Wixarika Research Center

What it reported doing in 2025

We first began conducting online events during the covid-19 pandemic and posted videos on our social media and youtube channels to raise funds and awareness about our work and our projects. In october of 2024, we hosted our first post-pandemic in-person event with an exhibit of yarn paintings, photographs, and books for sale to our guests. Hosted at a board member's residence and organized by our board, guests were able to learn about our foundation's history and the ongoing results of the work we have carried out through our archive and on-the-ground projects. The event was well attended and was met with generous donations and sales. In the meantime, we continue generating interest and donations through our online activities, our newsletters, and personal communications, and look forward to having more events soon. The scholarship program for wixarika university students is now in its eighth year, with ongoing support and collaboration with the international friendship club and the rotary club in puerto vallarta. Because of the interest and continued support from donors who wish to contribute to this program, we will be able to continue giving scholarships to twenty students for the 2026 - 2027 school year. One of our donors recently made a gift to the scholarship program with the specific request that we increase the yearly scholarship amount for each student. Thanks to this generous donation, each student's scholarship will be 10,000 mexican pesos beginning in 2026, which at the current exchange rate is approximately 605.00 usd. This modest scholarship helps students with their cost of books, transportation, housing, and food. Some have used the money to buy a laptop computer which was indispensable during the pandemic when all classes were held online. Students are free to use their scholarship money where they believe they need it most. Since 2018, the wixarika research center has given multi-year scholarships to 90 wixarika undergraduate students. They have received degrees in law, nursing, nutrition, forestry engineering, education, mathematics, architecture, agronomy, technology, and three have graduated from medical school. Most of the graduates are now serving their communities and working in their area of undergraduate specialization, and others are pursuing their master's degrees. In addition to the scholarships, we coordinate activities in which students can meet each other online or through our various activities or work in the field such as our previous agroecology workshops. During the winter months of this past year, we organized our calendar for the next 18 months to accommodate the new apiculture project. Beginning in may 2026, we will initiate the project by providing the funds to purchase fruit trees and other plants for the school's botanical garden, and then in june, prior to summer break, we will travel to the sierras with etnoeco, a.c. To give the first class on the basics of beekeeping to the students at the tamaatsi paritsika community high school, and to choose a location for the future bee hives to be set up. We were recently informed that the solar panels we installed in 2009 are now providing 95% of the energy needs for the high school campus. In the late summer of 2024, we helped the school by purchasing the equipment they needed for the installation of broadband internet. Support for these projects was based on a petition from the school's board of directors and was funded thanks to the ongoing partnership we established with the indigenous reciprocity initiative led by the chacruna institute for plant medicines. We are pleased to continue supporting the development of the school's new campus which we have been party to since its establishment in 2009. This includes our support for the construction of the campus' first building in 2015, a wood drying solar oven for the carpentry workshop. Our bilingual website continues to receive upgrades and improvements in styling. The writing of texts for n

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 89.3%; rating input score 89
• Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 10.7%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.13; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
• Officer compensation ratio: 60.3%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 11.9% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings