Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples

Posted by Seventh Generation Fund on August 11, 2014

Seventh Generation Fund Accepting Applications for Indigenous-Led Initiatives

The Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples is an identity-based organization dedicated to the self-determination of Native peoples and the sovereignty of their distinct nations.

To that end, the fund supports Indigenous-initiated and -led community-based organizations and projects aligned with its program areas: arts and cultural expression, environmental health and justice, human rights, intergenerational leadership, sustainable communities, and women’s leadership.

1) Arts and Cultural Expression: Provides support to grassroots Native communities and cultural arts organizations. Priority is given to holistic community health and cultural renewal efforts using traditional and contemporary art forms to express cultural diversity.

2) Environmental Health & Justice: Supports Native peoples involved in frontline grassroots action, advocacy for environmental and social justice, and community organizing.

3) Human Rights: Supports the creation and continuation of strategic alliances between Indigenous Peoples to empower them to participate in all forms and levels of human rights advocacy.

4) Intergenerational Leadership Initiative: Supports Native youth, elders, and cultural leaders engaged in community organizing work related to cultural health, environmental justice, and social equity.

5) Sustainable Communities: Supports Native grassroots community-based projects striving for holistic community health and renewal.

6) Women’s Leadership: Supports efforts to advocate for and protect the role of women as leaders in Native communities.

Projects or organizations must come from within a Native community; engender leadership authority and decision-making activities that are vested directly in the people in whose community the project is centered and who are affected by the initiative; promote and enhance the Native language, culture, traditions, values and lifeways of the community constituents; and demonstrate the intent to become self-reliant as well as a commitment to the development of training and technical assistance strategies to increase the group’s capacity for self-reliance. Projects also must show a capacity and willingness to include the largest number of people and broadest segments of their society and strive to incorporate internal capacity-building components designed to increase the number of skilled people within the community.

Grants will range in amount from $600 to $5,000. To be eligible, organizations or projects must be a Native American or Indigenous peoples’ organization or initiative that accomplishes its work within the community it serves (reservation, rancheria, reserve, rural, urban, etc.); be Indigenous/Native-led by a board of directors and leadership made up of 80 percent Indigenous/Native peoples; have a majority of Indigenous/Native individuals on staff who are engaged at all levels of the organization/project; and have an annual operating budget of less than $150,000. Previous grantees are eligible.

Visit the Seventh Generation Fund website for complete program guidelines and application instructions.

DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

http://www.7genfund.org/grant-application