Nonprofit Board Fundamentals

My consulting services focus on working with nonprofit boards, staff, and constituents to provide insight, facilitation, strategic planning, and long-term, cross-functional management solutions. I combine a creative mindset with big-picture thinking, analysis, and strategy, while utilizing a collaborative, cross-cultural approach to ensure that strategies and solutions are inclusive and community-centered.  
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While I am skilled at working with people from a variety of backgrounds, I bring unique expertise and experience to the table in regard to serving Native American (and other diverse) populations, artists, and youth, and particularly those youth who have experienced loss and grief. Ross brings 20 years of Northern NM nonprofit and public service experience to offer consulting services for nonprofit Executive Directors and Board leadership with issues of governance, organizational development, strategy, real time HR issues, program/operations expansion or reduction, partnerships with local government, budgeting or general finance, and coaching leadership to prioritize next steps.

Nelsy Domínguez, MSW leads c3 Perspectives Consulting, LLC. As consultant to philanthropy and nonprofits she applies her many years of organizational ,grantmaking, leadership, programmatic, and equity-focused experience to expand the potential of the sector’s impact. Nelsy was the Program Director at Con Alma Health Foundation, a statewide health-conversion foundation and was integral to the New Mexico Community Foundation becoming a leading transformative statewide funder, executing place-based equity-driven capacity-building initiatives, and partnering with national and local foundations and grant recipients.

Areas of expertise and experience:

·        Grants & Program Development

·        Proposal Reviewer, Writer, Editor & Evaluator

·        Collaborative Strategic Planning

·        Equity Focused Solutions

·        Creative Thought Partner

·        Moderator and Facilitator

·        NGO Board &Staff Teambuilder, Motivational Coach, and Recruitment  

·        Event Planning

·        Administrative & Organizational Restructure

·        Alignment of Mission, Values and Action

·        Formulation ,Creation & Refinement of Policies, Procedure Manuals, Processes & Timelines

·        Budget Development, Management & Financial Oversight  

·        Interpersonal Supervision

·        Fund & Donor Development

·        Assessment & Support of Organizational Cultural Sensitivities

A graduate of the University of Phoenix and the University of Texas, El Paso, Alberto has lived for over twenty years in Santa Fe. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, he worked for twelve years managing the business operations of an Oscar-nominated entertainer and entrepreneur and ten years at two non-profits with a social justice mission. He is active in immigrant rights activities and fluent in Spanish. Passionate about health and physical fitness (you can find Alberto at the gym very early, every morning), or on a bicycle-having cycled across Portugal, the Adriatic coast, and the foothills of the Apennines of Italy and from Pittsburgh to Washington D.C.

Roger Gullickson worked in the business world for over 40 years including owning an experiential marketing company before coming to Santa Fe. Both before and after moving he served on numerous nonprofit boards and is currently on the board of The Mountain Center. He is passionately interested in making a difference in the lives of youth both in his work with the center and with his Alma Mater as well as having taught entrepreneurship here in Santa Fe. He has been a SCORE Volunteer for eight years.

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Elise Padilla MSW, MBA, CPSW, CWMF

Elise Padilla is the Owner and Founder of Elise Padilla Consulting, LLC, where she passionately pursues her mission of igniting the passion in the heart while maintaining the serenity of the soul. With over 15 years of extensive experience in non-profit leadership and development, Elise now dedicates her expertise to supporting entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders in creating sustainable businesses that make a positive impact in their communities.

Elise holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA), equipping her with a unique blend of compassionate understanding and strategic acumen. As a Certified Peer Support Worker (CPSW), she brings a deep empathy and firsthand knowledge of the challenges individuals face in navigating their personal and professional journeys. Her recent certification an a Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator gives her the opportunity to incorporate mindfulness and intentionality to encourage wellness in the workplace and drive success in organizations.

Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Elise is deeply rooted in her community, where she serves as the Treasurer of the National Association of Peer Supporters, the Chair of the NM Peer Support Coalition and as a member of many other local and National Boards. Through her role and her consultancy work, Elise remains committed to fostering growth, resilience, and empowerment among individuals and organizations alike.

With a steadfast dedication to holistic well-being and sustainable success, Elise Padilla continues to inspire and uplift those she serves, leaving a lasting impact on both hearts and businesses.

Annie Sanchez (she/her) Dreamer, Strategist, CEO

Annie is a business advisor and strategic life coach to sensitive, visionary executives, leaders and entrepreneurs around the country.  Bringing her genius to solving problems, clarifying vision and purpose, operations, leadership, organizational planning, team dynamics, individual and group healing, Annie has worked across sectors, including corporate, academia, nonprofit and philanthropy for 10 years. Annie is the founder and CEO of Mariposa Strategies, creator of Clarity Pages and host of Courage, Culture & Clarity. She lives in Albuquerque with her partner and cat.

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Marcia Swain retired from her practice as a lawyer and mediator in2010, having spent her career in Colorado. Throughout her career, she served on boards of directors of numerous community-based nonprofit organizations with diverse missions. She joined SCORE Santa Fe & Northern New Mexico in 2012, where she mentored both small businesses and nonprofits and served the chapter in a leadership capacity. Believing passionately in the power and potential of nonprofit organizations to deliver programs that benefit all people and the planet we share, she withdrew from active SCORE mentoring in 2020 to found her own business, Social Profit Advisors, whose mission is to provide information, inspiration, and support to nonprofit organizations and their leaders through education, mentoring, and consulting.

