Valerie Ingram Is Leading a Bold Shift in Community Investment at United Way
Valerie Ingram, Chief Impact Officer at United Way of North Central New Mexico, will be featured in Albuquerque Business First’s People on the Move on August 22, recognizing her leadership in advancing trust-based philanthropy and community-led change across the region. Ingram’s work is transforming how nonprofits, funders, and community partners collaborate to address New Mexico’s most pressing challenges. Below, we take a closer look at the initiatives she’s leading and the impact her team is making.
For Valerie Ingram, community impact is not just a job—it’s a way of life shaped by her family’s example. “I grew up in a family that was always involved in impact—though we didn’t call it that at the time—through paid work and volunteer service,” she recalls. “I didn’t realize how that influenced me until many years later when I found myself doing similar things in my community.”
Now serving as Chief Impact Officer at United Way of North Central New Mexico (UWNCNM), Valerie has spent the past three years reimagining how philanthropy can be more equitable, responsive, and centered in community leadership.
One of her proudest achievements is the organization’s ongoing shift to trust-based philanthropy. “Our role is to support community-led change through our grant making while eliminating unnecessary paperwork burdens that are often placed on nonprofits,” she explains. “Historically, traditional grant making is a top-down approach. It’s about control—spend many hours filling out our application using the words we prescribe, and if it matches our idea of the solution, we’ll give you the money. Trust-based philanthropy turns that power dynamic upside down.”
That philosophy guides UWNCNM’s Resilient Communities program, now active in Santa Fe and Valencia Counties. The initiative funds and supports ideas that come directly from local residents and grassroots organizations.
“We believe the answers to solving community challenges come from the communities themselves—from the people living and working in the midst of the challenge,” Ingram says.
UWNCNM has also strengthened critical partnerships, including one with the Albuquerque Community Foundation. What began as a joint pandemic response evolved into the Emergency Action Fund, which is now activated during natural disasters to rapidly mobilize recovery funding across New Mexico. “It started during COVID to get resources out to the community quickly,” Ingram explains. “It was so successful that we continue working together today.”
Another shared initiative is DEI United, which invests in organizations deeply rooted in community and working to address racial and ethnic disparities in education and health.
Ingram and her team are also investing in the next generation. Through ABQ Career Connect, middle school students explore career paths through expos and employer engagement. This fall, a major new initiative will launch in partnership with Albuquerque Public Schools: the Academies of Albuquerque. “The Academies will provide career-focused learning for every public high school student,” Ingram says, with plans to expand the program across all Albuquerque high schools in the coming years.
This commitment to cross-sector collaboration also informs her role as a 2025 fellow of the Albuquerque Workforce Leadership Academy, which brings together leaders from nonprofits, education, business, and government. “Participating in the Leadership Academy reminds me of the importance of engaging with community to address our most intractable problems,” Ingram says. “I expect that the connections we’re building now will continue to impact Albuquerque well into the future.”
Still, she is candid about the challenges ahead. “I’m very concerned about the secondary and tertiary impacts that cuts in federal funding are having on New Mexico,” she says. “Nonprofits that didn’t have any federal funding are also impacted as the demand for their services increases. At the same time, we’re also being hit by the effects of natural disasters and economic instability.”
In this environment, Ingram sees philanthropy as playing a vital role in sustaining the state’s nonprofit ecosystem. “This is a time when we need those who have the ability to support community work to step up and increase their support of our last line of defense—nonprofits.”
Valerie remains hopeful—and proud—of the work UWNCNM’s Impact Team is doing. “All our programs at UWNCNM have the same goal: to improve economic mobility through education, health, and financial resilience,” she says. “We know we’re achieving this through the outcome data we compile from our programs and those we fund in other nonprofits.” In the last fiscal year, United Way’s grants reached over 230,000 people—nearly one-quarter of the region’s population.
That kind of reach does not happen without intentional collaboration. Ingram credits the results to strong cross-departmental efforts and a team culture focused on measurable outcomes. Balancing long-term strategy with rapid-response needs has become a defining characteristic of the Impact Team’s approach.
For emerging leaders hoping to make a difference, Ingram offers advice rooted in experience: “Network, network, and network. Every community event you attend, every happy hour, every volunteer project is an opportunity to build relationships with people who care about north central New Mexico.”
She reflects on how some of her current collaborations date back to relationships formed in her youth. “I recently collaborated with someone with whom I went to high school here—I’m not revealing how many decades ago that was,” she says. “In today’s world, it’s collective impact—all of us working together—that holds the power to strengthen our community.”
Through innovation, trust-building, and the belief that communities themselves hold the solutions, Valerie Ingram is helping lead United Way of North Central New Mexico into a future defined by equity, collaboration, and measurable impact.