Nawayee (Center School) Mosaic Mural, Minneapolis
Photograph courtesy of Karen McCall
OVERLOOKED (Part Two):Across four research studies the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) has conducted in the past two years, we’ve noticed two concerning trends emerge for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Native American nonprofit leaders and communities (trends that we do not see for nonprofit leaders and communities of other races/ethnicities).
This report is co-authored by Ellie Buteau, Katarina Malmgren, and Hannah Martin.
Native American nonprofit leaders report having less positive experiences with their foundation funders than nonprofit leaders of other races/ethnicities. This has been the case during, as well as prior to, the pandemic.
Despite the significant challenges facing Native American people, most foundations continue to overlook nonprofits that serve these communities.
Native American nonprofit leaders report having less positive experiences with their foundation funders than nonprofit leaders of other races/ethnicities. This has been the case during, as well as prior to, the pandemic.
In data spanning the last decade, Native American leaders have rated their foundation funders lower than nonprofit leaders of other races/ethnicities on the strength of the funder-grantee relationship, funders’ understanding of their organizations and the contexts in which they operate, and funders’ impact on their fields.
“You can’t assume that just because you’re meeting with two tribal communities, that they’re going to be exactly the same. There are 574 federally recognized tribes. There are unique, beautiful, amazing differences between those tribes.”
– Nonprofit Leader
“One time a program officer told us that they couldn’t fund us because the participants in our program were successful emerging leaders. We interpreted that as, ‘They just want to fund drunk, starving Indians on the reservation or on skid row in the city. They’re not interested in what Native American leaders can contribute to the rest of society.’”
– Nonprofit Leader
“We are at the bottom of nearly every socioeconomic indicator, but we’re invisible. Nothing is changing. We’re not even on their radar. I don’t know what to do.”
– Nonprofit Leader
“Be able to see not only the burdens and disparities in our communities, but also the strength and wisdom of who we are as Native people.”
– Nonprofit Leader
“We submitted a proposal to a local foundation, and we never heard anything back from them. Word filtered back to me that they did not understand the proposal at all. It wasn’t parallel to what their approach would be, so they really didn’t give us a read or a listen. They didn’t really get what we were doing or why we were doing it that way. We couldn’t even get a meeting with them to talk about it.”
– Nonprofit Leader
Despite the significant challenges facing Native American people, most foundations continue to overlook nonprofits that serve Native American communities.
Over the past two years, Native American communities have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Native Americans have been hospitalized and have died from COVID-19 at higher rates than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States. Between April 2020 and June 2021, one in every 168 Native American children in the United States lost a caregiver due to the pandemic.
These extremely high death rates, especially among community elders, also threaten the progress made in preserving Native languages. Further, these hospitalization and death rates are likely significantly higher than the data show, because many states do not consistently track data on Native Americans. Compounding the health-related impacts of COVID-19, tribal governments and Native American economies have been devastated by the pandemic.
DATA FROM FOUNDATION LEADERS
Currently, almost two thirds of foundation leaders say that they provide little or no grant dollars to organizations primarily serving Native American communities.
DATA FROM NONPROFIT LEADERS
About two thirds of nonprofit leaders whose organizations primarily serve Native American communities report that they did not receive new foundation funding in 2020.
Despite the heavy toll the pandemic has taken on Native American people since early 2020, few foundations have stepped up their support for Native American communities.
Organizations including First Nations Development Institute and Native Americans in Philanthropy have advocated for decades for foundations to better support these communities. For a list of resources from these organizations and others, and for advice from Native American nonprofit leaders, download the full report.
We are very appreciative of the support from the Long Family Foundation and Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, which funded this research effort.
