Potlatch Fund Receives $20,000 Grant For The 2010 InterTribal Canoe Journey
Potlatch Fund recently received a $20,000 grant from the First Nations Development Institute of Longmont, Colorado. This award will support the 2010 InterTribal Canoe Journey which will culminate in a weeklong celebration at the Makah reservation in Neah Bay, Washington.
The InterTribal Canoe Journey is an important multi-generational cultural renaissance event within Tribal Communities of Washington, Oregon and beyond. Since 2005, Potlatch Fund has provided support to Canoe Families for the purchase of safety equipment, for general support, and for ceremonial regalia. Canoes supported by Potlatch Fund are drug and alcohol free, follow traditional protocol, instill Native pride, incorporate language and environmental teachings, and provide leadership training. Historically the Tribes of the Washington Coast and Puget Sound have applied for funding as have a couple of Oregon Tribes. This year Native youth, who have participated in the Journey, again reviewed the grant applications received and, through a day long process, developed the docket for review by the Board of Directors. The review process provided additional leadership and development skills for Native youth as well as professional development as the participants learn about philanthropy, successful grant applications and grantmaking.
Ken Gordon, Executive Director Potlatch Fund, states: “The support we continue to receive from First Nations Development Institute is critical to the success of our participation in this annual event, which focuses on empowering Tribal youth and inspiring Native pride.”
For 2010 Potlatch Fund provided $35,000 in grants to support the following canoes:
|
Lakebay, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
|
Blue Heron Canoe |
Kent, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
Chehalis Tribe Canoe Family |
Oakville, WA |
$ 2,000 |
|
Chinook Indian Nation |
Bay Center, WA |
$ 2,000 |
|
Cowlitz Indian Tribe |
Longview, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
Ha’y Tilixam Canoe Society |
Pendleton, OR |
$ 2,000 |
|
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe |
Port Angles, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
Nooksack Indian Tribe |
Deming, WA |
$ 2,000 |
|
Ohileqw-sen Healing Center |
Bellingham, WA |
$ 1,000 |
|
Oliver Canoe Club |
Kingston, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
Port Gamble S’Klallam Foundation |
Kingston, WA |
$ 2,000 |
|
Smith Canoe Family |
Kingston, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
Squaxin Canoe Family |
Shelton, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
Squwkeek Canoe Family |
Shelton, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
The Tulalip Tribes |
Tulalip, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
West Shore Canoe Family |
Bellingham, WA |
$ 1,500 |
|
Makah Nation |
Neah Bay, WA |
$ 5,000 |
|
Grand Ronde Canoe Family |
Grand Ronde, OR |
$ 1,000 |
|
Snoqualmie Tribe |
Snoqualmie, WA |
$ 3,000 |
Native youth will continue to be involved throughout the 2010 cycle and are currently working on the agenda for a one day funders tour that will visit the Lower Elwha Klallam and Makah reservations. The youth will also close out the grant cycle in October of this year.
For more information about Potlatch Fund or the funders tour, please contact Lawrence Leake, Director of Development and Communication, at 206.624.6076 extension 13.
Potlatch Fund
801 Second Avenue, #304
Seattle, WA 98104
www.potlatchfund.org
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Update from Team Potlatch Fund!
It’s official! We’ve all started training for our upcoming running events in 2010. In the past two weeks, staff members Kelly, Lawrence, and Dana have all joined the gym across the street from Potlatch Fund. Ken and Heather already belong to gyms and have been consistently training for the past few months. And in the past few weeks, I’ve heard staff members simultaneously complain/brag about feeling the burn from sore muscles…
Which finally prompted me to get with the program! I was the last to join the gym as I’ve been wavering back and forth about which gym to join for the past month. In some ways, it made more sense to go to a gym near by house in North Seattle but in the end, I decided that I needed to integrate fitness into my everyday routine. What better way that to join the gym across from my office! Let’s put it this way, there’s no way I can commute to/from work without having to walk past the gym and not experience guilt if I haven’t made exercise a priority for that day.
So as we train for our first 5k event on May 23rd, please cheer us on! Ask us how our fitness routines are going. Share your tips on getting in shape &/or running races. And when the time comes for our larger events like the Rock & Roll Marathon (in June) and the Seattle Marathon (in November), show your support by sponsoring us and coming out to cheer us on as we cross the finish line!
Dana
P.S. My first session with a trainer at the gym is this Friday morning. Let’s see how enthusiastic I am then… 
Day 2 at the Salish Language Conference
Morena
Heather Miller and I are here at the second day of the Salish Language Conference. I have stepped back from the training to give Heather the chance to lead this fundraisng training and she is doing a great job.
We also just want to thank the Kalispel Tribe for hosting this event. They have a brand bew Hotel/Resort and it is truly an amazing facility. The shower in the room is to die for it was very hard to drag myself out of that this morning.
If you are in the Spokane area I really encourage you to come here.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Heading to the Salish Language Conferenve
Morena
Heather Miller and I are both here at SeaTac at 6.30am waiting to catch our flight to attend the Salish Language conference in Spokane, WA. I know that I have said it before, and it is worth repeating, I think that programs to preserve and revitalize Native languages are some of the most important things that we support here at Potlatch Fund.
