What is it?

This is a scholarship endowment fund envisioned, proposed and initially chaired by Ken Haynes Jr with the financial aid of the 1995/1996 New Mexico Manufactured Housing Association Board of Directors and individual members of the NMMHA.


The Albuquerque Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which manages $10 million in student financial aid programs, was chosen as the custodian of the endowment. Charlie and Kathy Barnhart became co-chairs in 2003. I am sad to report Charlie died in 2007.


The purpose of the endowment is to offer financial assistance, in the form of grants, to selected New Mexico high school graduates who live in a mobile or manufactured home and have the grades and motivation but not the means to attend a college or university of their choice.


The ability to send at least one student to college who might not have otherwise attended, and the opportunity for philanthropic minded members of the NMMHA to contribute to a charity directly related to their collective lives are two of several goals accomplished by the establishment of this scholarship.


This is a protected perpetual endowment fund with a minuscule balance growing at a glacial pace by reinvestment and individual contributions. Started with $15,000 in December 1995, the balance is approaching $100,000, the initial request, when they had the money.


The first grant of $350 was awarded in June 1996. Once the endowment balance exceeded $30,000, the annual awards have been one $1,000 grant and one grant of a lesser amount, which are paid out of the earned interest, as well as the administrative costs. 100% of any donation goes into the balance.



The history of the fund

 I had been on the NMMHA Board of Directors for 23 years, holding every electable position on the Baord, all four executive committee positions, including MHI delegate, who was appointed by the Board.  

In the entire time I had been a member of NMMHA, we had made one $5,000 contribution to a tornado relief fund in Carlsbad, NM, where a recent tornado set down, inside the city limits.

The governor, Bruce King, met us on-site to accept a check. One single cheap gesture to make us look human and willing to give back to the community that sustains us. Window dressing, smoked mirrors, we had several hundred thousand in the bank. Five grand was petty cash

In 1994 I was thinking about what kind of charitable endeavor could we use that encompasses every square inch of New Mexico? I was in the M/H industry for work; finance, manufacturing, retail, insurance.  I knew about the jealousies in the M/H business around the state. Everyone was jealous of Albuquerque and each other simultaneously.

The NMMHA Biard if Directors was all volunteer from the membership and one hired gun executive director.

The idea of a scholarship popped into mind by divine intervention. It is a charity, giving money away for higher education costs. It is purposely available only to NM high school graduates living in a M/H which includes every single high school in the state and we have true state-wide coverage. No one is in a better place than anyone else.

I made a cardinal error by not calling several of the Board members while I was developing the fund with the guidance of Nancy Cartright of the ALbuquerque Community Foundation, which is where the fund would be managed by a third party and not susceptible to raiders in the future.


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