaar or other holiday markets)

As a result of these programs, NMCC is now being invited to participate as Management Consultants, providing feasibility studies, financial analysis, and business planning for a variety of tribal enterprises throughout the Rocky Mountain West.

New Mexico Community Capital (NMCC) is a private not-for-profit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Native American CDFI, and a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Key support comes from, among others: