Scholarships for Native Americans from a Guest Blogger
Hello readers!
Recently, we received a request from a reader asking us if we would allow her to guest blog. We agreed and today we hope you enjoy her post about scholarships for Native Americans. I think her piece is quite current considering the fact that the American Indian college Fund has been in the news recently. If you haven’t followed the story- the American Indian College Fund has recently received several large grants to support their work and provide scholarships for the upcoming year. My college education was much more manageable with the scholarships I received so we are always happy to share information of this type to others. If you have an interest in guest blogging drop us an email and we will consider all requests. I hope you are taking a minute to enjoy this great summer weather.
Heather
“Scholarships for Native Americans: the 3 Best Sources of Financial Aid.”
Although many Native Americans come of age in underprivileged school districts, college funding is available if one knows where to look. What follows are the three best places to start your search for financial aid. Each of the sources has its own list of criteria for eligibility. Most require that the applicant be able to prove their membership in one of the federally recognized tribes. Also, applicants must be at least ½-1/4 Native American by blood.
1. US Bureau of Indian Affairs
If eligible —more than ¼ Native American blood— students are able to apply for BIA scholarships. Applications are to be turned in to the local Bureau of Indian Affairs office. An assessment of financial need is made, and an allocation is awarded based upon that need. Funding is only given to students attending one of the 26 designated institutions of higher education. A full list is given on the Bureau of Indian Affairs website.
2. American Indian College Fund
Over 6,000 scholarships are provided through the American Indian College Fund each year. They are also a great source of revenue for the 33 accredited tribal universities.
There are two different types of scholarships listed on the American Indian College Fund website: the Special Scholarship Program and the Tribal College General Scholarship Program. The Special Scholarship Program is a scholarship fund run directly through the American Indian College Fund. Individual tribes and their elders administer the Tribal College General Scholarship Program. Eligibility requirements vary with each tribe.
3. Indian Health Services
Students majoring in healthcare professions, accounting, or engineering can apply to scholarships through the Indian Health Services website. March 31 is usually the deadline for submission. Financial support is given for full tuition and fees, books, travel, uniforms, insurance, and a stipend.
There are many sources of funding that are not listed above. Scholarships based on career choice, gender, and tribal affiliations are easily found by contacting your tribal or government office. With proper planning, college attendance can become financially feasible for almost any motivated Native American.
Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org and performs research surrounding online colleges and education.In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.
The Ah-ha Moment
Good morning Readers,
I hope that it’s becoming clear that many good things happen from our trainings. We become connected with a highly committed group of people; networking and collaborative partnerships are established and finally organizations often have the ah-ha moment. This ah-ha moment arises when the organization realizes that they are on the right track and doing good work.
This ah-ha moment occurred in Fort Hall with one organization in particular that felt they were not on the right track and have been struggling with this nonprofit work. This particular organization has a rather incredible story and a passion for change that won me over pretty quickly at the start of the workshop. Second Chance Grace is an organization that provides motivational, mentorship and transition help to at-risk youth often involved in gangs. The organization’s staff has a personal history with gangs and comes from this place of understanding and knowledge that is easily portrayed through their personal commitment in seeing their work be successful.
During our workshop we have a hands-on budgeting activity where with a volunteers help work out budget details for their organization. Well to make a long story short we highlighted this particular group. I asked them to volunteer because one program that they offer caught my attention. Second Chance Grace offers youth who have been affiliated with gangs and really want to chance the opportunity to remove racist and gang related tattoos. This is simply cool but to make this program even more outstanding the youth are required to participate in community service after the tattoo removal. This model has been successful with the youth being excited and thrilled to participate in community service. This project still gets better. The clinic where the tattoo removal is performed offers this service to the organization at a significantly reduced fee. For one tattoo to be removed the clinic charges the organization $40. We found out that if someone just walked into the office for a tattoo removal this service would cost them a few hundred dollars for each square inch of ink removed. This is also not a one-time process and therefore a tattoo removal could be upwards of a few thousand dollars. Using some simple numbers based on how many tattoos have been removed in the last couple of years this organization has received nearly a million dollars of donated time and service from just this one clinic! Their youth are showing incredible support and buy-in with their desire and willingness to participate in community service. This organization had never positioned themselves in this way before and you could see on their face that they finally saw the value and incredible impact their work was having on the lives of their youth. I was blown away.
