PITCHING IN
BCBS funds support volunteer program
Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico (BCBSNM) employees are committed to volunteering and giving back to the community. BCBSNM has a unique Matching Dollars program, providing $20 for every hour a BCBSNM employee volunteers at an approved community organization. Each organization can receive up to $2,000 a year through the program.
BCBSNM recently donated more than $25,000 in matching dollars to 23 organizations throughout the state for the hours volunteered by employees in 2016. In total, BCBSNM employees logged more than 11,000 volunteer hours last year.
“BCBSNM encourages our employees to volunteer in the community,” stated Janice Torrez, divisional vice president of external affairs and chief of staff.
BCBSNM established many great relationships with organizations doing valuable work for New Mexicans. Eight organizations received the maximum matching dollar amount of $2,000. Those organizations were American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Catholic Charities of Albuquerque, El Caldito Soup Kitchen of Las Cruces, Roadrunner Food Bank, Ronald McDonald House Charities of New Mexico, Silver Horizons New Mexico, and Special Olympics New Mexico. Rotary foundation helps local charities
Thirteen 13 local charities received grants totaling $45,000 from the Rotary del Norte Foundation on June 21 — but that was just the tip of the giving tree from the fundraising arm of the Rotary Club of Albuquerque del Norte this year.
The Rotary del Norte Foundation, founded in 1989, had one of its largest outpouring of grants in its history this past year, having awarded more than $131,000 as the result of several major fundraising events — the annual Del Norte Rotary Gala held in February and the Del Norte Rotary Charity Golf Tournament, held each August.
Foundation President Chuck Brown noted that the funds awarded to the local charities “is our way of serving the local community,” while the mammoth Rotary Foundation based in Chicago “serves the needs of the world — such as eradicating polio.”
The largest grant this year was $20,650 to the University