Don’t Proscribe, Collaborate: Strengthening Ties Between Native Americans and Grantmakers

August 6, 2010

Just over five billion dollars is awarded each year in the United States, yet less than 1 percent of these funds is targeted toward Native American communities. A new report released by One Fire Development Corporation examines this disparity.

Created with the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, an MCF member, and the San Francisco Foundation, “Context Is Everything: Reflections on Strengthening Partnerships Between the Philanthropic Community and Native Americans,” includes interviews from Native American nonprofit leaders, as well as experienced foundation staff who reflect on the gap and what strategies are needed for grantmakers to work effectively with Native communities.

It finds that the causes of underfunding are complex, but much can be attributed to lingering negative stereotypes about Native people, as well as grantmakers’ lack of cultural competency and predilection for narrow, targeted funding emphasizing individual achievement, a focus that is often discordant with Native problem-solving strategies that value a collaborative, democratic approach emphasizing building meaningful relationships.

The report concludes that the journey to successful grantmaking in “Indian Country” starts first with building respectful relationships with members of the community and continues through a process of co-creation and cultural understanding.

The spirit of the report’s recommendations for effective funding are summarized well by the words of June Noronha, strategic planning officer at the Bush Foundation (an MCF member), who has worked for many years with Native people:

  • Listen, don’t talk;
  • Don’t proscribe, collaborate;
  • Have infinite patience;
  • Don’t define success in a linear or quantitative fashion;
  • Acknowledge the rich intellectual and expertise capital in Indian Country;
  • And, always remember that relationships matter.

In addition to this more general advice on grantmaking in Native communities, the report also contains some very concrete recommendations on next steps that need to be taken to further the cause of strengthening Native communities in the United States. The report can be downloaded for free at the OneFire Development website.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate

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Let’s Talk About It

April 28, 2010

At last week’s Facing Race Ambassador Awards event, keynote speaker Naomi Tutu challenged the audience to continue conversations about race. In her speech, Ms. Tutu challenged the notion that by ignoring America’s long-standing issues of race, racism and oppression we were solving the issue, and further asserted that avoiding challenging conversations about race could be compared to having a puss filled wound and repeatedly covering it with bandages and packing, keeping the infection in, saying in every facet of our lives, what we ignore is sure to come back to haunt us.

She said, “Conversations can be frightening – they tell you who you are as a human being. However, the gift on the other side of the challenge is the building of relationships and community. God has given us the gift of diversity. It is an insult to pretend you do not notice it. Enter a conversation because the differences we bring can be gifts to one another. In a child’s world, noticing differences are an opportunity to move the conversation forward.”

Her words stirred me and got me wondering why we as people, as professionals, as co-workers, and co-board members don’t have conversations about race more often. Why is it that when the topic of race comes up, even in conversations related to diversity, inclusion and justice, we tend to back away, change the subject, or shut-down? Why is it that we can spend hours talking about disparities, difference, and what _______ should do, but only minutes about racism itself… intentional, unintentional, individual, and institutional racism?

Though there are many ism’s that should be addressed, racism is arguably the ism that lasted the longest and has the potential to continue into perpetuity in large part due to our inability and/or unwillingness to have open, frank, and crucial conversations in our day-to-day lives about it. So what can we do to change it?

For some, it’s been as simple as having lunch. In 1997, Joe Martin a long time Bank of America executive in Greenville, SC challenged the community to set-aside one day each week to have lunch with someone of a different race. These lunches not only provided an easy opportunity to have discussions about race and racism, but a way to begin building cross-racial relationships that extend beyond the formality of day-to-day business interactions.

Others have chosen even more intentional means such as visiting a worship place with different style and different cultures than you’re used to, or setting up a play-date for your children with children of different races, attending community events that take you out of your comfort zone, and interacting with the attendees to learn more about them as individuals and as a community. The options are as diverse as we are, but you still might be wondering how to actually have the conversation. I mean having lunch with a person of a different race doesn’t guarantee that you will actually talk about race and racism. Like any conversation with a purpose, it must be intentional, and there are tools to help us not only become more knowledgeable but prepared to have those crucial conversations.

A book has recently been released entitled “To Be Free: Understanding and Eliminating Racism” that I believe can help those who strive to know and do more to address racism. The book was written by Thomas Peacock and Marlene Wisuri, and the forward was written by Eric Jolly.

The book was produced with support from several Minnesota foundations and MCF members and free copies have been distributed at several recent events. Though the book was written to assist educators in preparing youth to prevent and eliminate racism, its content is enlightening and motivating for adults as well. Each chapter ends with a summary of its key themes and activities to promote understanding of its topic that could easily be used in a group setting for workplace dialogues and training.

