Taos Nonprofit Organizational Leadership Cohort
About the program
Facilitated by Horacio Trujillo, this program is designed for nonprofit executive directors, CEOs, and board members who are committed to strengthening their organizations and the broader nonprofit ecosystem in Taos County and northern New Mexico. The program focuses on building strong, collaborative leadership between executive directors and boards.
Strengthening organizational leadership together
The program offers a cohort of chief executives and board members space to step back from day-to-day responsibilities, learn alongside peers, and explore practical approaches to governance, organizational leadership, and long-term sustainability. Together, participants will strengthen their capacity to lead organizations that are resilient and community-centered, as well as to be models of organizational leadership.
The cohort is facilitated by Horacio Trujillo and includes four two-hour sessions held once per month between August and November 2026. Once the cohort has been selected, the group will work together to finalize exact dates, times, and locations.
What participants will explore
The core focus of the program is developing effective organizational leadership, in the spirit of the work sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Governance as Leadership as introduced by Chait, Ryan and Taylor and Level Five Leadership as identified by Collins and Porras. Together, these frameworks ground participants in how strong leadership and governance can foster healthier culture, sharper strategic effectiveness, and more sustainable impact.
Discussions and learning activities will be shaped by participants' experiences and organizational assessments, allowing the cohort to respond to the real challenges and opportunities facing nonprofit leaders in northern New Mexico. Topics may include:
- Understanding and using strategy effectively
- Strengthening organizational capacity
- Board member recruitment and development
- Advancing equity and equitable leadership in our communities beginning with our organizations
The strength of this cohort depends on trust. Participants will be invited to share experiences, challenges, and questions from their organizations and leadership journeys. We ask all participants to respect the confidentiality of personal stories and organizational information shared during sessions so that everyone can engage openly and authentically.
Who should apply
Nonprofits are encouraged to apply as a team of an executive director/CEO and a board member. Other pairings are welcome too, such as an executive director and deputy/associate director or two board members if no staff member is available. We also welcome individual applicants.
Preference will be given to organizations based in or serving Taos County, though others will be considered as space allows. All focus areas are invited to apply.
Space is limited to ensure meaningful shared discussion among participants: up to 20 individuals from up to 15 organizations.
Application & selection process
The application includes three short narrative questions (150–200 words each) and takes approximately 25–30 minutes to complete. When applying as a team, each participant should complete a separate application; applications from the same organization will be reviewed together.
Information shared in your application will be reviewed only by the selection committee, comprised of the facilitator and staff from the Santa Fe Community Foundation and Taos Community Foundation. Applicant responses will be treated confidentially and used solely for the purpose of participant selection and program planning. We will not be share responses outside the review process without applicant permission.
In selecting cohort participants, we will consider applicants' commitment to leadership development, organizational learning, collaboration, and community accountability, as well as the opportunity to create a diverse and complementary cohort experience.
Applications will be open until July 24, 2026, and participants will be notified by July 31, 2026.
Meet the people leading the conversation
Horacio Trujillo
Horacio Trujillo
Horacio Trujillo regularly advises senior leadership of philanthropies, businesses, governments, intergovernmental organizations and social purpose agencies around the world on strategy, long-range planning and learning practices to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian, development and environmental efforts, and has taught at various universities on leadership, humanitarian action, economics and political economy, socioeconomic development, global security, public policy and policy analysis. His published research spans various issues of global development and security, including good governance, counterterrorism, disaster response management, prevention of election-related violence, international action on ending large-scale violence and mass atrocities, and civic leadership.
The organizations that Horacio has advised include public and corporate philanthropies such as the Ford Foundation, Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Packard Foundation, MasterCard Foundation and Nike Foundation; multilateral and bilateral development agencies, such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Agency for International Development and the UK Department for International Development; policy research institutions, such as the United States Institute of Peace; international humanitarian and development nongovernmental organizations, such as Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council and Technoserve; environmental research and policy organizations, such as C40: Cities Climate Initiative, RMI (formerly the Rocky Mountain Institute) and the Clean Air Task Force; and initiatives to engage business in social purpose, such as the United Nations Global Compact and the Environmental Defense Fund’s Corporate Partnerships Program.
Horacio's leadership in philanthropy includes having served as a member of the senior executive team that launched Humanity United, the human security-focused philanthropy, from the Omidyar Network, and the senior advisor to the Metanoia Fund, a private philanthropic fund to foster inter-organizational collaboration to advance progress on global challenges. For over a decade, Horacio was a featured speaker on philanthropic effectiveness for The Philanthropy Workshop (now Forward Global), the world's leading philanthropy education network.
