By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com
On Wednesday, the Los Alamos Community Foundation (LACF) received the latest matching funds from Enterprise Bank & Trust as part of the bank’s three-year Community Challenge. Enterprise created the Community Endowment in 2019 and committed to funding the endowment $50,000 per year for three years. Presented as a challenge to the Los Alamos community, the commitment of Enterprise was based on LACF securing equal matching funds from local donors.
“Enterprise Bank is proud to partner with Los Alamos Community Foundation. The establishment of this Endowment secures beneficial programming for our community forever,” said Liddie Martinez, Enterprise Bank President – Los Alamos Region and Director of Community Engagement.
Each year of the effort, the community rose to the challenge. The first two years were successfully completed and LACF has secured $50,000 in pledges to complete year three. Although $40,000 was presented Wednesday, Enterprise will fund the final $10,000 endowment amount once all the outstanding pledges have been collected.
“Enterprise Bank & Trust has been a valuable partner to Los Alamos Community Foundation since its inception more than six years ago,” LACF Board President David Izraelevitz said. “They host our office in their building and provide financial management services to us as well. These matching funds will allow us to make a greater impact on our community, supporting the great nonprofits in Los Alamos and our region. We look forward to more partnerships with Enterprise in the future.”
The purpose of the Enterprise Bank & Trust Community Endowment is to provide grants for charitable, scientific, literary or educational objectives that benefit residents of Los Alamos County. As an endowment, LACF invests the principal and earnings are distributed to the community in the form of grants to local nonprofits. Funds are awarded through a grant cycle that takes place each spring. The endowment principal is never touched, ensuring the endowment will be giving back to the community in perpetuity.
“Enterprise is such a great supporter of the community. This endowment is a truly wonderful gift that will keep on giving. We are equally grateful for the amazing group of local donors who saw this opportunity and stepped up generously to provide the matching side of the funds,” LACF Executive Director Steve Laurent said. “I could not think of a better way for Enterprise to show its long-term commitment to Los Alamos than by creating this endowment. These funds will be generating income to support our community essentially forever. Liddie and her team at Enterprise secured the commitment and challenged the community to raise a matching amount, and we did. This is a tremendous success story all around, especially for the organizations doing such important work in the community who will benefit from the endowment for years to come.”
Laurent explained that just because Enterprise Bank fulfilled its initial commitment does not mean the endowment is complete.
“Our ongoing job is to continue to grow the endowment through additional contributions. Anyone can contribute to the endowment at any time,” he said. “One of the important things is that the endowment funds are unrestricted, meaning that funding is not limited to a specific organization or cause. This means that funding will always be available to address changing needs in our community, now and well into the future. The mission of the Los Alamos Community Foundation is to build enduring philanthropy to empower our community’s nonprofit organizations. To learn more about how you can participate in building lasting support for our local nonprofits, go to losalamoscf.org or call 505.661.4420.”
To date, the Enterprise Bank & Trust Community Endowment has supported a number of local nonprofit organizations including: Self Help, Inc., Los Alamos Visiting Nurse Service, Los Alamos JJAB, Los Alamos Retired and Senior Organization, Family Strengths Network, Los Alamos Makers, First Born Program of Los Alamos, The Family YMCA, Los Alamos Arts Council, Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation, Pajarito Environmental Education Center and Mind&Melody. To learn more about Enterprise Bank & Trust, visit enterprisebank&trust.com.
About the Los Alamos Community Foundation: Established in 2015, the focus of the Los Alamos Community Foundation is to build enduring philanthropy to empower our community’s nonprofit organizations. The Los Alamos Community Foundation currently stewards 14 local endowed funds and has total assets of more than $975,000. For more information about the Los Alamos Community Foundation, visit www.losalamoscf.org.