First Nations Development Institute
Strengthening Native American Communities & Economies
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Native Americans – arguably this country’s most vulnerable and under-represented population – face the highest unemployment, poorest housing conditions, highest poverty levels, and poorest health of any group in the country (including other minorities). Disempowering federal policies and 500 years of colonization have stripped Native communities of assets (such as land, natural resources, cultures, and economic systems) and decimated their economies – set ironically in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. To re-build the ability of tribes, Native American nonprofit organizations and Native community groups to control their assets requires specialized programs and models tailored to unique Native circumstances. In addition, systemic change at the community, tribal, and federal levels is needed to address policy and institutional barriers that hinder Native Americans’ ability to ensure their sustainable economic, spiritual, social, cultural, and political well-being.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Nourishing Native Foods & Health
First Nations Development Institute recognizes that accessing healthy food is a challenge for many Native American children and families. Without access to healthy food, a nutritious diet and good health are out of reach. To increase access to healthy food, we support tribes and Native communities as they build sustainable food systems that improve health, strengthen food security and increase the control over Native agriculture and food systems. First Nations provides this assistance in the form of financial and technical support, including training materials, to projects that address agriculture and food sectors in Native communities.
First Nations also undertakes research projects that build the knowledge and understanding of Native agriculture and food systems issues, and inform Native communities about innovative ideas and best practices. We also participate in policy forums that help develop legislative and regulatory initiatives within this sector.
Strengthening Tribal & Community Institutions
Through grant support, technical assistance and training, First Nations provides tribes and Native communities with the tools and resources necessary to create new community-based nonprofit organizations and to strengthen the capacity of existing nonprofits and tribal agencies or departments. For more than 43 years, First Nations has supported hundreds of model projects that help revitalize Native communities, while integrating social empowerment and economic strategies. By bolstering tribal and community institutions, we are helping to build economically stronger and healthier Native communities for the long term.
Investing in Native Youth
First Nations believes that Native youth represent the future of Native communities, and that their health and well-being determines the future health and well-being of a community overall. By investing in youth and giving them a sense of place and tradition in the community, a community ensures that it will have bright and capable future leaders.
First Nations invests in Native youth and their families to preserve and proliferate Native cultures, traditions, arts, and languages, with an emphasis on intergenerational transfer of knowledge and leadership skills. We also have a range of financial education programs that are geared toward Native youth, including the $pending Frenzy workshop.
The goal is to provide programs that meet youth where they are, support them in accomplishing their goals and dreams, and prepare them for an empowered adulthood guided by their cultures, families and traditions.
Advancing Household & Community Asset-Building Strategies
First Nations works with national and local partners to identify and implement household and community asset-building strategies that empower Native people. Working with community partners in tribal colleges and community development financial institutions, for example, we share ideas through peer learning and we finance program development through grantmaking.
Working with our national and regional partners, we have helped share information about household asset-building programs such as Individual Development Accounts, Children's Savings Accounts, and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites.
We also conduct research on issues related to predatory lending in Native communities and work to raise awareness of this problem. First Nations' programs help move families and communities toward financial security.
Achieving Native Financial Empowerment
First Nations Development Institute works in partnership with Native American tribes and communities throughout the U.S. to assist them in designing and administering financial and investor education programs. Our projects range from helping individuals and families understand the basics of financial management - opening and maintaining a bank account and using credit wisely - to helping individuals understand financial markets and a variety of financial instruments for borrowing and saving.
Learning how to manage finances ensures that Native people will be more likely to save and invest. Our programs result in increased investment levels and economic growth in Native communities.
First Nations Development Institute uses the "Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families" curriculum, which was originally developed by First Nations Development Institute and the Fannie Mae Foundation.
Stewarding Native Lands
Through this program, First Nations helps tribes achieve a balance between ecological stewardship and economic development. Stewarding Native Lands supports Native ecological stewardship to ensure the sustainable, economic, spiritual and cultural well-being of Native communities. Supported programs honor and uplift tribal values, customs, knowledge, and sovereignty. This program strives toward environmental justice, sustainable forestry, accessing ancestral lands for cultural purposes, mitigating climate change and creating green jobs, and stewarding lands and waters in accordance with Indigenous values and cultural practices.
Where we work
Awards
Robert W. Scrivner Award - Creative Grantmaking 1996
Council on Foundations
National Leadership in Action Award 2007
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
Wilmer Shields Rich Silver Award - Annual or Biennial Reports 2010
Council on Foundations
Wilmer Shields Rich Gold Award - Annual or Biennial Reports 2011
Council on Foundations
Wilmer Shields Rich Silver Award - Newsletters 2011
Council on Foundations
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total number of grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
2022 number includes 127 COVID-related emergency grants.
Total dollar amount of grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
2022 figure does not include an additional $750,000 that was awarded as fellowship funds.
Number of organizations applying for grants
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
There are no applications associated with the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, so recipient organizations are excluded from the 2020, 2021, & 2022 totals.
Median grant amount
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Average grant amount
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of downloads of the organization's materials and explanations
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Some download history for 2019 was lost during migration to a new website.
Number of people educated through Convenings, Webinars & Conferences
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Includes people educated or touched by grants, site visits, trainings, convenings, conferences, workshops, and webinars. Growth in 2022 is attributed to an increase in large regional efforts funded.
Number of convenings hosted by the organization
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Indigenous peoples
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Includes capacity-building trainings, technical trainings, technical assistance support sessions, webinars, and conference workshops.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
First Nations Development Institute’s mission is to strengthen American Indian economies to support healthy Native communities.
In our vision, sovereign Indigenous communities control their health, infrastructure, economic, social, cultural, political, and human assets.
First Nations trusts in the inherent wisdom of Native communities themselves. We believe that only solutions designed by Native peoples, for Native peoples, through the control of their assets and based on their cultural values, will succeed.
In keeping with this belief, First Nations’ board is 100% Native American and our staff is majority Native. Therefore, we as an organization understand the complexities of Native America. Our services are provided in a culturally appropriate manner.
First Nations’ core values and guiding principles (available at www.firstnations.org/GuidingPrinciples) embody our approach to our work:
*Serving, believing in, and investing in Native communities;
*Valuing, empowering, and respecting our staff;
*Not being afraid to take risks and challenge the status quo;
*Committing to transparency, accountability and the highest ethical standards; and
*Treating the resources entrusted to us on behalf of Indian Country as sacred.
We are striving toward:
*Native communities that enjoy a locally-supported, healthy, and diverse economy;
*Native families and youth that are grounded in their cultures and Indigenous languages, fostering social and mental health;
*Native community members who have access to healthy, sufficient quantities of, and locally-produced foods;
*Lands that are managed in accordance with sustainable, Indigenous practices and accessible for Native cultural practices;
*Financially-capable Native families and youth who can successfully manage household budgets and savings;
*Native-controlled institutions – nonprofit organizations, community groups, and tribes – that are stable, sustainable, and providing services to their communities; and
*Policies and systems that support Native control of Native assets.
First Nations’ work is nationally-based and serves a diversity of tribes and Native organizations working on numerous issues. First Nations is an intermediary that primarily works with tribal governments, Native American-controlled nonprofit organizations, and Native community groups. Building local institutions such as these helps to build the infrastructure of Native communities and to introduce systemic solutions. The Native families, children, and individuals served by these groups receive physical, environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural benefits.
Our approach translates assets into jobs, health, food security, family financial management, education and more.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
First Nations designs our programs in response to Native community needs as expressed by tribes and Native-controlled organizations and programs. Our emphasis on community-driven efforts means that we invest in and leverage resources for varied and diverse Indian Country-controlled ventures which are on the cutting edge of Native community, economic, and policy development.
First Nations acknowledges and elevates the community-based models of our grassroots partners. First Nations builds the ability of tribes, Native American nonprofit organizations and Native community groups to control, retain, utilize, create, increase, and leverage their assets. First Nations invests in Indian Country’s greatest assets – its people, and their resilience, intelligence, and ingenuity – and catalyzes additional philanthropic giving to Native Americans.
First Nations creates and boosts innovative institutions and models that strengthen asset control and support economic development for American Indian people and their communities. We serve Native communities throughout the United States, both in urban and rural areas.
Through our three-pronged strategy of Educating Grassroots Practitioners, Advocating for Systemic Change, and Capitalizing Indian Communities, First Nations offers:
1) Technical Assistance & Training;
2) Coalition-Building;
3) Advocacy;
4) Policy & Research; and
5) Direct Financial Support through Grantmaking.
Our six integrated program areas are:
*Nourishing Native Foods & Health: To increase access to healthy food, First Nations supports tribes and Native communities as they build sustainable food systems that improve health, alleviate hunger, strengthen food security, improve the environment, and increase control over Native agriculture.
*Strengthening Tribal & Community Institutions: First Nations provides tribes and Native communities with the tools and resources to create new community-based nonprofit organizations and to strengthen the capacity of existing nonprofits and tribal programs.
*Investing in Native Youth: Our Native Youth and Culture Fund and our Native Language Immersion Initiative support projects that infuse Native youth with their traditions and languages to prepare them for an empowered adulthood guided by their cultures and linked to their families and communities.