This was not the only story from this training either. We were asked to offer this training to the Fort Hall community because a previous grant recipient of ours wanted more training for other organizations in their area. The Snake River Basin Business Administration encourages their community to buy Indian made products that not only support their friends and families but encourages local economic development! They hold 501c3 status and offer fiscal sponsorship to other nonprofits in their area. They are providing this fantastic model to their community of upholding and nurturing one another.
I also got a tour of the new community garden. This was pretty special because Potlatch Fund had a minor role in the creation of the garden. Back in January, Ken and I went to the Duck Valley reservation in Idaho and Nevada to offer a Journey to Successful Fundraising training. One of the participants was from Fort Hall and wrote her mini-grant in support of this garden project. Five month later I was able to see the project on the ground (literally).
Finally, one of our current Leadership Fellows (LEAD) attended this training. Due to the fact that he works at Idaho State University and several of his fellow ISU folks attended this workshop too he is using his leadership skills and knowledge to offer support to their grant writing ventures. This is a fantastic way for our programs here at Potlatch Fund to connect with one another while helping our leaders understand their roles as they emerge into the nonprofit world.
Over the last few days I have highlighted only a small handful of organizations. I want to stress the fact that at each training we have about 10-12 different organizations represented all doing incredible work. As I have more opportunities to highlight more organizations I will certainly take that time and share more stories from the road. They all deserve congratulations and thank yous for what they offer to our Native communities and to making this world a better place. I hope their stories have inspired you over the last few days.
Take care,
Heather
Training update 2
Good morning Readers,
We are reviewing our trainings from the past month as well as highlighting some of the outstanding organizations that attend our various trainings. One of the most valuable parts of our trainings is the networking and connections that participants are able to establish in two days. This is what impressed me most at our Spokane Tribal College training.
Ken and Dana offered a Financial Management/ Journey to Successful Fundraising training to Spokane Tribal College back in February. They were so well received that Potlatch fund was invited back for a second training. Our second Journey to Successful Fundraising training was well attended by folks both from Spokane and the local community in Wellpinit. The participants also came from a variety of different backgrounds and one of the most interesting participants attended this training because he owns his own business and has always wanted to learn more about grant writing. We talked about the fact that Foundations do not typically support for profit businesses but that many of the skills discussed in our training could apply to his work. Learning to speak clearly and articulately about one’s organization can also come in handy for businesses. Through speaking about his business and services offered, he was able to connect with other participants in the training and learned about various ways that they could work together to strengthen their talent show and funnel more kids into his youth program. This participant owns a dance studio where he teaches youth break dancing and hosts talent shows with other professional break dancers. I was able to share resources from the small business administration with the group that also got them thinking about other sources to go to for grants.
The whole workshop offered participants time to connect their various projects together and I think that in the end folks left thinking of other ways that they could partner together and with other organizations across the reservation and even into Spokane. Finding these various ways to support one another and the amazing work happening across Indian Country always makes me smile at our trainings.
Tomorrow I will blog about our recent Fort Hall training. I look forward to sharing more great stories about our participants that hopefully inspire you to keep up the good work!
Take care everyone,
Heather
Back to the office
Hello Readers,
Heather here finally back from a whirlwind travel schedule. In the last month I have been to four Tribal communities and offered three Journey to Successful Fundraising trainings. This crazy travel schedule is certainly not the noteworthy aspect of this blog. What is important from all these various travels and workshops are the INCREDIBLE participants who attend these trainings. Since many of these organizations are incredibly humble and would not brag about the good work they are doing, I will brag on their behalf.
At the start of May I was welcomed into the Cowlitz community in Puyallup. What was most impressive from this training was the fact that several of the participants travelled over an hour in some cases to attend. I love seeing this type of passion and commitment. Folks are eager and willing to learn all they can to strengthen their work and make a difference in Indian Country.
The desire to learn and strengthen their organizations is becoming even more clear to me a few weeks later. I have meetings with two groups in the upcoming days. One group would like me to review/ proofread a grant application and another group wants to discuss their mission and vision and further refine key elements of their work. I enjoy this type of technical assistance work because I feel that this is yet another way we here at Potlatch Fund encourage more Native nonprofits. As these organizations get stronger they are able to provide more services and meet more community needs.