So I may grumble at the early start but am honored to once again be participating in this important work. I will run a seminar today and Heather will one run tomorrow.
Have a great day.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Sent from my iPhone please forgive typos.
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
Exciting Week at Potlatch Fund
Morena
I am back in the office today following several days of travelling.
Last week Heather Miller and I travelled to the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon to provide a two day non-profit startup training. We had a small group in attendance who were interested in starting non-profits to run a Radio Station, to run language programs and for a Canoe Journey Society. Starting non-profits to provide these services mean that the door is eased open to help them find more funding. Non-profits also help provide liability protection to the volunteers providing these important services.
We emphasize in our trainings that non-profits are a reflection of needs in a community.
This was driven home to me on Saturday, when I travelled to Vancouver, WA to attend a Luau for the Ke Kukui Foundation. This small group had come to one of our non-profit startup trainings in Portland in 2009. They already had their non-profit underway and they were looking for guidance on good governance practices.
It was a delight to attend the fundraising Luau, which highlighted cultural performances from Hawaiian, Filipino, Maori, Tahitian and Tongan traditions. It was amazing to see the amount of work and the success of the work of this committed group of volunteers and the community need which they are responding to.
Of course the highlight of the evening for me was when the Tongan drummers called me up to the stage for some comedy relief. I decided to give it my all, however I have to say that despite all of my running I still “ain’t got no rhythm”. I was in a bright red grass skirt on the stage and I guess there will be some photos around at some stage.
Today, my staff and I are continuing our lessons in Lushootseed, and then Heather and I will be getting ready later in the week to travel to Spokane for a language conference.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
The year that was
Morena
You all know the song - “we’ve been everywhere”. Well I have been spending some time the last two days compiling our stats from 2009. And that is the feeling that I get with 31 trainings being undertaken with at least 459 participants. So for the record in 2009 we’ve been to:
- Crow, MT
- Quinault, WA
- Chehalis, WA
- Squaxin Island, WA
- Grand Ronde, OR
- Siletz, OR
- Portland, OR (6 times)
- Seattle, WA (6 times)
- Quileute, WA
- Northern Cheyenne, MT
- Washington DC
- Muckleshoot, WA
- Lummi, WA (2 times)
- Sauk-Suiattle, WA (2 times)
- Rocky Boy, MT
- Phoenix, AZ
- Skamania, WA
- Kalispel, WA
- Suquamish, WA
- Port Gamble S’Klallam
Heather Miller is busy preparing for another busy year this year. We still have some slots for trainings in the second half of the year so please contact her. We provide trainings for Tribal communities and Native non-profits in the following areas:
- Fundraising
- Financial management
- Non-profit startups
- Media (and also social media) management, and
- Governance and strategic planning
Native groups who attend our trainings go on to raise money so this is a great way for groups to kick start their fundraising and community building efforts.
You can contact Ms Miller at heather@potlatchfund.org.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
A winter ramble
Morena (good morning)
There is so much to say about what has been going on in the last few weeks. In no particular order of importance:
- It looks like the Elouise Cobell class action against the government for the mismanagement of Indian Trust lands has reached a settlement. The numbers look huge until you realize that most members of the class will receive about $1,000. This is estimated to represent about 1/50th of the actual loss sustained by people. Ms Cobell, a person who I admire, has said that they have to settle now. Much of the loss has been sustained by elders and failure to settle now would mean that they would never see the benefits of this class action.
- The Seattle school district is being challenged because of the way in which the Indian Heritage School is being run. According to an item on KUOW today the School district receives several hundred thousand dollars per year designed to support the education of Native students in Seattle. The district’s own audit has shown that they do not know how this money is being spent and that it appears that the funds are not being focused on the academic needs of Native students. It is interesting when you put these two matters side by side - the mismanagement of Native funds by mainstream organizations seem to be fairly pervasive.
- Potlatch Fund has been advised by the W. J. Murdock Foundation that it will receive a grant that will enable us to employ a development specialist. At the moment the existing staff squeeze in development activities into our day to day work. Having a full time person who can focus on this important area should be able to help us become more sustainable and grow our services in the medium term. We will commence a recruitment process for this position as soon as the grant contracts have been signed.
- We are now just wrapping up all of the final work on the Gala. The Gala was very successful. For us we try to use the event to both honor the amazing things happening in Indian Country and to also raise funds for Potlatch Fund. Our last several blog posts have discussed the 12 awards that we gave out at the Gala. This is important because so much of what we see in Indian Country is presented in a negative frame. Yet we see such amazing stuff going on. We therefore use this event to spotlight great things and great people. We believe that our Native American stakeholders leave this event feeling proud. This for us is our biggest goal. We have just published our winter newsletter which again highlights all of the Awardees. We also highlight in this newsletter all of the people who supported Potlatch Fund at the event. This event is also a fundraiser for PotlatchFund. We estimate that we raised about $130,000 from sponsorships, ticket and raffle sales and donations. Many of the donations will be matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust. In total with the matching grants we will get over $200,000. These funds will go towards our granting program and operations in 2010, we know already that we have $130,000 in hand for regranting in 2010 so that is also very exciting.
