Hydaburg
Heather Miller and I have just spent the last week in Hydaburg, AK working with representatives of Hydaburg and the Haida Nation on fundraising and community development projects.
I first travelled to Hydaburg to assist with their community projects just over three years ago. The changes that have occurred between then and now have been nothing less than outstanding. Often I don’t talk about the difficult things that we see within Native communities, but I will make an exception on this occasion to highlight just how much has changed.
On the previous trip there were literally burnt out or boarded up houses on every block. Most of the roads were unpaved, the community was concerned about losing its fluent speakers and culture holders, the world famous Totem Pole park was in a dangerous state, the community was fighting among itself and people were definitely not feeling proud. In addition the city itself was on the verge of bankruptcy and the State and Federal Government seemed to have washed their hands of all of these issues and their responsibilities.
We can tell you now that Alaskan Native pride is back in force in Hydaburg. The burnt out/bordered up houses have gone. The roads have been paved and the street names have the name in both English and in Haida. A new road has been named after Mr Morrison (Mijuu) a Haida elder who will celebrate his 100th birthday with the whole community in a few weeks.
The annual summer Culture Camp has grown to having up to 500 people (both Native and non-Native) in attendance, and with something like 10,000 meals being provided during the week. In the last two years eight of the communities 23 Totem and Story Poles have been replaced. The community has raised nearly $400,000 to help with the replacement of these Poles. However, this amount is just the tip of the iceberg. For each Pole there has been literally thousands of hours of volunteer labor and donated equipment, timber and services. The local cable channel is showing a slide show of two of the four Poles that were raised this year. As the pictures flashed across the screen, both Heather and I noted how significant this must have been for the community. Poles were being carried by about 100 people and one pole was carried by only women from the town. We saw the pride radiate from our host’s face as she shared these details with us. At the Culture camp community members are given master class instruction in language, dance, songs, regalia making, cedar bark weaving, carving, preserving foods and the list goes on.
And the community is proud. They are proud that they have been able to make such significant progress in just three years. They are proud that they have done most of this by themselves. They have had a few grants but most of their project has been funded by themselves and with their voluntary labor and in-kind contributions. For example the food provided at the Culture camp and for the Pole raising (some 10,000 meals) has been gathered from the local area. Haida people are proud to say that while the community as a whole is poor no one ever goes hungry.
Heather and I witnessed the generosity of the community, with community members taking pleasure in showing us all of the different traditional foods and the different ways of preparation (our marathon preparation may have taken a step back as we certainly haven’t lost weight here). We also witnessed Salmon travelling up the creek in phenomenal numbers and watched with delight as local children competed with each other to catch the biggest and most Coho. I spoke to an elder from Lower Elwha once who said that before the dams on the Elwha the fish runs were so plentiful that it looked like you could walk across the river on the backs of the Salmon. It is hard to imagine that quantity of fish, but that is what we had the privilege to see in Hydaburg.
The community has even bigger plans. They know that they have made huge progress, and they also know that there is more to do. They want to find ways to keep their children in school and support them to go to higher and other educational opportunities. They want to create more employment so that their children can stay and be attracted back to home to fulfilling jobs. They want to revitalize the language and the culture. They want to replace the remaining Totem and Story Poles. They also want to share their success with the wider community. During our workshop one local community member said that Haida culture will be their salvation and after spending five days with the community we couldn’t agree more. By the way we were given their permission to write this story.
Their dreams and their vision are huge. In most circumstances we would normally counsel for small obtainable projects with incremental steps. However, this community has made such progress in a short period that we think that what they dream will be reality.
We have helped them to set up a fundraising non-profit to attract philanthropic funds to this amazing work. We think that this work will be very attractive to mainstream foundations as they have been able to show that they can achieve so much with so little.
We were honored to work with the Hydaburg community, and we are returning home with much more than we left with, both bags stuffed with salmon and hearts filled with pride for our Native friends in Hydaburg. This community may not have much money but in all other respects they are rich in the best meaning of that word.
Thank you for hosting us.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
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
7871
A reader asked me some followup questions about section 7871 organizations and here is my response-
Thanks for your email. So up first we are not lawyers so please do not take this as legal advice. But here is what we think we know.
Section 7871 is the section of the Tax Code that applies to Tribes. 7871 is very clear that Tribes are allowed to receive qualifying distributions (grants) from Foundations.
7871 applies to the Tribes and also to their major departments. The rules around how far down through a Tribe 7871 stretches is not quite so clear. A couple of things to be taken into account is whether the department is clearly a subsidiary of the Tribe and whether the department has some governmental authority. On a continuum I would say, for example, that a Tribal Education and Police departments clearly come under a Tribe’s 7871 status. I think at the other extreme a youth basketball program (for example) most likely would not.
If I just follow this example therefore a Tribally run youth basketball program may have difficulty raising money from foundations if they were relying on the Tribes 7871 status as it is not clear whether this status would flow to that program. I think, and I am not sure on this point, that the Tribe can seek a ruling on such examples, however this can be a very expensive process.
There is another problem that the foundation world generally is not aware of section 7871. This comes about because honestly they may see one 7871 request in every several thousand requests that come in the door. Partly because of this 7871 imposes a glass ceiling that is difficult to work past. In fact many foundations these days have an online pre-approval process. In essence if you can’t check the box to say that you have a 501(c)3 you can’t proceed with the application process.
Traditionally Tribes have been reluctant to incorporate their own 501(c)3’s because the first step in the process involved asking a State to incorporate a non-profit entity. Many Tribes see this as a breach of sovereignty.
