Rancho La Puerta Community Giving

“Siempre Mejor,” or “Always Better” at The Ranch & Beyond

At Rancho La Puerta, we live by our motto, “Siempre Mejor,” or “Always Better.” We are committed to helping people live healthier and happier lives on our property and beyond our gates. The Ranch Family consists of big-hearted guests, visiting experts, and generous staff. Beginning with the early years when our guests lived in tents, Deborah Szekely found ways to bring her entrepreneurial spirit to the community.  She founded the first school for the deaf in a trailer on the Ranch grounds, the first hot breakfast program for schoolchildren staffed by volunteers, distributed second hand bikes before our employees could afford cars…and we’ve never stopped supporting health, education, conservation and enriching our community.

As Tecate transformed into an industrialized city, our charitable foundation, Fundación La Puerta preserved native habitat, pioneered conservation easements, inspired Tecate to reimagine its degraded and contaminated river and organized monthly volunteer clean ups that continue to this day. Parque del Profesor is a beautiful park on the edge of town framed by Mount Kuchuma that is home to most of Fundación La Puerta’s programs.  The interpretive trails, classes, workshops and cultural events are enjoyed by 80,000-100,000 people annually.  Our Youth Leadership Program has graduated engaged and empowered young people for two decades and we provide field trips for environmental education to nearly all the city’s schools.

In recent years, we’ve rebuilt homes for Tecate residents after a disastrous fire, taught gardening to families during Covid, funded free spay and neuter clinics to keep animals off the streets and offered online parenting and stress reduction classes while children were unable to attend school during the Pandemic. Caring for the earth and its residents is a critical part of what we do; The Ranch has always supported environmental and social causes.

In addition to countless volunteer, sponsorship and giving initiatives, The Ranch provides a limited number of Ranch visits as auction donations to organizations where our Ranch Family lives and works. One out of every hundred guests have purchased their stay through a charity we support. Though we wish we could help with every cause, our current focus is on supporting youth, the environment, arts and culture, health and wellness and women’s empowerment.

If your organization would like to be considered to receive an auction donation, we ask that your fundraiser meets the following requirements:

• The event must support one or more of the following: youth, the environment, arts and culture, health and wellness or women’s empowerment.
• The donation gift must be promoted during a live auction at your event. If you cannot have a live auction due to extenuating circumstances, we may be able to make an exception.
• The donation request must be submitted at least three months before the date of the fundraising event. Ideally, we ask that you submit the request six months in advance to allow us ample time to process it.
• To spread our resources and help as many organizations as possible, The Ranch will not donate two years in a row to the same nonprofit.
• The organization must email a donation questionnaire back to us within 30-days of the event for future reconsideration.

If your event meets all these requirements, please fill out the form below and we will evaluate your proposal.