Past Agenda-At-A-Glance

Wednesday, May 25th

7:30am-4:00pm  —  Registration

7:30am-9:00am —  Breakfast

8:00am-11:30am — Pre-conference: Native Cultures and Context for Philanthropy (NCCP) at Barona Cultural Center

(PREREGISTRATION REQUIRED) There are so many opportunities to unlock new capital for investments (grants, social impact, economic development, etc.) and collaboration in and with Native urban, rural and tribal communities. The first step in advancing strategic grantmaking and partnership development with Native communities-urban rural and tribal-is to have an understanding of the political status, past and current public policies, sovereignty, values and tradition of Native peoples.  This abridged version of NAP’s NCCP program gives attendees a grounded framing for engaging throughout the conference and informing philanthropists interested or currently working with Native peoples.
Morning Star Gali,  Pit River Tribe;   Christine McCleave, National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition; Jerilyn DeCoteau, National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition; Elicia Goodsoldier, National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition; Sheri Freemont, Casey Family Programs – Indian Child Welfare Unit;  Sheldon Spotted Elk, Casey Family Programs – Indian Child Welfare Unit

9:00am-11:30 — Pre-conference: Giving Basket: The Strength and Wisdom of Tribal Philanthropy (Tribal Philanthropy only)

(PREREGISTRATION REQUIRED) What are the successes and challenges of tribal philanthropy? This session is specifically for tribal philanthropy decision makers to connect and network in roundtable conversations.
Chrissie Castro, Chrissie Castro & Associates; Melissa Powless Chacon, Native Americans in Philanthropy Network Weaver for Southern California

9:00am-11:30am — Pre-conference: Strategic Native Leadership within Institutional Philanthropy (Native Program Officers & Executives only)

(PREREGISTRATION REQUIRED) This pre-conference session will explore leadership opportunities and challenges being Native Program Officers and Executives working inside institutional (mainstream) philanthropy.
Edgar Villanueva, Vice President, Schott Foundation for Public Education;  Gabrielle Strong, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation (moderators)

12:15pm  —  Opening/Blessing

12:30pm-1:30pm  —  Lunch

1:30pm-3:30pm  —  #GenerationIndigenous, Implicit Bias, Healing & Equity

With a commitment to leveraging issues across identity and a movement towards leading, this panel will discuss health, education, and youth disparity parallels between Black and Native communities with commentary on mascots and black-face, boarding schools and school to prison pipelines.
Bill Mendoza, White House Initiative on Native American/Alaska Native Education; Dr. Robert Ross, The California Endowment; Morning Star Gali, Historic Preservation Officer, Pit River Tribe (moderator)

3:00pm-3:30pm  —  Networking Break

3:30pm-5:00pm  —  Breakout Sessions

♦ What does Native-Themed Mascots and logos have to do with me?
To what extent should private, non-profit, and tribal organizations, facilitate the creation of positive, safe, and healthy learning environments for our nation’s students? The White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (WHIAIANE) will explore this topic during an interactive session addressing how imagery and symbolism (such as school mascots) in educational institutions can either enhance or diminish the academic climate for all students, particularly Native Americans. Central to this discussion will be the 2015 Native Student Environment Final Report that summarizes information from nine school environment listening sessions held in seven states from New York to California to Alaska. What was heard in these listening sessions touches upon many issues such as potentially harmful Native imagery and symbolism, bullying, student mental health, instructional content, and Native languages. Participants will have the opportunity to examine how the advocacy of students, parents, educators and community leaders as well as action taken by athletic associations, private companies, and government entities can mitigate the usage of harmful symbols and consequently create a more welcoming educational climate.
Bill Mendoza, White House Initiative on Native American/Alaska Native Education

♦ Making the Invisible Visible; Examining the Needs of Urban American Indians
According to the 2010 Census, 78% of American Indians & Alaska Natives live off reservations. In this session, presenters will share a snapshot of the nonprofit sector currently serving the needs of urban Indian populations as well as the findings from a groundbreaking three-year policy roundtable project entitled “Making the Invisible Visible: Urban Indian America.”
Janeen Comenote, National Urban Indian Family Coalition; Matt Morton, Equitable Education portfolio – Meyer Memorial Trust

 ♦ Making Philanthropy Work for Communities of Color
This session will explore a few efforts underway to make philanthropy more responsive to communities of color.  These efforts are encouraging philanthropic institutions to revise their policies and practices, developing new models for philanthropy in communities of color, and leveraging the leadership role of trustees to influence how foundations distribute resources inclusively through procurement, grant making, and leadership pipelines.
David Maurrasse, Ph.D.,  Marga Incorporated; Carly Hare, CHANGE Philanthropy; Sarah Eagle Heart, Native Americans in Philanthropy

5:00pm-7:30pm  — Bayside Beach Reception with acoustic performance by Paul Cannon

Our opening evening reception on the beach will feature special guests, a Selfie Station® and a chance to mingle right on the Catamaran’s ideal location by the  bay.

7:00pm-9:00pm  — Film Night – Mankiller

Mankiller is a documentary celebrating a leader who defied all odds to make a difference for her people. During a time when American Indians found themselves disenfranchised and undervalued by the United States at large, Wilma Mankiller overcame rampant sexism and personal challenges to emerge as a champion of the Cherokee Nation and became its first female Principal Chief in 1985. The movie will be presented Valerie Red-Horse Mohl. 

Thursday, May 26th

7:30am-4:30pm  —  Registration

8:00am-9:00am  —  Breakfast Keynote: “Native Women: Justice, Prosperity, Life” Deborah Parker (Tulalip), Board Member, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center

9:00am-9:30am  —  Break

9:30am-11:00am  —  Breakout Sessions

♦ Why we should care about Data and Digital Inclusion?
For decades, Native Americans have been largely ignored by federal communications policy and underserved by telecommunications providers. Tribal lands appear as barren broadband desert pockets across the technology laden lands of the United States. As the FCC mentioned in their 2004 report, Extending Wireless Communication Services to Tribal Lands, “By virtually any measure, communities on tribal lands have historically had less access to telecommunications services than any other segment of the population.” Per best available estimate, broadband deployment throughout Indian Country is at a less than ten percent penetration rate—standing in stark contrast to the FCC’s aspiration to achieve 100 percent broadband service saturation across the United States. The longer tribal communities are removed from broadband connectivity, the less involvement they are afforded in protecting and advancing their community rights in the digital age. Digital communications are now critical to educational access, health care delivery, economic development, and civic participation—particularly for those in rural areas where American Indians and Alaska Natives predominately reside. As stated in the FCC’s ONAP 2012 Annual Report, “The lack of robust communications services presents serious impediments to Tribal Nations’ efforts to preserve their cultures and build their internal structures for self-governance, economic opportunity, health, education, public safety, and welfare.”
Loris Taylor, Native Public Media

♦ Youth-Driven Strategies to Invest in Two Spirit Programs
The format for this session will be a panel discussion moderated by Erik Stegman, Executive Director of the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute. Panelists will have the opportunity to make brief presentations about their perspective on the topic of the conversation and background on their organization and work. This will be followed by a series of questions from the moderator about two spirit identity, challenges and opportunities, specific efforts underway from the LGBTQ and tribal side. Erik will moderate the remainder of the session as an interactive discussion with audience members intended on answering questions about the topic and identifying areas of funding opportunity.
Erik Stegman, Center for Native American Youth (CNAY); Sarah Eagle Heart, Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP); Kevin Jennings, Arcus Foundation; Karen Vigneault, Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel/Kumeyaay, MLIS Librarian and Activist; Kenneth Ramos, Barona Band of Mission Indians, Two Spirit/LGBT Advocate

