Elaine Rasmussen is the Interim Executive Director at Native Americans in Philanthropy. We recently had a chance to sit down with her to learn more about the work she and her team are doing through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Catalyzing Community Giving grant opportunity.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your project funded through Catalyzing Community Giving?
A: One thing we like to make sure people know about us before we start any conversation is that Native Americans in Philanthropy isn’t a grantmaking foundation. We’re a network of Native and non-Native nonprofits, tribal communities, foundations, and community leaders committed to engaging, learning, and sharing resources and best practices grounded in the Native tradition of reciprocity.
Together with the Common Counsel Foundation, we helped launch Native Voices Rising, which is a report that identifies sixteen recommendations for granting and collaborating in Indian Country as well lifts up the value and importance for funders to support organizing, advocacy, and civic engagement in American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.
Q: What is the underlying need for this project?
A: Giving is a cultural and core value within Native communities. Native individuals rarely think of themselves as “philanthropists” in the Western sense. Instead, Indigenous peoples give and support their respective communities in a variety of non-monetized ways because it's the right thing to do and is for the community benefit.
This isn’t to say Native people aren’t giving money—just that they don’t always do it in a formal capacity that can be documented or supported on a large-scale level. Our goal is to change that conversation.
Q: How did the project get started?
A: In terms of a jumping-off point, I’d say you could look at the Foundation Funding for Native American Issues and Peoples report we put out in conjunction with the Foundation Center in 2011. According to our findings, only 0.3 percent of grant dollars in the United States are being given to Native-led projects; a large portion of the top funding is given to universities and faith-based organizations where Native people are grouped with minorities as recipients of those funds—which, in the end, means that even less of those dollars are reaching Native-specific projects, people, and programs. There are many reasons for this, but a large part of it is that donors don’t always know about specific Native community needs. Financial managers aren’t aware of opportunities, and many circles of wealth tend to leave these groups out.
Our goal is to open up conversations about tribal philanthropy, including how donors can contribute funding, best practices in the industry, and peer-to-peer communication. We’re also trying to focus on those who give from within the Native community. There are some tribal members who have accumulated new wealth, and Native Americans in Philanthropy wants to bring these individuals together to talk about culturally-grounded giving and what that looks like to them.
Q: Where can network members go to get more information?
Anyone hoping to learn more about our work can access the Native Voices Rising Report or visit us online at http://www.nativephilanthropy.org