These days however, there is a way past this impediment. If we go back to the example of the youth basketball program – if the Tribe has its own non-profit business code, or through a special resolution, the Tribe itself can incorporate this program as a non-profit (and thereby bypass involvement with the State).
The program once incorporated can then apply to the IRS for 501(c)3 status. Once the program has 501(c)3 status it may still wish to register with the State as a program that will be making charitable solicitations. However, that is an entirely different conversation. I hope this all helps, and please feel free to call me to discuss if anything is not clear.
Regards
Team Potlatch Fund
Ahi ahi marie
This is my belated announcement of “Team Potlatch Fund”. As many past readers may recall Dana Arviso and I both ran events at the 2009 Seattle Marathon. We did this events for our own satisfaction and enjoyment and we also ran to raise funds for Potlatch Fund.
In total we had over 65 people who pledged their support to Dana and I for the Seattle Marathon and over $2,500 was raised. These funds were in turn matched by some of our generous donors which meant that essentially the events generated $7,500 for Potlatch Fund.
These funds have been added to the resources that Potlatch Fund holds for making small grants in Indian Country. To give you an idea of the impact of these funds, some of it has gone to help the Cheyenne River Sioux to help with their response to the ice storm emergency that hit their reservation earlier in the year. A second small grant has just been paid to the Spokane Tribe to help start up a non-profit environmental consultancy and a third grant has gone to a new non-profit in Portland to help with the costs of forming their organization which will take place in the InterTribal Family Canoe Journeys in future years.
Because these funds have been raised through hard (and at times painful) slogging my staff and I have taken special interest in how they have been spent.
We are excited about both this model and the health benefits of exercise for all of us. For this reason we have formed Team Potlatch Fund.
Our first event in team colors for the year will be the “Big Backyard 5k” event which is also a fund raiser for King County Parks. The event is being held on Saturday May 23rd and the whole Potlatch Fun staff team will be charging around the track.
I have also signed up for Seattle’s Rock and Roll Half Marathon in June, and too date Heather Miller and I have both signed up for events at the Seattle Marathon in November.
So here is an invitation for you to take part in Team Potlatch Fund. If your knees are not up to long distance runs then please consider making a small donation as a challenge to the team. An ideal challenge would be for you to offer $1 per mile raised by a particular team member or maybe even by a range of team members.
Another challenge would be for you to join Team Potlatch Fund. You could either run with and for us, or run with us to support your own favourite Native organization.
This is a really fun way to get/stay healthy, spend some quality time with similarly committed/mad people and support all of our Native organizations.
Please feel free to contact me either at Potlatch Fund 206 624 6076, contact other members of Potlatch Fund or even use the comments section of the blog to encourage us along.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
A week is a long time in Indian Country
Ahi ahi marie (Good afternoon)
It has been a week since my last blog and a lot has happened in that time. We held a very successful Board retreat which reviewed and revised our strategic plan, and also looked at the whole process of managing the transition as my contract concludes in just under a year and a half.
On Monday Potlatch Fund staff participated in another Lushootseed Language Class. The class focussed on personal pronouns - I, we, us, they, them. It is funny that concepts like this which come so naturally in English make your head hurt in other languages.
As if one retreat was not enough in the week I also attended the opening of the Longhouse Media Board retreat. We fiscally sponsor this amazing organization and I spoke about the need to ensure that the core services of this group were and remained sustainable.
We have also had the pleasure of talking to the honorees that we will recognize at this year’s Gala this week. The Board decided about half of the honorees at its retreat and now as staff we follow up to make sure that people understand the awards and we very carefully check out with them that they are happy to receive them. It is interesting that these awards are declined on occasion generally because people do what they do for the work rather than for the recognition.
On Wednesday and Thursday Heather Miller and I ran a non-profit startup training in Tulalip. Heather has already blogged about this training and it was exciting to be able to help the First Nations Snowboarding Team USA incorporate their Washington State non-profit corporation!!
Today I am back following up from the retreat. I also had the pleasure of meeting with a program officer from a new Native American foundation. Its Friday already and there is still so much to do. Sometimes a week is not long enough in Indian Country.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
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
Non-profit law conference
Morena (good morning)
Today Heather Miller and I are attending a non profit law conference co-hosted by Washington Attorneys Assisting Community Organizations and the Washington Indian Bar Association. We are here to learn some, so that our own non profit startup trainings remain up to date.
We are also running a session this afternoon on the need for more tax exempt non profits in Indian Country. There is a direct link between the absence of non profits in Indian Country and the low levels of funding from mainstream foundations.
Encouraging more non profits is very important and this nuts and bolts training will definitely help.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Chief Seattle Club
Ahi ahi marie (Good afternoon)
I am just back in the office from attending the annual meeting of the Chief Seattle Club.
The Chief Seattle Club is currently the only social service center in Seattle devoted exclusively to meeting the needs of urban homeless American Indians, Alaska Natives, and First Nations People. They are located at
410 2nd Ave Extension S.Seattle, WA 98104
and provide hot meals and access to resources and services in as much of a Native community environment as possible, in the heart of urban Seattle.
The annual meeting included a report from Chief Seattle Club staff members on their activities for 2009. Two stats that amazed me were that in 2009 they served around 1,400 distinct individuals, and provided a total of over 47,000 meals.
Following staff reports the members were given an opportunity to talk about things they liked, important issues for Native homeless people and areas where the Club can improve its services.
I felt humbled to be able to be present at this meeting. One discussion that completely heartened me was that the Club members - who literally have nothing - were demanding of each other that they should give more back to the Club.
This is an awe inspiring Native organization.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon