59. American Indian Heritage Month meets Giving Tuesday
Hi, welcome back to Spend Donate Invest! This is a podcast that’s exploring the topic of whether there might be some ways we can line up what we’re doing with our money and our values when it comes to the kind of world we’d like to help shape. We vote, we protest, we write letters to our senators. But what about our money? As individuals? What can we do to line up our money and our values. I started researching this topic in the summer of 2020 when I had this sudden realization as I was looking at my investments that I might have a choice when it comes to the companies that I’m pouring my money into. I had thought about shopping my values now and then, I had vaguely heard about community focused banks, but it didn’t bubble to the surface of my consciousness in a concrete way until that summer. So I asked around to find out if this was a topic my community was interested in. I did a trial run. And launched about a year ago. Fifty something episodes later, here we are!
So today we’re talking about Giving Tuesday, which is typically the week after Thanksgiving. So typically we have Thanksgiving on Thursday, Black Friday the next day, then Cyber Monday and then Giving Tuesday.
Giving Tuesday is about 10 years old and was originally created in NYC. It’s a nonprofit and their intent is to promote giving every Tuesday of the year with a big celebration on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It has gotten more and more popular every year. Last year they received I think it was $7M from MacKenzie Scott and this year I just saw that they are receiving $10M from the Gates Foundation. Actually from the very beginning the Giving Tuesday Nonprofit has received a lot of financial support from the big foundations and corporations.
They are trying to promote generosity in general including the giving of our time our voices, etc and of course our money, but I think it’s fair to say that when most of us think about Giving Tuesday we are thinking about donating money. Donations on Giving Tuesday have increased. According to their website which I’ll link in the shownotes, in 2021, an estimated $2.7 Billion were donated in twenty-four hours in the U.S. alone, a 9% increase over the prior year and a 37% increase from pre-pandemic levels.
So if you’ve been wanting to kick start your giving, or you’ve fallen into a slump and want to revive your giving, I think this is a good a time as any.
If you’re reflecting back on the past year and realizing that you have not given as much as you intended to, that’s me!, then this is a great time to go in and make up that gap. If you don’t have time to think about it, just circle back to places you’ve enjoyed giving to in the past and plan to donate to them on Giving Tuesday.
If you have a little time, why not look for new opportunities to give. There are so many episodes you can refer back to if you want to rethink your giving strategy.
In episode 8 you can listen to some suggestions on how to screen the places you might want to donate to.
Episode 13 was one that generated some chatter- that one was called “why you shouldn’t worry about a charity’s administrative expenses.”
If you want to do a giving circle with friends you can listen to Episode 28.
If you’ve been thinking about setting up a scholarship, check out episode 47.
November is American Indian Heritage Month so in line with that, if you are looking for some resources, I want to suggest a book called “Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance” by Edgar Villanueva. We’ve talked about this book before on Episode 25 which was called What Should I be Reading? And now he’s out with a 2nd edition. So that might be a timely resource for you this month.
I’ve been reading a lot of writing from Indigenous activists lately and really appreciating the updated narrative that they are promoting- that the Indigenous community in this country is incredibly resilient, and has withstood so much and is still here. Theirs is a flame that will not be put out.
I was reading to see if there’s information about where Native Americans tend to give, especially within the context of giving towards issues that their own community is facing and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of data, so my suggestion is going to be to start with knowing where you are. Try to find information about whose land you are on, which is good awareness to have anyway. You can do that by looking on a website called native land. There’s a globe you can spin around and locate an area you want to understand. I’ll include a link with more information about the nations that are located in and around Washington DC in case you are a local listener. But check out the native land website and look up your area, if you’re not from around here. The map includes some international locations as well.
After you have a sense of whose land you’re on, there are a number of organizations that are focused on investing in the American Indian community.
I am going to shout out just a few here. But there are tons, and whatever you want to support, there’s probably someone organizing in that field. Suicide rates are higher for this community, health coverage is worse, there is a huge problem with access to fresh nutritious food, which just stings in a different way when I think about the relationship that indigenous people have traditionally had with the land. Ok so let’s shout out a few organizations:
The Native American Heritage Association is one that has programs in food, clothing and then a few other initiatives. You might like it if you are looking for an organization that scores highly on Charity Navigator. That is not a criteria for me, but if that’s your jam, look them up. Another thing that gives me pause is that this organization’s vibes are giving a little bit of a what’s the word? It’s not patronizing…or maybe that is the word I’m looking for. You’ll see language on their site about a white guy discovering the suffering of Native communities and realizing that he just had to do something. It centers and feeds into the white savior narrative that isn’t helpful and even when you read some of their outcomes, it reads a little bit to me the same way. But again that is my perspective and you may have a different interpretation of their materials. Look them up.
