New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children

Advocacy:NMAEYC remained committed to advocating for state and federal policies that increase access for diverse families and children to programs that support positive child outcomes. Our advocacy in FY24 focused on increasing wages for the early childhood workforce and stabilizing the childcare industry and increasing childcare capacity. Efforts included reaching out to policymakers via email and phone, attending state legislative virtual town halls in the spring and early summer, and participating in trainings with Start Early and SCAN. NMAEYC also engaged in social media campaigns, provided mandatory advocacy training to staff and board members, and hosted our annual Public Policy Roundtable, free for the community.

In FY24, NMAEYC maintained a small but dedicated team of two full-time employees: an Executive Director, and a Finance Manager. We utilized contract hires for specialized roles like communications, program and event support and accreditation consultancy. Despite limited contract work, the bulk of the organizations work was completed by the two full-time staff members. Through new partnerships and collaborations with early childhood education (ECE) groups, NMAEYC expanded its capacity to serve the entire state, including rural, Spanish-speaking, and tribal communities. This expansion allowed us to provide childhood professionals and families with low and no-cost learning opportunities via conferences, workshops, and webinars. These efforts enabled us to offer no-cost memberships and increase our advocacy capacity by partnering with other early childhood and child well-being advocates.Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB):NMAEYC continued its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) throughout FY24. We recognized the importance of embedding DEIB principles into our cultural, programming, and systemic approaches. To ensure DEIB was integrated into all aspects of our work, we made updates to Board by-laws and organizational policies, incorporating DEIB commitments into formal policies. Recruitment of board members for election took place in March, with new members joining in July. Our board represents a diverse range of professional roles in early childhood education from regions across New Mexico.Membership:NMAEYC offered no-cost memberships to participants in our professional development workshops, generously underwritten by funders. Additionally, we provided free entry-level memberships through conference scholarships, supported by conference sponsors. Our concerted efforts to recruit and retain members led to meeting our FY23 goal of increasing membership to 1,000 members. This growth was driven by memberships provided through workshops and our annual conference.Professional Development:Recognizing the importance of reaching communities across New Mexico, NMAEYC continued to offer professional development workshops via virtual and in-person means. Over the past year, we held 32 professional development workshops covering a variety of topics, including STEM, Trauma-Informed Care, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). These workshops served over 350 educators and childcare providers throughout the state. Thanks to the generosity of our funders, all workshops were offered free of charge to both members and non-members, marking the fourth consecutive year weve provided these workshops at no cost.Fundraising:NMAEYC continued to seek funding from both established and new sources to support the breadth of our programs and services. We successfully ensured cost-free participation in our programs for early childhood professionals and families throughout New Mexico, including reaching tribal, rural, and Spanish-speaking communities. Key funders in FY24 included the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Google Kids Initiative, community foundation support and the Walton Family Foundation via facility grants from around the state. We also partnered with Explora Science Center and Childrens Museum to support tribal, rural, and Hispanic populations in northwestern and north-central New Mexico, respectively. A new grantor, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and Sandia Foundation provided additional funding for our programs.In addition to grants, we diversified our fundraising efforts through social media crowdfunding, partnerships with local businesses, an annual appeal, Giving Tuesday, and securing sponsorships for our annual conference. On December 4, 2023, we hosted our second annual high-level fundraising gala, the "Snowball," which was a great success.

Annual Conference:NMAEYC hosted the largest early childhood education conference in New Mexico at the University of New Mexicos Student Union Building on April 5-6, 2024 with 1,190 registrants from across the state. The theme of the conference was Engaging the Future.While we raised registration prices by $15 per category, we achieved a profit of $130,469 which is the largest profit NMAEYC has received to date. The conference was well-received, and we had several classrooms donated to us by the UNM COEHS. Thanks to generous sponsorships, NMAEYC was able to provide 50 scholarships for rural and low-income centers and offer Spanish interpretation throughout the conference. Our keynote speaker, Cindy Nava, was a highlight of the event, and we offered 91 concurrent sessions.The conference planning committee and board did raise registration prices by $10 in each category. We made a $1 profit of $109.00 with our conference. Our main conference was well attended, and we received great feedback. The negative feedback received had to do with difficulty parking at the University and some over-filled sessions where there was standing room only. With generous sponsorships for conference, NMAEYC was able to offer Spanish interpretation and provide 85 scholarships for rural and low-income centers to attend conference. The keynote we selected was incredibly popular and well received Sean Buchanan We offered 70 concurrent sessions.