RFCF Nonprofit Case Study

Since 1987, the international charity The Rancho Feliz Charitable Foundation has been offering opportunity in places where hope is in short supply. Rancho Feliz is close to my heart. It reaches across borders, perceived and literal, to bring education, opportunity and dignity to some of the most impoverished towns on the Arizona/Mexico border. For over two decades, I volunteered to digitally document Rancho Feliz building neighborhoods, medical clinics, child care centers, computer learning centers, and sending children to school in the dusty town of Agua Prieta, Mexico. The organization brings a powerful approach to ending poverty – one family at a time.

Founder Gil Gillenwater’s philosophy is when you are in service to others, good things happen. That has been true for me. I met my husband, Dennis Ford, filming “Guardian Warriors” riding bikes across Arizona to Mexico on a Rancho Feliz event. And we have two scholarship god-daughters, Aylin Zagaste and Fernanda Zagaste-Jimenez, who make us proud and our life rich.

“Motivated by the philosophy that the best way to improve our own circumstances is to serve others, we’ve changed thousands of lives on both sides of the border. We call this ‘reciprocal giving.’”

 

Gil Gillenwater, Rancho Feliz