Description
Recommendation: That the Foundation award a special grant of $50,000 to the Foundation Center for a special project to create a web-based data resource on philanthropic funding for Native American causes.
In 2011, the Foundation Center partnered with the organization Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP) to produce a landmark report, “Foundation Funding for Native American Issues and Peoples.” That report contained data on philanthropic support for Native causes and showed that such support had declined over the first ten years of the new century. It also offered some explanations as to why funding was so minimal and had grown even smaller.
When the Luce Foundation began to explore the development of a new initiative on Native American intellectual leadership, we relied on the 2011 report to gain a basic understanding of the philanthropic landscape and the foundations working in the field. But we were also frustrated that the data was somewhat outdated; indeed, we contacted the Foundation Center to inquire whether the report had been or would be updated.
The Center’s president Brad Smith indicated that they had begun conversations about a new knowledge resource in Native American philanthropy; but, instead of a static report, such a resource would be web-based, updating itself automatically as new, relevant grants were made and offering users the ability to sort the data geographically, chronologically, by source, by purpose, etc. Users could build their own charts and maps using the on-line tools to help them understand, analyze, and make connections across the data.
The new resource would also offer access to a range of other information related to philanthropy in and to Indian Country, including foundation-funded reports, news on Native philanthropy, and more. The resource would resemble those that the Foundation Center has created on black male achievement (BMAFunders.org) and ocean protection (fundingtheocean.org).
Those conversations matured over the last 18 months, and the Foundation Center has partnered again formally with Native Americans in Philanthropy to build a web-based knowledge resource on philanthropy related to Native Americans. The resource will include not only the contributions of private philanthropy but also Federal support of Native Americans and tribal philanthropy. The resource will utilize technology the Foundation Center has already developed to mine information from its own database and other sources. But passive tools cannot capture the full range of work underway in this area. So, the Foundation Center and NAP will also reach out to funders to encourage active participation, to gather data and reports, and to shape the resource and its capabilities.
The two partners hope that foundations will use the resource to identify funding partners and gaps in funding and to educate themselves about the need and the challenges associated with grantmaking in this field. At the same time, Native-facing organizations can use the resource to identify potential funders for their own work and to learn more about other organizations that may be doing similar work or working in the same geographic area.
The Luce Foundation has long contributed to the field of philanthropy through support organizations like the Foundation Center, the Council on Foundations, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and others. More recently, we have made grants to Native-facing organizations as we have developed a new initiative supporting Native intellectual leaders. This knowledge resource will be of significant value to the philanthropic community generally. And, if the Luce Foundation does launch the new initiative, we will surely make use of this resource—to identify nominators and candidates for our fellowship program and to spread the word in Indian Country about our work.
A grant of $50,000 would cover about 10% of the total project budget. 70% of the budget will be spent on personnel—data specialists, programmers, designers, etc. at the Foundation Center and at NAP—who will build the information resource and work with the philanthropic and Native communities. The Luce Foundation’s grant will help to offset these costs. The Foundation Center has been invited by the Bush and Northwest Area Foundations to submit proposals to fund the project and is continuing to seek other funds as well.
This would be the Foundation’s 24 th grant to the Foundation Center. Altogether, the Foundation has provided $1.28 million to the Foundation Center since 1972.
For these reasons, I am pleased to recommend a special grant of $50,000 to the Foundation Center to create a web-based data resource on philanthropic funding for Native American causes.
