Relationship Building with Native Nations

Grand Rapids Community Foundation has been serving Kent County for more than 100 years. However, to understand current and future work done in this geographical region, we would be remiss to not also respectfully honor and acknowledge the communities who have called this place home since long before the Community Foundation existed. The Community Foundation acknowledges the ancestral land of the Anishinaabe, Three Fires Confederacy, the Odawa people and other Native American nations who traveled throughout and lived in this region.

Native nations have a long cultural and philanthropic legacy in our community, and yet, until recently, the Community Foundation was not taking many strides in developing a deep, trusting relationship in those communities. A joint report about philanthropic funding trends by Native Americans in Philanthropy and Candid reports that an average of only 0.4 percent of annual grant dollars from foundations explicitly benefit Native Americans, despite their being closer to 2 percent of the U.S. population.

WE ALL DESERVE FOR NATIVE AMERICAN MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY TO THRIVE AND PROSPER AND HELP THEIR COMMUNITY TO SOLVE THE CHALLENGES THEY FACE. THEY DESERVE. WE DESERVE.

Janean Couch, program director

The Community Foundation’s grantmaking history is not so different. In 2016 we shifted our grantmaking guidelines to be more focused on racial, social and economic justice. Our staff knew then that realizing the full intent of those updates would require a broader reach into communities of color— including those communities with whom we were not already in relationship.

Program Director Janean Couch has further cultivated that organizational shift this past year by showing up to listen, acknowledge and learn how the Community Foundation can be in better relationship with local Native nations. “I’m excited because it’s an opportunity to do philanthropy differently— leading with trust and relationship and transparency and accountability,” says Janean. “We get to go in and say, ‘We have not shown up. I know I’m a part of this system that’s been broken, but how can we show up for you?’”

While the Community Foundation has provided grants specifically for Native American serving organizations through our Fund for Community Good and some Donor Advised funds over the last few decades, this new approach is rooted in relationship building. This method aligns with strategies laid out by Native Americans in Philanthropy when discussing the funding gap: meet people where they are at—literally; adapt organizational systems and practices; provide long-term operating support; and support Native American-led solutions. All of this is built from relationships, which take time, effort and humility on the part of the Community Foundation. “It is going into conversations, acknowledging that we do not know it all, we have certainly gotten it wrong, and we are trying to do better,” says Janean.

And the effort, while still in the early stages, seems to be cultivating a positive response. In response to a recent grant award, Anishinaabe Circle, a local organization supporting Native American family health, said, “Since its inception, Anishinaabe Circle has largely relied on local tribal governments’ support, individual donations and project-specific grants to maintain its services and outreach mission. For the first time in this AC’s history, it has the unrestricted financial ability to plant a seed for growth.”

Read: “Investing in Native Communities: Philanthropic Funding for Native American Communities and Causes” at http://doi.org/c9wj.