- We have just finished our last round of Committee and Board meetings for the year. The key decision arising from the Board is that we have appointed some new Board members. We will have more on this once each of the new Board members complete some steps to formalize their appointments. The Board also discussed the process for hiring the new Development specialists. It has been agreed that the hiring committee will be made up of the President and the Executive Director in the first instance.
- It is COLD. The high temperature this last week has hardly got above freezing. I drove to Portland on Tuesday and the low got down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s minus 12 degrees Celsius). Biking home at night at just below freezing is tough, however biking to work in the morning is insane - when I get in my toes are frozen and it takes half the day to warm up.
- I am still recovering from the Marathon. I did a 20 minute jog yesterday and still had sore feet and discovered a whole bunch of new aches and pains.
- We have our final meeting for the year of the Seattle Native Circle today. This is a great group and they are producing a really interesting newsletter. We will have a link to the latest newsletter up on our site in a few days.
Anyway that is enough for now.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
The Seattle Marathon
Ahi Ahi Marie (Good afternoon)
It seems a long time since our last blog update, the staff at Potlatch Fund all enjoyed the holidays last week and were then rearing to go for the Seattle Marathon events that took place on Saturday and Sunday.
Dana Arviso worked some wonders and was able to get some Potlatch Fund t-shirts made for the supporters of the event. These T-shirts looked great, and we have to thank the folks at Logo Girlz for coming to the party for a small rush order for us. You will see in the photos that we are posting the T-shirts being proudly displayed.
On Friday Dana and I met at the Westin Hotel to pick up our respective running packages. There were hundreds of people milling around and we got to see some great supporters.
Saturday morning rolled around cold and windy (but dry) and Dana was off on the 5km event. The 5km event headed south down 5th avenue, from the start outside of the Experience Music Project. I was waiting outside of Top Pot Donuts to watch Dana fly past. However, before I saw Dana run past I watched a tow truck driver tow away a blocked car in literally a few seconds so that the road could be cleared for the runners. About 2 1/2 kms down 5th Ave the runners turned round and headed north back towards Seattle Center. I hustled back to the Center and was able to capture Dana crossing the finish line.
Dana came in 77 out of 145 in her age group finishing the run in 33 minutes and 58 seconds. Dana just after the race.
And so Sunday rolled around. I was up at 5am getting ready for my event which commenced at 8.15am. I was joined by about 1,700 other people who started the full marathon. I was doing really well up until about the 10 mile mark when I started to get significant pain in my feet. Possibly this was linked to the fact that I couldn’t find a Honey Bucket (ha ha). Luckily I had brought some fast acting anti-inflammatory pain killers with me so I started chewing them like candy. I went through the half way point in 1:53 minutes however, the foot pain was starting to really impact in the second half. At about Mile 18 I changed shoes (luckily my wife Jenn and daughter Eva had brought a spare pair along) and that seemed to help. The last six miles of the course was the toughest terrain as the course wound up Madison, the Arboretum and InterLaken.
I had hoped to get home under 4 hours, and at 3 1/2 hours it was still up for grabs. Another runner and I egged each other on, she passed me on the hills and I was faster on the flat ground. So with a bit of trading places I was able to get a bit of a kick in the last three miles finishing the course in just over 3 hours and 56 minutes. I was 579th overall and 62nd out of 152 in my age group.
The relief at stopping running was immense. Jenn and Eva where there at the finish line and Dana joined them having dashed in from watching me in the last leg. Heather Miller got caught up in the traffic and only saw me after the event.
I want to thank all the friends and all of the complete strangers who cheered me on on the course. Just for your information that cheering makes a huge positive difference. Thank you all.
I am not sure about the plans for next year. I am still very stiff and sore and will take the next week to recover properly.
Tomorrow I will talk some more about the Gala.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon
Three Long Days
Ahi Ahi Marie (Good afternoon)
Saturday: Potlatch Fund Gala. 400 Guests. 9 Awards. 3 Auctions. 1 Raffle. 2 Videos. Three performances. An Amazing MC. The whole night filmed. Result - a huge feel good factor for Indian Country and over $124,000 raised to help Potlatch Fund’s mission of expanding philanthropy in Northwest Indian Country.
Sunday: Last long run before the Seattle Marathon. Cold, wet and windy. Perfect preparation. Headphones strapped on, play-list lined up and off I go. 12.5 miles and 1 hour and 39 minutes later arrive home shivering and very very cold. Feet sore, ankles, knees and head all sore also. Why do I do this - in part because over 50 people (so far) have pledged $2,300 to Potlatch Fund if I cross the 26.2 mile line.
Monday: The 2008/09 LEAD cohort graduates, and we start the orientation for the next class. Result: Young(ish) Native leaders better equipped to Lead their Tribes and non-profits in the future.
More on all of the above once the mad rush this week settles down.
Naku noa
Ken Gordon