​Over the past year, Prosperity Works has been helping low-income communities through their Energy Efficiency Work. This work funded by the Turner Foundation, and NM Zone Grant funders, and has allowed Prosperity Works to improve the lives and living conditions of low-income families in New Mexico. 

While implementing home energy audits and energy efficiency measures in these low-income homes, Prosperity Works was able to conduct a survey about their needs. They found that all of these individuals own their homes, are families averaging two to five people, and 65% of those surveyed are living on $10,000 or less a year, and fully 85% have incomes of $25,000 or less. Most of these families have deferred medical needs, medicine and food to pay their utility bills.

The Prosperity Works Energy Work has been done in two phases, with plans for more in the future. 
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In the first phase, Prosperity Works partnered with PNM to create a model to get into hard to reach communities and households. They utilized PNM ambassadors and the Partnership for Community Action parent leaders to facilitate energy efficiency opportunities, with the idea of “community people engaging with community people.” Through this program, we were able to upgrade lighting, power strips, aerators, and weather stripping on windows and doors in 50 homes. Of those 50 homes, 35 also qualified to receive new refrigerators at no cost. 

Phase Two of the Energy Work partners with Central New Mexico Housing. This second phase is focused on gas efficiency and safety in homes by upgrading hot water heaters, furnaces, and whole-house insulation. With the two-phase of upgrades, most homeowners anticipate a cost reduction on their utility bills of 50%, and also importantly, an improvement in the health, safety, and comfort of their home.

The next phase of this work will include 300 additional homes. Prosperity Works hopes to receive more funding to grow this model statewide. With many New Mexicans living at or below the poverty line, we must do all we can to ease their financial burden, and open new pathways for opportunities for them and their families.

​As we begin a new year – and a new decade – it is important to appreciate the efforts, work, history, and growth of our incredible organization. Prosperity Works was started with one primary goal: to remove barriers and create opportunity for financial equity and inclusion in the state of New Mexico. Throughout our 20 year history, we have worked tirelessly to do just that. Over the years, we have engaged with communities, legislators, business owners, and advocates across the state to champion and advance policies and practices that work to address the systemic factors that block financial stability and contribute to poverty.

 We are proud to have worked to create successful programs that continue to make a positive impact in New Mexico, like the New Mexico Individual Development Account program and Prosperity Kids, a matched children’s savings account. We are proud to have worked with partners across the state to reframe poverty and to encourage the shifting of attitudes and behaviors in addressing and working to alleviate poverty. We are proud to have championed access to fair lending for all New Mexicans and to hold lenders accountable for predatory practices - work our team continues to carry out today. And we are immensely proud of how far we’ve come and excited for what the future will bring.

 As we move forward, my vision for Prosperity Works is that we can become an accelerator for common cause issues around the state – those policy and programmatic efforts that endeavor to create an equitable economic and social landscape for all New Mexicans – so that we, as a network of partners, advocates, and leaders can really make the positive impact we hope to see for our State and our people. It is with a collaborative and relentless spirit that we will continue our work and I hope that you’ll join us.
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​2020 Policy Agenda Priorities
Prosperity Works supports

• Economic Development & Technology: 
  • Policies that increase broadband deployment in urban and rural areas, especially underserved areas, via public-private partnerships, coordinated initiatives and legislative actions for shared infrastructure, access, and beneficial tax policies
  • Funding and continuing the New Mexico Individual Development Account program.
• Education & Workforce Development: 
  • Substantial and sustained funding support for early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs for children’s healthy development and success
  • Quality childcare and education programs that are focused on children’s success in school, financial education, and measured outcomes​
  • Addressing student loan debt in NM through the adoption of a Student Loan Bill of Rights that would require the state to license and regulate student loan servicers to ensure servicers are providing accurate information to borrowers and correctly applying payments
  • Full and increased investment in talent-driven economic development strategies and programs, such as the Rapid Workforce Development fund
  • Ongoing workforce analysis to determine the skills and skill-levels required for current and future employers
  • Implementation of systems that allow for the transparent reporting of education fundin
  • Education initiatives that contribute to increasing overall education attainment for New Mexicans, including more efficient transfer between institutions and increased access to alternative educational pathways
• Environment & Energy
  • Addressing the energy burden on LMI households by funding targeted local government energy efficiency investments into underserved communities to help cut energy bills, improve the quality of affordable housing in the state, and further the state’s clean energy goals.
  • Making electric vehicles available to low and moderate-income families by doubling the tax credit for those who make $50k or less per year
  • Developing infrastructure for facilitating the goals and requirements of the Energy Transition Act, including but not limited to wind, solar and other renewable energy facilities and transmission lines to move the energy to markets both inside and outside New Mexic
• Regulatory & Government Accountability: 
  • Continuing to work toward ensuring access to fair lending for all New Mexicans. 
• Taxation:
  • Expanding the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) to further improve health, address disparities, and help families thrive in New Mexico.
• ​Workplace Issues & Legal Reform: 
  • Legislation which would allow for a voluntary savings program for private sector and nonprofit employees and the self-employed.
  • To provide an equitable, stable, safe, and family-friendly environment for employees and employers to promote sustainable economic development
  • Statewide uniformity of employment laws, such as paid or unpaid leave mandates, wage or fringe benefit mandates, and scheduling mandates

