El Paso, TX - Today, the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation (WGHFF) announced a
$1M challenge grant to support non-profit organizations focused on improving health, wellness,
and education outcomes in Ciudad Juárez. The five-year grant will be made in annual
installments of $200,000 through 2025 and will provide one dollar for every two dollars raised in
the community. Fundación Paso del Norte para la Salud y Bienestar, a sister foundation of the
Paso del Norte Community Foundation, will organize and operate the grant.
This is WGHFF’s second Juárez-focused matching grant. In 2020, the Fundación concluded the
foundation’s first five-year challenge grant, meeting the goal of raising $2 million in qualifying
gifts and receiving $1 million from WGHFF. More than 350 donors, 70 percent of whom were
from Ciudad Juárez, helped to support the Fundación’s mission and strategic partnerships. All
contributions were re-invested in local nonprofit organizations or directly in the community.
“Our first community challenge grant to the Fundación Paso del Norte was fully matched,
showing that the people of Ciudad Juárez are committed to improving the quality of life in their
region,” said Woody L. Hunt, Chairman of the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation. “We
believe this second matching grant will allow the Fundación to raise even more funds to support
local organizations working to improve the community health and wellness. We also hope to
incentivize new donors, whose contributions will be amplified by the match.”
The Fundación leveraged WGHFF’s first matching grant to establish a network of more than 50
nonprofits in Ciudad Juárez that share fundraising, capacity building, and sustainability planning
resources. It also provided grants to 35 nonprofits to support their programming and operational
costs.
In the last year, the Fundación donated over $100,000 in basic medical supplies and personal
protective equipment (PPE) to health workers, hospitals, and clinics, providing aid to nine
different institutions and over 1,800 health workers in response to the COVID pandemic. The
matching grant also supported the launch of the UNIDOS PODEMOS campaign in partnership
with Fundación Zaragoza, investing $50,000 to donate 3,900 primary pantry packages and
622,000 breakfasts to families affected by the pandemic and living in the poorest neighborhoods
of Juárez.
The new challenge grant comes with the goal of distributing more than 40 grants to eligible
non-profit organizations in Ciudad Juárez over the next five years.
“We are honored and humbled by the continued support and investment from the Woody and
Gayle Hunt Family Foundation,” said Karen Yarza, executive director of the Fundación Paso Del
Norte. “We have succeeded in meeting the goals set by their challenge grant every year, and
we are confident the community will again rise to the challenge and ensure our children,
families, and neighbors continue to benefit from the improved programming, and initiatives
made possible by this investment.”
To find out more about the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation’s $1 million challenge
grant or to donate, please visit: www.fundacionpdn.org/donate .