I encourage you to use this book, available at aftonpress.com to create your own conversations about race and racism, and share with us and your peers on the blog your own solutions for continuing eliminating racism through conversation. And to share the words that were shared at the Facing Race Ambassador Awards event, the conversation about race will end when racism ends.

- Tawanna Black, MCF diversity fellow

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Media Roundup

December 15, 2009
Photo by Dan..

Ridin' the range and ropin' the headlines so you don't have to.

Your biweekly roundup of media coverage on the world of nonprofit and philanthropy (yee-ha).

Bush Foundation Invests In Teacher Prep Programs
(Minnesota Public Radio) This month the Bush Foundation announced a bold, $40 million, 10-year initiative to improve teacher preparation in 14 colleges in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Opinion: High Demand for Aid Exceeds Folks’ Supply of Empathy
(The Star Tribune) In this powerful and very personal article, columnist Jon Tevlin talks about his own experiences growing up in a family that relied on food stamps for a time to survive, and how he sees troubling stereotypes about the poor that he became familiar with then, playing out in the giving (or sometimes the lack there of) today.

Knight Foundation Grants $1 Million to United States Artists to Support Artists, Art Initiatives
(The Daily Tell) As a part of its ongoing commitment to support the arts, the Knight Foundation has announced a 5-year, $1 million commitment to the grantmaking and advocacy organization United States Artists.

The Minnesota Wild Launches Foundation
(Twin Cities Business Magazine) The Minnesota Wild has launched their own foundation which aims to support educational initiatives, children’s medical support and the advancement of youth hockey in the state of Minnesota.

Northwest Area Foundation Awards $500,000 to Native American Prosperity Building Efforts
(Press Release) The Northwest Area Foundation recently awarded three grants, totally $500,000 to Native American organizations. Intended to support the growth of financial and human assets, the awards are a part of the Foundation’s strategic plan to redress the inequalities and poverty that many Native communities and other minorities are confronted with.

United Way Launches WarmSafeFed.org for Families in Need
(MPP Southwest Journal) The Greater Twin Cities United Way has launched a new website and a new grant to help families in need. The website WarmSafeFed.org has detailed information about the struggle that many families are facing in current economy. The grant money is intended to support area shelters as they assist homeless families in their transition from shelter to stable housing.

Did we leave something out? Please email your Minnesota grantmaker and nonprofit news to Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate, at cwalski@mcf.org, or leave a comment to this entry below.

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“Don’t do something about me, without me” – The Importance of Promoting Diversity

December 3, 2009

Shawn Lewis, board trustee at the Pan African Community Endowment of The Saint Paul Foundation, sent us a message yesterday about a blogcast discussion that he had recently with blogger Rosetta Thurman, Tamar Cloyd from Education Voters of America, and Stephen Bauer from American Humanics and Nonprofit Workforce Coalition.

The program, which you can listen to on Rosetta Thurman’s blog, was a response in part to the Council on Foundations report titled Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership, which found that only 20 percent of successful candidates for leadership positions within the philanthropic sector are from racially diverse backgrounds.

During the show, the panel speakers talked about the importance of having diverse leaders at the top level in the independent sector, not only because a diverse staff affects organizational decision making, but because pitfalls can occur when nonprofits and grantmakers attempt to serve constituents that are not represented within their organization.

As Tamar Cloyd responded during the interview, “Don’t do something about me, without me.” Shawn Lewis also shared insights from his experience working within the sector. He stated that generally much of the progress that he’s seen in creating better recruitment practices has come from board or committee members who advocate strongly for better, more inclusive practices within organizations.

Stephen Bauer suggested that one of the best strategies for increasing the likelihood of hiring someone of color is to be willing to search again for diverse applicants if, after an initial collection of applicants, it’s revealed that the pool of people you’re considering does not have enough diverse candidates.

If you are interested in learning more about how your organization can recruit people of ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, check out the recording of this interview at Rosetta Thurman’s blog. Then, after you’ve listened to the interview, visit the MCF Diversity Resource page to access the free, downloadable resources that we’ve created and collected to assist MCF member and non-member grantmakers to create better diversity practices within their organizations and fulfill the MCF Diversity Principle.

If you are currently searching for candidates for a position in your organization, you may also find the Minnesota Ethnic and Community Media Directory (pdf) produced by Twin Cities Media Alliance a helpful resource as you look for publications to advertise your job openings.

Join the conversation: Do you think that your organization is doing enough to recruit diverse candidates for leadership positions? Do you have any strategies or practices that you’ve found have been successful in encouraging people of color and other minority groups to apply?