In a jam-packed year full of fundraising projects both internally and externally, the total we raised is impressive. But we're even more blown away by the number of individual donors who helped us reach this milestone. We had over 40 donors who with their gift were expressing a heartfelt commitment to our work: "Yes, I believe the best investment I can make is investing directly in hardworking New Mexicans." 

​We promise to deliver a return on your investment in 2020. 

We also couldn't have reached this goal without the grassroots financial support from local businesses who wanted to signal that they believe in the mission of Prosperity Works by providing generous corporate match dollars.

We know that there are many wonderful organizations making a difference in New Mexico every day. Donors who gave to Prosperity Works on #GivingTuesday 2019 were assured their gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar by these exclusive partners up to $5,000.  In short, this kind of support amplifies our reach and strengthens our mission in a compounding, impactful way.

So we want to send a very special THANK YOU to both these donors and our community partners. You've taken an active role in empowering real change to the economic future of our local communities. Your engagement and commitment inspires us everyday to fight for great financial equity and inclusion for all the people of New Mexico.


Again, thank you from all of us here at Prosperity Works. We couldn't do what we do without your support.​

The Department of Agriculture recently proposed making changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Program (SNAP) that would take critical food benefits away from 3.1 million Americans, mainly working families with children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities, and will cut off school lunches for half a million children. If this proposal goes into effect working families who live near the poverty line will lose SNAP benefits when a small increase in earnings pushes their income past the current cutoff. The change would also stop states from automatically enrolling children whose families receive SNAP for free school meals.

Read our letter to Secretary Perdue at USDA and if you'd like to add a public comment to this proposal you may do so here.
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The Prosperity Works Board of Directors announces that Michael Barrio will take over as President & CEO when Ona Porter retires this fall. Barrio, a Las Cruces native, has been serving as the Director of Advocacy at the nonprofit organization since 2017. Board and staff alike are excited about the commitment to economic equity, public and private sector experience and extensive network of New Mexico relationships that Michael brings to the role. 

“Michael's passion for the mission, his vision, and strategic approach to advance an opportunity agenda is
precisely what we need at this stage,” says Ona Porter, who will assume a Founder Emeritus role on the Board of Directors. 

​Please see the complete press release below. 
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Fighting insidious predatory lending in New Mexico requires a double-headed strategy: holding small-dollar lenders accountable to common-sense regulation AND expanding more fair-lending solutions to reach the people who need them most.  The Albuquerque Journal published a story about how more and more New Mexico employers are offering fairly-priced credit-building loans as an employee benefit. We're proud to help employers offer this solution to stabilize  their workforce and keep them out of the clutches of the loan sharks. If you know an employer or HR Professional who is interested in learning more about TrueConnect, please give us a call. 

"Nearly 16,000 employees across New Mexico – predominantly in the public sector – have access to TrueConnect loans, according to Prosperity Works, a nonprofit anti-poverty organization in Albuquerque that has helped the company expand in New Mexico. Participating employers also include the city of Las Cruces, Central New Mexico Community College and Comcast New Mexico. 

The loans are “one of the ways we can begin to address the fact that individuals and families need access to small-dollar lending and that they shouldn’t be punished for that by paying triple-digit APRs and being stuck in a cycle of debt that’s almost impossible to get out of,” said Michael Barrio, advocacy director for Prosperity Works."

Please visit the ABQ Journal to read the full story. ​