The training was held at the Fred Oldfield Heritage Center, located in the Puyallup Fairgrounds. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to visit this museum I suggest you stop by next time you are in the area. The art is beautiful and the organization supports other Native organizations on a regular basis. They even offer a summer camp for Native youth that teaches art skills to youth. It is really amazing to see the various services and activities that are happening across Indian Country.
Our next training took me to Spokane and tomorrow I will blog about some more organizations. Monday I will share a few highlights from our Fort Hall training. Until then keep up the good work!
Take care,
Heather
Another Native Nonprofit incorporated in WA State!
Hello Readers,
I want to start off today by saying I love my job! I love my job because of the amazing people I meet at our trainings. Ken and I have been in Tulalip for the last two days where we offered a nonprofit start-up workshop. Members of the First Nations Snowboarding Team USA (FNSTUSA) attended this workshop and were incredibly eager to learn more about their next steps as they began this process of becoming a tax except 501(c)3 organization.
I’m taking this space to brag about FNSTUSA because they probably will not do it themselves but they are truly worth bragging about. In partnership with the First Nations Snowboarding Team in Canada, this group of ladies have organized youth from various reservations across Washington to empower themselves through the sport of snowboarding. Like most start-up nonprofits in Indian Country these ladies are volunteering their free time to get youth out on the mountain snowboarding almost 30 weekends out of the year. They took their youth to the Winter Olympics this year and were able to connect their youth with many of the Native athletes that competed in the games this year. Both the youth and their leaders are on regular practice schedules and we learned that these ladies are teaching their youth healthy eating habits and lifestyle choices. I get goosebumps just thinking about the passion and enthusiasm these folks are bringing to our Native youth.
As the training progressed we quickly realized that we would leave this training with another Native Nonprofit being incorporated in Washington State. These ladies have already assessed their community need, have created an organization that helps fulfill this need, have a founding Board and a fiscal agent. We walked them through our articles of incorporation and by-law templates inserting all their information. We then took them to the Washington Secretary of State website where they imputed all their info, paid their $50 and incorporated! We then shared our Mini Grant application with them and encouraged that they apply for $500 to cover part of the cost of their IRS 1023 form that will establish FNSTUSA as a tax except Nonprofit.
I’m getting goosebumps again as I write this because I believe that this is how we at Potlatch Fund fulfill our mission everyday. By increasing the number of Native nonprofits in Indian Country we are helping increase the amount of philanthropic dollars coming into Native communities. I’m always inspired with our trainings but have a secret passion for our nonprofit start-up workshop for this very reason. I want to see more Native peoples turn their good ideas, volunteer work, and passions into nonprofit organizations and then seek out Foundations to fund them. Nonprofits address needs in ways that governments cannot while also providing innovate and often fun solutions to community problems. As we increase the number of Native nonprofit organizations in communities, I believe our Native communities will become stronger and healthier places.
Next week Ken and I are headed to the Native Americans in Philanthropy Conference in Denver and I can’t wait to share some of the really cool stories from our trainings over the past few weeks. Indian Country is an amazing place and I am thankful that I’m a part of it.
Take care everyone,
Heather
Updated Training Schedule
Hi Readers,
In case I haven’t mentioned this before, I love to travel! I think it’s great that Potlatch Fund takes our trainings to various communities across the pacific northwest. I have been working very hard on updating our spring schedule over the course of the past few weeks and am happy to announce that we will be traveling quite a bit in the upcoming weeks. Potlatch Fund offers 5 workshops to Native communities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. You can read more about these trainings here. If any of these workshops sound like something you would like to schedule in your community give me a call 206.624.6076 or drop me an email heather@potlatchfund.org and we can schedule something for this summer.
Take care,
Heather
Current Schedule:
Journey to Successful Fundraising
April 7-8th in Port Gamble
registration and flyer
Nonprofit Startup
April 14-15th in Tulalip
registration and flyer
Nonprofit Startup
Journey to Successful Fundraising
April 26-27th in Bellingham
INFO COMING SOON!
Journey to Successful Fundraising
May 6-7th in Puyallup
registration and flyer
Journey to Successful Fundraising
May 12-13th at Spokane Tribal College in Wellpinit
registration and flyer
Journey to Successful Fundraising
May 26-27th in Fort Hall
INFO COMING SOON!
Join Team Potlatch Fund!
Hello friends,
As Ken mentioned, I have the privilege of blogging about the newest Potlatch Fund staff project. When I joined the Potlatch Fund staff 6 months ago, Ken and Dana were busy preparing for the Seattle Marathon events. It was a pretty inspiring event and I was impressed by the amount of money that they were able to raise by participating in such an event. I’m not much of a runner and the thought of a marathon has always been a bit overwhelming to me.