Horacio R. Trujillo, Biosketch. Horacio regularly advises senior leadership of philanthropies, businesses, governments, intergovernmental organizations and social purpose agencies around the world on strategy, long-range planning and learning practices to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian, development and environmental efforts, and has taught at various universities on leadership, humanitarian action, economics and political economy, socioeconomic development, global security, public policy and policy analysis. His published research spans various issues of global development and security, including good governance, counterterrorism, disaster response management, prevention of election-related violence, international action on ending large-scale violence and mass atrocities, and civic leadership.

The organizations that Horacio has advised include public and corporate philanthropies such as the Ford Foundation, Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Packard Foundation, MasterCard Foundation and Nike Foundation; multilateral and bilateral development agencies, such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Agency for International Development and the UK Department for International Development; policy research institutions, such as the United States Institute of Peace; international humanitarian and development nongovernmental organizations, such as Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council and Technoserve; environmental research and policy organizations, such as C40: Cities Climate Initiative, RMI (formerly the Rocky Mountain Institute) and the Clean Air Task Force; and initiatives to engage business in social purpose, such as the United Nations Global Compact and the Environmental Defense Fund’s Corporate Partnerships Program.

Horacio's leadership in philanthropy includes having served as a member of the senior executive team that launched Humanity United, the human security-focused philanthropy, from the Omidyar Network, and the senior advisor to the Metanoia Fund, a private philanthropic fund to foster inter-organizational collaboration to advance progress on global challenges. For over a decade, Horacio was a featured speaker on philanthropic effectiveness for The Philanthropy Workshop (now Forward Global), the world's leading philanthropy education network.

Horacio has co-founded, served on the boards of or voluntarily advised the boards of various social purpose organizations addressing issues from international understanding, such as Soliya, which was set up in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to promote greater understanding between youth of the United States and Europe and youth from Arabic and Islamic nations; to public service, such as the Harry S Truman Foundation, the official memorial of the 33rd president of the United States which promotes public service as a career and encourages all Americans to engage in public service throughout their lives; inclusive American democracy, such as People For the American Way, which advances American freedoms and values to protect the United States from anti-democratic extremism; youth- and community-development, such as the multi-national Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in his home state of New Mexico, A Place Called Home in Los Angeles and the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda; and climate change mitigation and transition, with the New Mexico Climate Investment Center.

Prior to focusing his work on advising leaders in the public and private spheres on how their social purpose efforts can have as great an impact as possible, Horacio worked directly on US foreign policy and economic policy as a legislative staff member in the US House of Representatives and US Senate.

Horacio’s university teaching includes having led the development of Occidental College's studies in international political economy, international development and human security in the Department of Diplomacy and World Affairs, as well as teaching on topics including leadership, economic, ethics and public policy at Occidental and other schools varying from Stanford University to Pepperdine University to the University of Kabul (Afghanistan). Horacio has also been a fellow or scholar with various research institutions and centers concerned with conflict resolution, negotiation, economics and the science of complexity, including the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation (SCCN) at Stanford Law School, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) at George Mason University, the Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy of Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, the Santa Fe Institute and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Jakarta (Indonesia).

Horacio holds degrees from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (international political economy and development), Oxford University’s International Development Centre (international political economy and development), Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and the RAND Corporation, where his doctoral work combined qualitative and quantitative research methods to provide practical policy guidance, particularly related to economics and international security, on complex issues to governments, businesses and social purpose organizations.

Patti Ward, CFRE (Certified Fund-Raising Executive), is a Nonprofit Consultant with over twenty-five years of experience working with all sizes of nonprofit organizations in various sectors – both urban and rural areas; including faith-based, education, arts, health-related, and social services. She is a knowledgeable trainer and co-created and co-taught the Toolbox for Fundraisers class for ten years through the Nonprofit Service Center, Amarillo Area Foundation program in Amarillo, Texas. She continues to provide training workshops at the Amarillo Area Foundation-Nonprofit Service Center, United Way’s Center for Nonprofit Excellence in Albuquerque and the Santa Fe Community Foundation, and specialized seminars for nonprofit organizations. She was awarded the 2010 Outstanding Fundraising Professional through the Association Fundraising Professionals (AFP) – Texas Plains Chapter. She is a current member of the Association of Philanthropic Counsel and Association of Fundraising Professionals (New Mexico Chapter and Texas Plains Chapter-Amarillo, Texas). Mrs. Ward holds an MBA and an undergraduate degree in Sociology.

Celia Yapita joined the Albuquerque Community Foundation team in the spring of 2023. Celia is of the Aymara people of Bolivia through her father and was raised by her mother in Gainesville, Florida. After going to college in the northeast and law school in the west, Celia found her home in the vibrant community of Albuquerque in 2004.

Her legal work in Florida, California and New Mexico included support of survivors of domestic violence, as well as advocacy for senior citizens and youth in special education. In Albuquerque, Celia worked at Catholic Charities for 11+ years, directly serving immigrants and refugees, and in her last couple of years there, supporting all programming as the Chief Program Officer. In fall 2021, Celia became the first Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at United Way of North Central New Mexico.  Throughout her career, Celia has centered clear communication in her collaborations: Aruskipt’asipxañanakasakipuniraskispawa – Sea lo que fuere, estamos obligados a comunicarnos – In all situations, we must communicate with each other.

Celia is part of a blended family, with three teenagers at home. She enjoys reading both fiction and nonfiction, dancing for exercise and fun, listening to podcasts, hikes with her husband, and relaxing with her two senior chihuahuas. Her joy comes from being with her kids, challenging herself through deep learning from the wisdom of those with lived experience, and learning how to embrace rest as a value in life.