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New Tiwahe Foundation Offers Microgrants to American Indians

August 28, 2009

Tiwahe Foundation Will Be a Rare Resource for Native Americans

Did you know that less than 0.5 % of US institutional grant-making money goes to support programming for American Indians? The new Tiwahe Foundation hopes to fill this gap and create new opportunities for grantees in the state of Minnesota. It will be one of only 36 other foundations in the US directed by American Indians.*

Children performing at the Prairie Dakota Wacipi Celebration in Redwing, Minn. The Tiwahe Foundation was established in part to support future leaders of the American Indian community in Minnesota through the awarding of micro-grants.

Children performing at the Prairie Dakota Wacipi Celebration in Redwing, Minn. The Tiwahe Foundation will support future leaders of the American Indian community in Minnesota through the awarding of micro-grants.

The foundation is the culmination of the The American Indian Family Empowerment Program (AIFEP), whose strategic goal was to create the new foundation. Tiwahe Foundation is a continuance of AIFEP’s mission, and will replace AIFEP.

It is the only Native-American-run foundation in the state of Minnesota whose primary focus is to serve as a catalyst for individuals seeking fulfillment through education, economic self-sufficiency, service to the community and creating cultural connections.

The goal of the Tiwahe Foundation is to build upon AIFEP’s 16-year history of grant making to Minnesota’s American Indian community. “We believe the individuals that will be supported by the Tiwahe Foundation are the generation of American Indian people that will build upon our past, strengthen our culture and values, and begin to restore and sustain a healthy community seven generations into the future,” stated LaVon Lee, Grotto Foundation program officer and Tiwahe Foundation administrator in a recent press release.

The Seventh Generation Campaign was established earlier this year to raise $6 million for an endowment. The campaign was seeded with gifts totaling $1 million from the Marbrook Foundation, Westcliff Foundation, Grotto Foundation and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, and program support from The Saint Paul Foundation and The Minneapolis Foundation.

The Tiwahe Foundation is actively looking for additional contributors. If you’re interested in learning more about this new organization and its mission, read Scott Russell’s MinnPost article on the foundation or visit the Grotto Foundation website.

*Source: A Demographic Profile Of Independently Incorporated Native American Foundations and Selected funds in the United States prepared by Louis Delgado and the Center for Urban Research and Learning, Loyola University of Chicago, published by Native Americans in Philanthropy

Photo CC Joshua Bartz

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Contribute to My “Recommended Reading” Stack

August 18, 2009

Last week, the Minnesota Council on Foundations hosted a summer gathering for our members.  As a relatively new staff person here at MCF, I didn’t know most people in the room.

Got any good stories of Minnesotans giving? We'd like to hear about them.

When I left the event, I had an extra spring in my step (even though my feet were killing me). Why?

Because my evening was filled with shaking hands and hearing story after story of foundations working to make a difference. Sometimes the storyteller was a staff person implementing an organizational mission that looked out a decade. Some storytellers were new hires at an emerging foundation that had just put ink to paper on how it was going to create change or raise the bar. I even met a few storytellers whose names matched the foundations’ and whose aspirations for their grantmaking were straight from their heart.

Why did a particular foundation choose that mission? How are they working to achieve it? What’s the story behind the giving? After all, someone somewhere sometime decided it was better to give than to keep.

So, I’m in search of books or articles that tell the giving story of our philanthropists and our foundations – both well-known and lesser-known.  If my experience at our summer gathering is any indication, there are plenty of great stories out there. What are your favorites?  What’s enlightened and inspired you?

– Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

Photo CC Ruminatrix

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Shakopee Tribal Giving Tops $40 Million

July 29, 2009

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) has announced that annual charitable giving for 2008 exceeded $40 million, a significant increase from prior years.

MCF publishes an annual list of grantmaker rankings.  Last year SMSC ranked 12th on the list of the top 50 Minnesota grantmakers, with donations totaling $26 million.

This dramatic increase in 2008 giving could place SMSC among the top 10 most generous philanthropic organizations in the state, along with such corporate givers as Target, General Mills, Medtronic and Cargill.

According to the Strib yesterday, economic development of other Midwest tribes is a prime focus of SMSC.   According to details in the SMSC 2008 Donation Report (pdf), nearly $19 million of the $40 million total was given to other Native American tribes and organizations around the country.

Education, youth and health initiatives are also important to SMSC.   One very large gift of $12.5 million went to the University of Minnesota for scholarships and to build the Minnesota Tribal Nations Plaza at TCF Bank stadium.

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