Giving Compass' Take:
- Wayne Ducheneaux and Kevin Walker discuss the Northwest Area Foundation's journey in supporting Indigenous communities through listening and learning.
- How can your support as a donor help Indigenous communities in your area to thrive on their own terms and reclaim their sovereignty?
- Learn more about key issues facing Indigenous communities and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on Indigenous communities in your area.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
The Northwest Area Foundation has been a longtime funder of Native communities. But it wasn’t until we showed up as listeners and learners, and not as experts, that our effectiveness in supporting Indigenous communities truly blossomed. The transformation is summed up well by an Alan Alda quote: “Unless I’m willing to be changed by you, I’m not really listening.”
We’ve come to understand that supporting Indigenous communities means that these communities need to determine their own futures, not funders. That means we stop trying to lead and, instead, stand with them as leaders of the change needed to thrive on their own terms.
Many years ago, a series of frank conversations about supporting Indigenous communities revealed we needed to show up as allies with a deeper commitment to their work. We listened, and we responded in 2012 with a commitment to place 40% of our grant dollars each year with Native-led groups, meaning that a majority of their staff and board members are Native Americans.
The commitment is an intentional public pledge to stand alongside Native communities. It’s an expression of solidarity with groups led by and for Native communities. Since 2012, we’ve made more than $87 million in grants to Native-led groups—more than 45%of total grant dollars. This is nearly 200 times the rate of funders nationally, which stands at a mere 0.23%.
How To Effectively Support Indigenous Communities as a Funder
Here are our takeaways:
1. Build the relationship. First and foremost, good grantmaking is about good relationships. Show up and, before you speak, listen in a respectful way to communities who are too often overlooked and ignored.
This could mean visiting a reservation community or Native neighborhood in your city and taking time to listen to leaders and community members. Go to a tribal council meeting or the offices of a Native-led nonprofit and simply introduce yourself. Or you could attend a convening or a conference hosted by Native Americans in Philanthropy. But take the first step now. It’s the relationship that matters most to Native communities.
Read the full article about supporting Indigenous communities by Wayne Ducheneaux and Kevin Walker at Candid.