Albuquerque Community Foundation

Albuquerque Community Foundation

The Albuquerque Community Foundation was established in 1981 to serve as a permanent charitable endowment for the greater Albuquerque area. Randy Royster led the institution for 20 years, overseeing an asset base that grew from $34 million to more than $185 million through fund management and local donor relationships. Marisa Magallanez assumed the presidency at the start of 2026. The foundation allocates capital across a broad blend of asset classes, including private equity, venture capital, private credit, hedge funds, and real estate. It participates across the investment lifecycle, from seed and early-stage venture through growth equity and distressed debt, as well as secondaries and special situations. The portfolio includes a fund-of-funds approach alongside direct co-investments. The foundation's known direct holdings reflect this local-global duality: the Champion Building at 624 Tijeras Ave NW, a commercial asset donated by Paul and Patty Marianetti in 2010, sits alongside exposure to the Titan Development Real Estate Fund and an impact investment portfolio. While its direct manager relationships are not publicly enumerated, the foundation has drawn on the expertise of local investment manager and philanthropist Ian McKinnon for keynote programming, indicating a practice of engaging with regional financial professionals. The foundation's scale is reflected in an estimated $155 million in assets (Altss estimate). It operates from its headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In January 2026, Marisa Magallanez was formally appointed President & CEO, succeeding Randy Royster, who transitioned to a Special Advisor role. The foundation also cultivates a network of affiliated giving circles—Future Fund for young professionals, the Social Giving Club, and the PRIDE Circle for the LGBTQIA+ community—which function as donor pipelines and community engagement vehicles rather than investment entities. The foundation is structurally distinct for an endowment of its size because of its hybrid model: it manages charitable funds and grantmaking while directly holding commercial real estate and maintaining diverse capital market exposures that blur the line between a conventional community foundation and a small institutional asset manager. This architecture ties its philanthropic capacity directly to the performance of its property holdings and manager relationships.