♦ Lost Stories – Finding the data to tell Native narratives
Philanthropy values data, and new practices, systems of collection and incentives are arising to support the data collection. But too often Native and Indigenous communities are left out, viewed as “negligible” or “insignificant” to the overall picture. But data can be a powerful tool to share the reality of the challenges and assets of Native Communities. In this colloquium, NCRP will facilitate a discussion between two researchers from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and NAP about increasing the availability of philanthropic data. NCRP will share an overview of sources of data about philanthropy to underserved communities in general. The discussion will reveal information about sources of data specifically about Native communities that currently exist and why more sources are important. Session participants will then participate in an interactive exercise exploring the stories they would like to see shared about their communities and brainstorming the types of data that would support those narratives.
 Jeanné Isler, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP); Malia Villegas, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

♦ Indigenous Women, Environmental Health and Philanthropy
Environmental Health recognizes the direct relationship between physical, spiritual and inter-generational human health, women’s reproductive health and the health of the environment. IITC’s Environmental Health Program provides information, networking, leadership and training for Indigenous communities working to address the severe health impacts of toxic pesticides, persistent organic pollutants, mercury, mining and other extractive industries. It builds capacity for new Indigenous leaders, including women and girls, to assert their human rights to health and Free. Prior and Informed Consent, promote governmental and corporate accountability and work for policy change on the local, tribal, state, national and international levels.
Andrea Carmen, International Indian Treaty Council; Nicole Yanes, International Indian Treaty Council; Rochelle Diver, International Indian Treaty Council; Morning Star Gali, Pit River Tribe (moderator)

11:00am-11:30am  —  Break

11:30am-12:30pm  —  Native Philanthropy & Impact Investing Plenary

Impact investing is progressively growing to include a wide-range of opportunities including economic development investments, program and mission-related programs and more. Some argue, the implied positive impact or social good of ‘impact investing’ is becoming diluted. Come learn with your peers how capital can strengthen communities nationally and internationally, and what it means to invest with a ‘seven generations’ Native lens. This panel of Indigenous philanthropic leaders will discuss investments in Native communities, discuss these experiences, the emerging lessons to help guide impact investing and how sovereignty is exercised through philanthropy, Native-led giving models, challenges and positive community impact.
Twila True, True Sioux Hope Foundation; Seth Fairchild, Chatha Foundation; Eveylyn Arce, International Funders for Indigenous Peoples; Jo-Anne Stately, The Minneapolis Foundation (moderator)

12:30pm-1:30pm  —  Lunch with CHANGE Philanthropy Partner Panel

This panel will highlight the collective and individual strategies for building a philanthropic equity movement. NAP’s partners in the CHANGE Philanthropy will share their approaches and priorities to create philanthropic transformation and advocate for greater equity in the distribution of philanthropic resources.
Susan Taylor Batten, ABFE: A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities; Cora Mirikitani, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP); Sarah Eagle Heart,  Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP); Carly Hare, CHANGE Philanthropy (moderator)

1:30pm-3:00pm  — Breakout Sessions

♦ Advancing Racial Equity and Authentic Partnerships with Indigenous Peoples
A racial equity movement is in process to transform our country into a better version of itself. Recognizing the need to reframe engagement on race as a healing journey within our policies, practices, awareness, relationships, funding, and attitudes, the Alaska Native Policy Center at First Alaskans Institute launched a collective social impact project titled Advancing Native Dialogues on Racial Equity (ANDORE). This project engages community leaders and decision-makers from diverse sectors of society to identify and advance short, mid, and long term racial equity goals. Building off ANDORE’s framework, this interactive workshop provides a session using our indigenous based process to create a safe space for meaningful strategizing to advance connection and authentic relationships with indigenous peoples and other diverse communities through a racial equity lens. Emphasis will be placed on expanding and utilizing networks, growing allies and advocates, and nurturing personal commitments to advance this work.
Elizabeth Medicine Crow, President/CEO, First Alaskans Institute; Emily Tyrrell, Director of Sustainability, First Alaskans Institute

♦ Strategies for Funding Indigenous Communities
More than 370 million Indigenous peoples protect a quarter of the Earth’s remaining biodiversity yet receive less than .01 percent of philanthropic support. The new IFIP/GrantCraft guide, “Funding Indigenous Peoples: Strategies for Support” will serve as the basis of a discussion on how funders collaborate with and bring support to Indigenous communities. Through examples from a diverse range of foundations, this session will detail the approaches they take along with the practices they find effective. It will analyze the reasons for the funding disparity with Indigenous communities and practical strategies to overcome them.
Eveylyn Arce, International Funders for Indigenous Peoples; Luke Newton, Common Counsel Foundation  

