Working Towards the Common Good 2016: Findings from the New Mexico Nonprofit Survey

FOR THE FOURTH YEAR, the Building Movement Project (BMP) and partner organizations in New Mexico surveyed the state’s nonprofit organizations. This report analyzes the responses of 295 nonprofit organizations that participated in the survey effort. The results from 2016 reconfirmed that organizations in New Mexico engage in a wide range of activities to support the well-being of New Mexicans. Organizations that completed the survey reported doing everything from foreclosure prevention to workforce development, from therapeutic horsemanship for veterans to protecting the natural habitats of the state’s birds of prey. The survey results provide a snapshot of the work that nonprofits do to support New Mexico’s communities, the key issues that organizations are working on, the opportunities and challenges they face, and how they work together to advocate for policy change.

This report consists of seven main sections:

1. Diverse Nonprofits, Shared Challenges provides an overview of the range of organizations that took part in the survey, how they work to address the needs of the clients and communities they serve, as well as the organizational challenges faced by the state’s nonprofits;

2. Weathering the Financial Storm digs into the budgetary and funding challenges faced by non-profits in New Mexico;

3. Working in Coalitions explores the reasons that nonprofits join — and engage in — coalitions;

4. Pushing for Broader Change examines how and why nonprofits engage in advocacy;

5. Supporting the Voice and Power of Constituents explores new questions that were added to this year’s survey about client feedback and community engagement;

6. Networks and Partnerships uses social network analysis methodologies to provide an in-depth look at the connections and relationships between nonprofits; and

7. Building Nonprofit Power to Make Change offers recommendations for how to help New Mexico’s nonprofits continue to increase their impact.

The report appendix, showing the survey instrument and question can be downloaded here.