“Nothing Short of Heroic.” In Historic Year, Native Pandemic Response Funds Moved Millions
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Participants in the first ever Indigenous Peoples March on Washington, DC in 2019. Rena Schild/shutterstock
More than $32 million in pandemic-related support was distributed to Native communities between March and October to fund a response that was “nothing short of heroic,” but more flexible and diversified funding for Indigenous-led organizations and tribal advocacy is needed to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, according to a new report from Native Americans in Philanthropy.
Native communities have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic. Limited access to drinking water, crowded living quarters, food deserts, and other structural inequities faced by many Indigenous people have exacerbated the crisis. At one point, Navajo Nation—the country’s largest tribe—had the highest per capita infection rate in the country compared to states. Tribes continue to lose elders who are invaluable repositories of traditional knowledge and language.
These challenges came in a year that also saw a series of legal, societal and political victories for Native activists and organizers, including major sports teams changing their names, court decisions against pipelines, and the appointment of the first-ever Native cabinet member—much of it powered by long-running organizing efforts that have received minimal support from philanthropy.
The 30-page report examines the channels through which those funds flowed, the geographic breakdown of funding, and the federal policy choices that worsened the crisis for Native communities. It also features perspectives from a handful of Indigenous leaders and five recommendations for philanthropy.
“While the pandemic has laid bare inequities in our communities, it has also showcased the strength and resilience of our people. This has been especially true in the way that tribal communities have organized to get resources to the ground with support from the philanthropic sector,” said Erik Stegman, executive director of Native Americans in Philanthropy and one of the authors of the report, in a statement.
How funds were raised
Nearly three-quarters ($23 million) of the total was raised via response funds run by 15 nonprofit organizations; the remaining quarter ($8.7 million) was raised via 56 campaigns hosted on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe. While the report did not track what portion came from institutional philanthropy, the totals suggest small-scale donors and nontraditional giving play a vital role, particularly amid crisis, for Native communities, which receive only 0.4% of philanthropic funding from large U.S. foundations.
“Philanthropy’s traditional vehicles and structures to move money do not work for the diverse range of organizations, initiatives and mutual aid networks that organized to meet the ongoing challenges of COVID-19,” the report states.
The Southwest dominated regional giving, accounting for nearly 40% of all donations to organizations and nearly 21 times more giving via GoFundMe than all other regions combined. Media may be one cause: More than half of all articles on the topic mentioned tribes of the Southwest.
Perhaps the biggest factor was the most successful Native-led effort on the GoFundMe platform, the Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, which had raised $6.6 million at the time of the report. By comparison, only $403,468 was raised by GoFundMe campaigns from outside the Southwest.
“Given the severe impact, especially in the first wave, of the pandemic on tribes like Navajo and several of the Pueblos, we expected funding to be weighted heavily in that region. It was surprising just how disparate this funding was compared to other regions, however,” wrote the report’s authors.
A year defined not only by a pandemic
While COVID-19 cast a long shadow over 2020, the year also saw a run of promising news for Native communities. As I covered in a July article, that month saw a run of wins for activists, even as the pandemic worsened.
More good news, big and small, came at the end of the year. The Major League Baseball team in Cleveland announced it would change its name, which has long been criticized by Native American activists and others. President-elect Joe Biden named Deb Haaland, a citizen of Laguna Pueblo and a 35th-generation New Mexican, to his cabinet.
“Together with millions of Native peoples—as a witness to an enlightening and historic moment—we are excited about the nomination of [the] first Native American Secretary of the Interior,” said Jim Enote, the CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation and a Zuni tribal member, in a statement.
A Native-led organization was also among the beneficiaries of one of the newest—and most controversial—new funders on the climate scene. In November, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced he had given $12 million to the Native-led group NDN Collective as part of the first round of gifts from his $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, which also made gifts of $43 million to three intermediaries that focus on climate activism by Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Bezos was still criticized by many, citing his staggering wealth and Amazon’s enormous climate footprint and record of labor issues and tax avoidance. The bulk of his climate grantmaking in 2020 also went to large, well-funded NGOs. The Climate Justice Alliance, whose members include the Indigenous Environmental Network, blasted the grants as an “avalanche of inequity and injustice.”
In a response to such critiques, Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective president and CEO, released a lengthy statement on the gift, both acknowledging the fund for “rightfully shifting power” and said the “real heroes” were the organizers and activists.
“We will not tiptoe around the fact that Amazon and Jeff Bezos in particular have been rightfully criticized for unjust working conditions, corporate bailouts, and for directly contributing to climate change in the world,” he wrote. “It cannot go without saying that it has been the pressure from frontline organizers and climate activists worldwide that have called out and called up many wealthy individuals and corporations like Amazon and Bezos to be more accountable and responsible. We must continue applying pressure, because it is working.”
What’s ahead
Even as the first vaccines are being administered, the impacts of COVID-19 will continue, particularly in Indigenous communities. More than two-thirds of Native community-based nonprofits expect to see a revenue decrease as a result of COVID-19, with 43% expecting a decrease of a quarter or more, according to a survey of over 300 such organizations by the First Nations Development Institute.
There are opportunities for pandemic response to build much-needed long-term infrastructure. Valerie Segrest, regional director of the Native American Agriculture Fund and an enrolled member of the Muckleshoot Tribe, told the report’s authors that several eastern Washington farmers were trying to send produce during the pandemic, but tribes lacked the necessary infrastructure. She believes philanthropy could partner with frontline organizations to create those systems.
“If we can fix it in Indian Country, we can fix it anywhere,” she said. “The people philanthropy could reach, and the pivots that the sector could make to grassroots efforts, are dependent on people with the pulse of their community needs.”
The report also highlights the long-reaching impacts of another 2020 philanthropic priority: the census. The 2010 enumeration undercounted American Indian and Alaska Native people by 5% more than any other demographic group, according to the report. As a result, the Department of the Treasury’s Coronavirus Relief Fund incorrectly assumed 20 tribes had a population of zero, limiting their relief funds to only $100,000. This underlines the importance to Native communities of philanthropy’s engagement with the Census.
Recommendations for funders
The report makes six recommendations to funders. A couple are familiar—and worthy—refrains that have become even more common amid the pandemic and this year’s racial justice reckoning: giving unrestricted support and supporting community-led—in this case, Indigenous—organizations and initiatives.
Informed by how COVID aid flowed, another suggestion urges funders to use new means of moving money to Native communities, whose response groups often do not check the traditional boxes. “Philanthropy should identify as many flexible and responsive options as possible to invest in Indigenous-led efforts,” the authors write.
Foundations should also consider supporting tribal-specific advocacy, the report argues. Policy advocacy surged in popularity among foundations last year—and coming stimulus spending and a Biden administration could expand possibilities. Tribes have unique opportunities in the policy sphere—as illustrated by the historic court victory on Native territory in Oklahoma—but also unique needs.
The report also asks funders to change their frameworks when giving to Native organizations. “Invest in Indigenous community strengths and leadership—not their deficits,” the authors write. The past year’s successes and the community’s mobilization in the face of COVID-19—both accomplished with limited institutional support—show the depth and breadth of those strengths.
