Meet Rebecca Miles Rebecca Miles, joins Potlatch Fund as its Operations Director from Lapwai, Idaho, where she grew up a member of the Nez Perce Tribe. Although Rebecca left Idaho to go to school—first to get a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Washington State University in Pullman and then a master’s degree in professional studies and organizational leadership from Gonzaga University in Spokane—she returned to Lapwai afterward and has served her tribe and local community ever since. Rebecca was the first woman to be selected as the Nez Perce’s tribal chairperson and served two terms. The experience of leading her people led her to want to serve further, and she spent additional years on staff until coming to Potlatch
Potlatch Fund Welcomes Three New Employees and Looks to the Future
Potlatch Fund is pleased to welcome three new employees and co-workers to the organization. These three Native women represent an extraordinary range of talents, abilities, and experiences. We hope you will share in our excitement as they join our team and welcome them to the Potlatch Fund community. Rebecca Miles joins the organization as its Operations Director. Rebecca comes to Potlatch Fund with a strong background in leadership and national, state and tribal policy. She is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe who grew up, and continues to live, in Lapwai, Idaho. Rebecca attended both Washington State University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and Gonzaga University, where she received a master’s degree in professional studies
Potlatch Fund Announces 2020 Critical Response Grants Recipients (Round 3)
Dear Friends, Recently the Potlatch Fund Board of Directors met to award 42 Critical Response Grants to individuals and organizations serving Native communities across the Pacific Northwest during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. From the beginning of the pandemic, Potlatch Fund has been strategizing the best ways to meet the most urgent needs of our communities. The decision was made early on to pause our regular grantmaking programs and to free up funds from both those programs and our general operating funds in order to get support to our Native communities as fast as possible. We were careful to honor the original intention of our grantmaking programs by supporting Native artists, Native language preservationists, and Native youth-led programs. At the same
Potlatch Fund Announces 2020 Community Building Grant Recipients
Potlatch Fund Announces 2020 Community Building Grant Recipients Dear Friends, Now more than ever, our Community Building Grants are vital to supporting individuals and organizations as they seek to nurture a sense of community among Native people. We have all had to adjust to new ways of doing things because of COVID-19, and these new realities have left some of our Native relatives feeling isolated and cut off from normal opportunities for fellowship, sharing, laughter, and healing. We have appreciated the opportunities technology has provided for us to stay connected, realizing at the same time that a computer screen is no long-term substitute for being together. As our states begin opening back up to more normal activities, we at Potlatch
Donate to All In WA for Potlatch Fund.
Show us that you are “All In” by donating to Potlatch Fund Today. Since time immemorial, our Pacific Northwest Native ancestors held potlatches and enacted the ceremonial protocol of the giveaway: giving away riches from one clan or family to another. The potlatch initiated a gift economy that encouraged wealth distribution and built communities based upon fostering communal responsibility and social equity. Today, we celebrate this abundant tradition in two ways. First, we continue potlatch protocol by collecting and redistributing financial abundance as these gifts strengthen the backbone of Native communities. Second, we promote and advocate philanthropy as the means to improve these communities and encourage a better quality of life for others. COVID-19 in Native Communities In response to
Critical Response Grants – Emergency 2020 COVID-19 Relief Funding (Round 2)
Critical Response Grants – Emergency COVID-19 Relief Funding: Potlatch Fund is committed to supporting our communities in Northwest Indian Country in the best way possible during the ongoing crisis presented by COVID-19, as normal routines are upended and new needs emerge on an almost daily basis. To that end, we focused our second round of emergency funding on current grantees and surveyed them to find out what needs were the most urgent in their communities. They are the ones on the ground in their communities, and we wanted to hear what they had to say. Two things became clear to us during these conversations. First, that the overwhelming need during this time of upheaval is for flexible, unrestricted funding. And second,
Amber Schulz-Oliver, Board President Welcomes New Executive Director
Dear Friends, I don’t have to tell you that we are living in strange, unprecedented times. We all experience the COVID-19 crisis differently, and yet we are all in it together. Daily, we are inspired by and grateful for all of the people risking their health and their lives to combat this disease. At Potlatch Fund, we are responding to COVID-19 by stepping up our support of the Native nonprofit organizations that are crucial to maintaining our way of life. I’ll share more about how we’ll be doing that later in this letter. But right now, I am elated to welcome Cleora Hill-Scott (Crow/ Sioux/ Pawnee) as the new, permanent Executive Director of Potlatch Fund. We are fortunate to have a strong,
Announcing: Healthy Pathways for Native Youth Grantees 2020
Announcing: Healthy Pathways for Native Youth Grantees 2020 At Potlatch Fund, we have been discussing—along with many of our nonprofit foundation partners—how best to support our grantees during the rapidly evolving crisis presented by COVID-19. One thing was immediately apparent when we began talking. Many of the projects already approved for funding through our Healthy Pathways for Native Youth (HPNY) grants were plunged into uncertain territory by the virus. Could the canoe journeys still happen if they weren’t scheduled until later in the summer? What about the overnight camps, learning retreats, and daytime cultural activities? No one knows for sure, and the information about the virus changes daily. Our collective uncertainty binds us together. At the same time, these are
COVID-19 Update
COVID-19 Update At Potlatch Fund, we are adapting to the new, temporary reality that COVID-19 requires of us. We’re practicing social distancing and working remotely. We’re meeting online. But we are still here for our community. Now more than ever, community will be the key to our long-term well-being. And we want to make sure that the communities and community leaders we serve do more than just survive during this crisis. We want to help them thrive. So we’re busy strategizing how to allocate funding where it will do the most good. We’re asking grantees, “What kind of relief do you need right now?” And we’re listening carefully and thoughtfully to their answers. We will share the details of how