This month, New Mexico Community Foundation is proud to feature Free Indian Market, a fiscally sponsored organization whose work reflects a long-standing commitment at NMCF: supporting Indigenous-led, Indigenous-serving projects that strengthen culture, community and self-determination across New Mexico.
Free Indian Market produces an annual free Native art show in Santa Fe, creating a welcoming space where Indigenous artists can connect directly with collectors, families and community members. By offering free booth space to artists and free admission to the public, the Market helps remove barriers, promote economic opportunity and celebrate the strength of Native arts and traditions.
The Market’s mission extends beyond a single event. It advances self-sufficiency while helping preserve traditional arts, cultures and languages. It also supports the recording and sharing of Native history, biographies, elders’ stories and traditional teachings—work that honors the past while helping sustain cultural knowledge for future generations.
NMCF’s fiscal sponsorship program is one way we show up for grassroots organizations doing meaningful work across the state. Through Model C fiscal sponsorship, donors and grantors contribute directly to NMCF, and NMCF regrants those funds to fiscally sponsored projects as restricted charitable gifts. This structure allows community-based organizations to remain independent while gaining administrative infrastructure, fiduciary oversight and financial management support.
For organizations like Free Indian Market, this support can include grants management, accounts payable and receivable, financial oversight and other back-office services that help charitable projects focus on their mission. In practice, fiscal sponsorship helps turn community vision into sustainable action.
Free Indian Market also helps illustrate why NMCF launched the Thriving New Mexico campaign. Building on more than four decades of statewide community philanthropy, Thriving New Mexico focuses resources on community-driven solutions that allow people and places to thrive on their own terms. One of its core priorities, Thriving Indigenous, supports Indigenous-led projects and plans that reflect the priorities and aspirations of Tribes, Pueblos and Native communities.
That connection is clear in Free Indian Market’s work. By supporting Native artists, uplifting cultural preservation and creating opportunities for economic self-sufficiency, the Market embodies the values at the heart of Thriving Indigenous: local leadership, cultural continuity, family and community well-being, and Native entrepreneurship.
As NMCF looks ahead, we see Thriving New Mexico not as a new direction, but as a deeper expression of work that has been growing for decades. Our support for Indigenous-serving projects like Free Indian Market reflects an enduring belief that the people closest to the challenges are also closest to the solutions—and that when communities have the resources and respect they need, they can define and build thriving futures on their own terms.