There are 476 million Indigenous Peoples globally, representing 6.2 per cent of the world’s population. By all measures across philanthropy, Indigenous people are underrepresented. Simply put, Indigenous Peoples represent the most prominent blind spot in the funding community.

Philanthropic giving has been poured into training, learning tools, and events about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but the needle has hardly moved on funding to Indigenous communities. The fact is, Indigenous Peoples are underfunded and underrepresented across all issues and movements. In response, Indigenous People have been organising to address this gap by establishing philanthropic foundations, funds and advocating for funding mechanisms led and managed by Indigenous Peoples to address the lack of funding going directly to their organisations and communities.

Indigenous Led Funds navigate a sector that has systemically excluded Indigenous Peoples from directly accessing funding resources. Only 0.4 per cent of U.S. philanthropic giving is directed to Native American communities in the U.S. In Australia, only 0.5 per cent of philanthropic funding goes to First Nations communities.

Indigenous Led Funds (ILFs) are guided by Indigenous worldviews and led by and for Indigenous Peoples. ILFs strengthen self-determination and support a process that empowers communities, at the local to the global level, to change paradigms, address the asymmetry of powers and resources, and shift relationships towards those based on recognition and reciprocity. Indigenous Led Funds exist all over the world. Some ILFs are funding internationally, sometimes spanning several countries but always working in partnership with Indigenous networks and communities. They have strategies that engage multi- and inter-culturally to respond to the needs of diverse Indigenous communities. Other ILFs operate nationally in scope, or are even community-based, taking a more localised approach. Their work is ingrained in the history, relationships, and fabric of their own communities and cultures.

The Indigenous Led Funds Landscape Scan Report is the first of its kind that focuses on global Indigenous-led giving as guided and informed by Indigenous Funds. It is a starting point to bring together the wealth of knowledge about Indigenous Led Funds and the wisdom of Indigenous leaders in philanthropy. It also serves to provide funders with an understanding of effective and decolonised approaches to grantmaking that align, respond, include, and support Indigenous communities’ knowledge and priorities. As the report highlights, funding Indigenous Led Funds acknowledges the leadership, expertise and knowledge of the funds and recognises that ILFs are closest to communities and understand what works best.

Read the full article about Indigenous Led Funds by Lourdes Inga at Alliance Magazine.