Horacio has co-founded, served on the boards of or voluntarily advised the boards of various social purpose organizations addressing issues from international understanding, such as Soliya, which was set up in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to promote greater understanding between youth of the United States and Europe and youth from Arabic and Islamic nations; to public service, such as the Harry S Truman Foundation, the official memorial of the 33rd president of the United States which promotes public service as a career and encourages all Americans to engage in public service throughout their lives; inclusive American democracy, such as People For the American Way, which advances American freedoms and values to protect the United States from anti-democratic extremism; youth- and community-development, such as the multi-national Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in his home state of New Mexico, A Place Called Home in Los Angeles and the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda; and climate change mitigation and transition, with the New Mexico Climate Investment Center.
Prior to focusing his work on advising leaders in the public and private spheres on how their social purpose efforts can have as great an impact as possible, Horacio worked directly on US foreign policy and economic policy as a legislative staff member in the US House of Representatives and US Senate.
Horacio’s university teaching includes having led the development of Occidental College's studies in international political economy, international development and human security in the Department of Diplomacy and World Affairs, as well as teaching on topics including leadership, economic, ethics and public policy at Occidental and other schools varying from Stanford University to Pepperdine University to the University of Kabul (Afghanistan). Horacio has also been a fellow or scholar with various research institutions and centers concerned with conflict resolution, negotiation, economics and the science of complexity, including the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation (SCCN) at Stanford Law School, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) at George Mason University, the Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy of Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, the Santa Fe Institute and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Jakarta (Indonesia).
Horacio holds degrees from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (international political economy and development), Oxford University’s International Development Centre (international political economy and development), Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and the RAND Corporation, where his doctoral work combined qualitative and quantitative research methods to provide practical policy guidance, particularly related to economics and international security, on complex issues to governments, businesses and social purpose organizations.
Meet the people leading the conversation
Horacio Trujillo
Horacio Trujillo
Horacio Trujillo regularly advises senior leadership of philanthropies, businesses, governments, intergovernmental organizations and social purpose agencies around the world on strategy, long-range planning and learning practices to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian, development and environmental efforts, and has taught at various universities on leadership, humanitarian action, economics and political economy, socioeconomic development, global security, public policy and policy analysis. His published research spans various issues of global development and security, including good governance, counterterrorism, disaster response management, prevention of election-related violence, international action on ending large-scale violence and mass atrocities, and civic leadership.
The organizations that Horacio has advised include public and corporate philanthropies such as the Ford Foundation, Gates Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Packard Foundation, MasterCard Foundation and Nike Foundation; multilateral and bilateral development agencies, such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Agency for International Development and the UK Department for International Development; policy research institutions, such as the United States Institute of Peace; international humanitarian and development nongovernmental organizations, such as Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council and Technoserve; environmental research and policy organizations, such as C40: Cities Climate Initiative, RMI (formerly the Rocky Mountain Institute) and the Clean Air Task Force; and initiatives to engage business in social purpose, such as the United Nations Global Compact and the Environmental Defense Fund’s Corporate Partnerships Program.
Horacio's leadership in philanthropy includes having served as a member of the senior executive team that launched Humanity United, the human security-focused philanthropy, from the Omidyar Network, and the senior advisor to the Metanoia Fund, a private philanthropic fund to foster inter-organizational collaboration to advance progress on global challenges. For over a decade, Horacio was a featured speaker on philanthropic effectiveness for The Philanthropy Workshop (now Forward Global), the world's leading philanthropy education network.
Horacio has co-founded, served on the boards of or voluntarily advised the boards of various social purpose organizations addressing issues from international understanding, such as Soliya, which was set up in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to promote greater understanding between youth of the United States and Europe and youth from Arabic and Islamic nations; to public service, such as the Harry S Truman Foundation, the official memorial of the 33rd president of the United States which promotes public service as a career and encourages all Americans to engage in public service throughout their lives; inclusive American democracy, such as People For the American Way, which advances American freedoms and values to protect the United States from anti-democratic extremism; youth- and community-development, such as the multi-national Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in his home state of New Mexico, A Place Called Home in Los Angeles and the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda; and climate change mitigation and transition, with the New Mexico Climate Investment Center.
Prior to focusing his work on advising leaders in the public and private spheres on how their social purpose efforts can have as great an impact as possible, Horacio worked directly on US foreign policy and economic policy as a legislative staff member in the US House of Representatives and US Senate.
Horacio’s university teaching includes having led the development of Occidental College's studies in international political economy, international development and human security in the Department of Diplomacy and World Affairs, as well as teaching on topics including leadership, economic, ethics and public policy at Occidental and other schools varying from Stanford University to Pepperdine University to the University of Kabul (Afghanistan). Horacio has also been a fellow or scholar with various research institutions and centers concerned with conflict resolution, negotiation, economics and the science of complexity, including the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation (SCCN) at Stanford Law School, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) at George Mason University, the Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy of Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, the Santa Fe Institute and the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Jakarta (Indonesia).
Horacio holds degrees from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (international political economy and development), Oxford University’s International Development Centre (international political economy and development), Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and the RAND Corporation, where his doctoral work combined qualitative and quantitative research methods to provide practical policy guidance, particularly related to economics and international security, on complex issues to governments, businesses and social purpose organizations.
