Native Voices Rising, a community-driven partnership between Native Americans in Philanthropy and Common Counsel Foundation, announced $2 million in grants to 88 Indigenous and Native-led advocacy, organizing, and cultural groups.
Established in 2013, Native Voices Rising supports Native-led grassroots and advocacy efforts that empower American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities across the United States. Native Voices Rising is one of the few participatory grantmaking initiatives in the country led by Native people. Through a transparent and community-driven decision-making model, Native Voices Rising uplifts and amplifies the voices and experiences of Native people.
Native Voices Rising’s ongoing commitment to community-led change intentionally refers to recipients of grant funds as grant partners. Grant partners work on an array of critical issues, including the promotion of Indigenous worldview, Native sovereignty, climate and water justice, economic development, language preservation, and voting rights:
“We believe the best way to challenge a sector to do better is to lead by example. Native Voices Rising is our way of putting our values into practice,” said Erik Stegman (Carry the Kettle First Nation- Nakoda), CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy. “The decision-making is in the hands of our own Native community leaders and we provide unrestricted funds along with capacity-building support to impactful Native-led organizations across the country.”