*Advancing Households & Community Asset Building Strategies: First Nations works with national and local partners to identify, develop, and implement household and community asset-building strategies that move families and communities toward financial security.
*Achieving Native Financial Empowerment: First Nations’ financial education and investor education curricula help Native individuals and families master and practice wise financial management.
*Stewarding Native Lands: Projects strive toward environmental justice, sustainable forestry, accessing ancestral lands for cultural purposes, addressing climate change and green jobs, and stewarding lands.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
First Nations' expertise lies in providing training, technical assistance and financial assistance and in conducting advocacy to promote the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals and communities in Indian Country.
In Educating Grassroots Practitioners, First Nations: provides individualized and specialized technical assistance through site visits and virtually; provides group trainings through nationally-significant conferences, workshops and webinars; and produces high quality publications/educational resources. Our education efforts help to build strong community organizations and programs that are well-managed, provide effective services, and are sustainable. First Nations brings together Native organizations and tribes that often operate in isolation from each other, and creates opportunities for peer learning.
In Advocating For Systemic Change, First Nations’ policy and advocacy work champions bottom-up approaches to build power in Native communities. We advocate for tribes’ peer-to-peer consultation with the federal government, enforcement of treaty rights, and development of policies to prioritize tribal communities and lifeways. At the national level, First Nations is aware that in our interactions with federal policymakers we are speaking on behalf of Native interests, so we strive to ensure that the best interests of tribal governments as well as grassroots Native communities are represented. First Nations encourages the larger philanthropic community to overcome its overall lack of familiarity with Native American issues and to recognize, through their increased giving, the worthiness of Native-led programs and organizations.
In Capitalizing Indian Communities, First Nations provides grants that augment our priority of educating grassroots practitioners. First Nations' grantmaking represents high-risk, early-stage investment – sometimes the first money invested – in many Native community development projects. These grassroots partners inform our learning and advocacy, and ensure that our research, policy efforts, and future work are based on Native communities’ realities and needs.
First Nations is recognized as being among the most well-managed nonprofit organizations in the country. We maintain top ratings from Charity Navigator, the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance, GuideStar, and GreatNonprofits. First Nations’ annual audits confirm clean bills of financial health.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our achievements include:
*Infusing hundreds of Native nonprofit organizations and programs with much-needed funds and capacity building, allowing Native communities to develop their own innovative solutions. For each grant we make, our community partners raise at least $1 more – so the total impact of our grantmaking through mid-year 2022 is $82+ million.
*Creating a locally-strong and nationally-networked Native food systems movement to shore up Native economies, focus on family and children's health, eliminate hunger and food insecurity, and preserve Native cultures and traditions.
*Supporting Native language immersion programs to produce a new generation of proficient speakers and bolster the good work underway in Native language revitalization. Indigenous languages are the heart and soul of Native cultures, through which cultural traditions are passed and values – such as respect for elders, community, and the Earth – are taught.
Strengthening initiatives that perpetuate Native traditional art forms that are grounded in culture, language and land.
*Bringing culturally appropriate financial education to Native families that are historically vulnerable to predatory lending so they may learn to use credit wisely, invest safely, achieve homeownership, and create assets.
*Building healthy Native economies by supporting entrepreneurs, food- and agriculture-focused ventures, Native artists, and more.
*Securing policy changes at the tribal and federal levels to increase tribal control of tribal assets and sparking tribal policy development in keeping with cultural values.
*Moving forward the Native environmental justice movement and revitalizing traditional Native natural resource stewardship practices, often alongside and in a complementary manner to Western methods.
Upcoming priorities for First Nations will include:
*Empowering Native-led initiatives and organizations to implement asset-based initiatives to support systemic and social change to benefit their communities physically, economically, socially, culturally, and environmentally.
*Assisting policymakers, the philanthropic community, and the public to recognize the need for and invest in Native self-determination, justice, truth, and healing for the benefit of Native communities and the broader society.
*Making sure our organization has the strength, in terms of management, finances, and vision, to serve Native communities as they deserve.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
That we don’t task our constituents with responding to too many and too frequent surveys.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
First Nations Development Institute
Board of directorsas of 09/15/2023
Mr. Benny Shendo
New Mexico State Senator; Tribal Administrator for the Jemez Pueblo Tribe
Term: 2016 -
Gelvin Stevenson
Consultant
Marguerite Smith
Attorney/Private Practice
Michael E. Roberts
First Nations Development Institute
Chandra Hampson
No Affiliation
Shyla G Sheppard
Consultant
Benny Shendo
NB3 Consulting
Susan Jenkins
No Affiliation
Monica Nuvamsa
Hopi Foundation
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 10/11/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.