When I look at organizations I’m considering giving to, one of the things I am looking for is a for us by us organization. If the organization is designed to focus on the needs of Native Americans, I want to see Native Americans all in the staff and board. And it goes farther than that, I want to read about the partners. Is this organization boxing up cans of food and dropping them off at the local reservation or are they partnering with local activists and community organizers to understand on a deeper level the needs of the organization and how they want and need to be supported in their efforts. It’s a subtle but big mindset shift. I’m looking to give to organizations that see themselves as supporters of the work that the local activists and community organizers are already trying to do. I’m trying to avoid that parachute mentality to aid.
So there’s another organization you might think about it is called First Nations Development Institute. Their leadership is plainly stating their membership in the American Indian nations. I’m seeing gender diversity. In 2021, they awarded $8M in grants to changemakers in the American Indian community. So then typically what I do is read the annual report.
I’m also reading the programs that they highlight on their page and I’m seeing what they’re talking about with funding what the local community leaders are trying to accomplish. For example preserving local cultures whether that’s preserving the languages or art forms that are indigenous to the community.
I also typically take the time to read some of the language around their values and approaches. Of course, lip service only goes so far, but I will tell you that I immediately eliminate a lot of places based on their principles. For example, although I do identify as a religious person, I personally do not support any organizations that provide religion based support to communities of another religion. So what I’m trying to say is if you present me with a Christian organization that is going to some predominately Muslim area and trying to provide healthcare or educational aid but they are doing it with a religious foundation, I am just not going to be inclined to give. Unless they are on some cross-religious let’s find a way to get a long type of thing. One principle that I have is that I don’t look to support any type of mission work whatsoever where one of the objectives is converting people to a different religion. No no no no no. Not here for that. That is just one of many principles that I have in mind when I’m reading an organization’s approach.
So as I read the First Nations Development Institute’s page on their values and approaches I’m trying to understand where they are in terms of trying to shape their recipient communities cultures and beliefs or if they are set up to support recipients in whatever THEY’RE trying to do. And so far it looks good to me. So I’ll include a link to the First Nations Development Institute as well.
And then I’ll include just one more to consider. There are tons more online and you can also always contact a reservation in your community to try to find out what the local organizers are up to and if there’s a place for you to help.
Last one is the Native American Rights Fund. I really enjoyed reading about their initiatives. They are fighting through the courts. Litigation, legal advocacy, if there are any lawyers listening you might be into this one. Check them out. Native American Rights Fund.
Ok I lied. Two more organizations that might actually be my favorite from the list today. Thank you to the listener that sent these in. One is called the Na'ah Illahee Fund, it is about 15 years old and run by Indigenous women to support Indigenous women in the ongoing regeneration of their communities in the Pacific Northwest. They are on my giving list this season. As is the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.
The Sogorea Te’ land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that is focused on the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. So they are working on cultural revitalization, and land restoration and rematriation. Another concept I was not familiar with until I started this podcast a year ago. Rematriation is, and I’ll link their site so you can get a deeper understanding of this, rematriation is restoring a people to their rightful place in sacred relationship with their ancestral land. They envision a Bay Area in which Ohlone language and ceremony are an active, thriving part of the cultural landscape, where Ohlone place names and history is known and recognized and where intertribal Indigneous communities have affordable housing, social services, cultural centers and land to live, work and pray on. I get excited just imagining this. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that effort?
I’m going to include links to these organizations in the show notes, and if you come across other organizations please send them in.
One thing I did not know before researching this episode is just how little funding goes to Native American communities, when you look at the foundations and where they put their money, apparently less than half a percent goes to American Indian programs. I found that surprising. If I’m not mistaken, I think the 2 or 3% somewhere in that range is the proportion of Americans that identify as being a part of this community. So there’s a disconnect when we look at where the foundation money is going and the makeup of our country today.
But we’re not foundations, we are ordinary people, with more than we need, in a position to give. So let’s give.
Thanks for joining today’s discussion. We started out talking about Giving Tuesday and got into a discussion on how we can align our giving with National American Indian Heritage Month. And you got a little sneak peek into what I typically look for when I’m scoping out organizations to give to.
If there’s another topic you’ve been interested, that has to do with lining up your money and your values, your money and the type of world you want to help shape, please send it in. If you want to support the show, the most helpful thing at this time would be to share an episode with a friend. Word of mouth is still how people tend to discover podcasts. It’s not about me telling people to listen, it’s about you, an actual listener, telling people to listen. So thank you for that support. Let’s talk again soon!
https://decolonizingwealth.com/
https://www.givingtuesday.org/
https://www.ala.org/aboutala/indigenous-tribes-washington-dc
