Deadline: 15-Oct-20
Applications are now open for the 2020 Native Cultures Fund (NCF) grants. Grants can be made to individuals, non-profits, community partnerships, or Tribes.
They are made to projects that reflect California Indian culture, art, values, and traditional practices. We define culture in the broadest possible way: As the foodways, languages, and cosmologies, ceremony, sacred sites, sports, architecture, arts, teachings and knowledge systems, stories, music, dance, land stewardship, hydrology, maritime traditions, and much more that are indigenous to California.
Funding Information
- Native Cultures Fund grant funding is between $1,000 and $10,000, with most grants falling between $1,000 – $5,000.
- Grants are not made to support the capacity of large organizations, for economic development, or for projects not rooted in California tribal cultures.
Granting Area
- The Native Cultures Fund supports artists, culture bearers, and educators from the Tolowa/Dee-ni’ Nation peoples near the Oregon border, inland to the Paiute and Shoshone Nations along the Nevada border, and south to the Chumash peoples of the Santa Barbara area.
Guiding Principles
- The Native Cultures Fund is dedicated to supporting California’s original peoples, their art and cultural revitalization. Preference will be given for grants involving art created by Native artists, cultural mentorship between generations, and/or creation of California Indian cultural models that can be shared. Traditional or contemporary art projects, cultural or ceremonial projects, sacred site protection or creation, traditional foodways restoration, education, and language programs are eligible. Individuals, organizations, or community partnerships may apply.
- Partnerships should be based on reciprocal relationships, consensus building, community resiliency, and traditional models of ownership. Oral histories and language materials must be owned by Native community members in all projects funded. Master artist or language speakers’ or cultural elders’ time should be valued at equal to or greater than other professional participants in the project. Projects should strengthen communities and support sovereignty.
- The following are not considered for funding: overhead costs for tribes or large organizations, scholarships, college tuition and artists working in degree programs, capacity building for organizations, and economic development.
Required Components
- Completed Native Cultures Fund Grant Cover Page
- Completed Community Information Page
- A typed, one-to-four page Project Description that reflects the following topics:
- Describe your project in detail. Example prompts follow.
- What art form or cultural practice will the project be created in?
- What is your experience in this practice?
- How is this project rooted in your culture?
- If it is an endangered art form, how will this project help keep it alive?
- Project timeline and process. Example prompts follow.
- What is the timeline (in months/quarters) for creating the project?
- What will creating the project entail?
- How will Native Cultures funds support the project?
- If funds are being used for technology, tools, or IT, please detail how they will be used after the project is complete.
- Community Impact. Example prompts follow.
- What are you hoping to achieve for your community through this project?
- How will the project be shared with the community?
- Describe your project in detail. Example prompts follow.
- Biographies Page identifying project leads/mentors, including contact information. It is also helpful to share any elders you will be learning from and/or working with.
- Completed Total Project Budget Form.
For more information, visit https://www.hafoundation.org/Grantseekers/Native-Cultures-Fund/Grants