After several office conversations about a successful fundraising effort by both Ken and Dana in 2009, all staff, including me have agreed to participate in various running events in 2010. We have each started our own training programs and are committed to running and raising funds for the great work we do here at Potlatch Fund. We also feel that we want to share our workout fun with others!
Those of you who might be interested in raising money for your organization, want to get healthy or simply enjoy running we invite you to participate with us. As a staff we are adding various running events to our calendars. As a warm-up/practice/test event we will be participating in the Big Backyard 5k in Redmond, WA on May 23rd. You can check out their website for more information and registration. As mentioned this event is practice for our staff. If you feel that this might be something you are interested in sign up and run with us. Although we will not include this event in our fundraising efforts be on the lookout for events that will become fundraising opportunities from each one of us. Ken has committed to running the Seattle Marathon again this year and I will be tackling the Seattle half Marathon. Lawrence and Dana are still weighing their options.
As we commit to other events will will invite you to join us as well. Team Potlatch Fund members have registered for the Rock and Roll Marathon in June as yet another practice event. More information about this event can be found here. We hope that our efforts might inspire you this year. There are many ways for you to get involved in our new project! Join us for an event, come cheer us on or come run with us; support us financially once we ask for donations and finally share our efforts with friends. It has been incredibly helpful for me to share my training with my friends and coworkers, just knowing that we are in this together helps me get through that final set of push-ups sometimes.
For those who are seriously considering joining us, feel free to contact us and let us know! We would be happy to give you any details on training schedules, workout tips and event details. In the end we might even sport cool Team Potlatch Fund t-shirts!
Thanks everyone and I’m looking forward to others joining our efforts!
Heather
Mini-Grants!
Today we are amazed at the incredible work being done in Native communities across Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and that through our trainings and mini grants we get to be a tiny part of it all. We took a minute for all this reflection when eight mini-grant applications arrived in our office a week before Christmas. In July of 2009, Ken offered a Journey to Successful Fundraising training for the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe in Darrington, WA. The training was well attended by members of both the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe and Darrington Community members. The Journey to Successful Fundraising training provides attendees with information regarding the scope and operations of philanthropy while also touching on the initial steps required for researching and contacting a foundation for starting the grant writing process. Organizations that attend our grant writing course are invited to apply for a $500 mini grant after completing the course. We feel that this mini grant application is another great way to practice the skills taught in the workshop. The eight organizations from Sauk-Suiattle are each doing creative projects to make a difference in their community. The human resources department requested funds for some employee bonding time while the health department requested financial support to provide gift bags to survivors of domestic violence. Our $500 mini-grants can be used for many different projects including your IRS 501c3 application fee. Those who attend our trainings are eligible to apply. Heather is still working on the 2010 training schedule and is happy to work with you to schedule a workshop in your community.
Another website review
Hello readers,
Yesterday the Potlatch Fund staff got together to celebrate the holidays with some food and a movie. We had a great time spending a little time away from the office and just relaxing and celebrating with one another. Ken, Lawrence, Dana and I all shared what we have been thankful for this past year and we collectively would like to say that we are thankful to you, our supporters who follow us online, attend our trainings, receive our grants, provide financial support to us and who help us fulfill our mission of expanding philanthropy in Northwest Indian Country. We couldn’t do our work without you.
In addition to our fabulous holiday party yesterday, I also came across another wonderful resource that I would like to share with other folks. The Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media have created a funding database for media projects. This database provides Funders with the opportunity to search for media projects by topic and area of interest. If a foundation is interested in funding a documentary on women leaders of color they can search this database using these key words and find project matching their criteria.
In order to help Funders identify these projects, individuals and organizations can list their projects in the database. I read through the recently updated project list and was so inspired by several of the project descriptions. I love to see what other people are doing with media these days and am always hoping to discover another new and excellent resource to share with others. Projects can only be listed in the database if they have some funding already committed. Even if you do not work with media I suggest looking through the database to gain an understanding of what is out in the world in terms of interesting media projects.
As I research social media I will continually pass along resources that I find of interest, however if you have a blog or website about social media and networking that has changed your life, please share it with me by sending heather@potlatchfund.org an email.
Thanks and have a wonderful day,
Heather