♦ Building Resources for Native Environmental Health and Justice
The topic for the session to share information about an ongoing philanthropic initiative called the Building Equity and Alignment for Impact (BEAI). The BEAI is an effort to 1)shift more philanthropic resources to grassroots community work; and 2) promote environmental justice.  There are about 50 organizations that participate in the BEAI (grassroots organizations, large national environmental organizations, and foundation representatives).
Jose T. Bravo,  Just Transition Alliance; Cecilia Martinez, Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED)

1:30pm-3:30pm  — (GEN I) Joining Forces for Impact: Holistic Solutions for Native Youth

When President Obama launched the Generation Indigenous (Gen – I) initiative in 2014, it was a call to action to strengthen existing programs and leverage new resources to improve opportunity  for Native youth. Many leaders from the government, private, nonprofit, and funding sectors have come together to answer this call. This interactive session will provide an update on Gen – I and other Native youth initiatives. The panel will share strategies to promote youth development and leadership, highlight new insights from youth data, and identify timely policy opportunities with high- impact potential. Participants will take part in an interactive discussion with the panel to identify holistic, systems-level opportunities to move the needle in generating a better future for Native youth.

3:00pm-3:30pm  —  Break

3:30pm-5:00pm  —  Breakout Sessions

♦ The Art of Reciprocity: One Canadian Journey
This roundtable will share how the Art of Reciprocity contributed regionally to increased capacity for reciprocal relationships with Indigenous peoples working in the philanthropic sector in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada.
Trina Flett, United Way of Winnipeg; Bruce Miller, Indspire; Sarah Eagle Heart, Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP); Wanda Brascoupé Peters, the Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal People’s in Canada

♦ Swipe Right: Attractive Impact Investments
Like in dating, finding the perfect Program Related Investment (PRI) for and organization can sometimes be a long, arduous and daunting process.  Session attendees will gain a basic understanding of PRIs, what makes them attractive, how to find the right match, how to measure results of a PRI and how to build a “portfolio” of PRIs
Stephen Burns, Glenmede; Erika McDaniel, Glenmede

♦ Representation in Philanthropy: Disappointments & Opportunities in Diversifying the Pipeline
The lack of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in philanthropy enlarges the understanding gap between philanthropy and the communities meant to be final beneficiaries.  A session led by the Council on Foundations will present and examine new data on people of color and women in philanthropy and how diversity is changing – or not.  We’ll discuss the disappointments in diversity data and respond to recommendations for improving the pipeline of diverse leaders in the field with a panel of seasoned Native philanthropic leaders.
Brandolon Barnett, Council on Foundations; Edgar Villanueva, Schott Foundation for Public Education

5:30pm-7:30pm —  Reception – Museum of Man

Thursday evening we’re taking in more of the city, off-site, at the San Diego Museum of Man featuring the Kumeyaay: Native Californians exhibit that explores traditional Kumeyaay lifeways, showcasing the art of pottery and basket making, food procurement, dress and adornment, traditional medicine, games, and ceremonies.

7:45pm-11:00pm —  House of Blues Voodoo Room

Friday,   May 27th

7:30am-2:00pm  —  Registration

8:00am-9:00am  —  Breakfast/Member Meeting 

If you are unable to join us in person and are a current member of NAP, you can call into the meeting using the following information:
Time: May 27, 2016 8:00 AM (GMT-7:00) Pacific Time (US and Canada)

• Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/785163472
• Or iPhone one-tap:  16465588656,785163472# or 14086380968,785163472#
• Or Telephone:
      Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll)
      Meeting ID: 785 163 472
      International numbers available: https://zoom.us/zoomconference?m=PJ2N90DRqg89BCKzyfvS7qWXKdzg-VTA

9:00am-10:30am  —  Breakout Sessions

♦ Philanthropic Investments in Native Economies
The Johnson Scholarship Foundation has invested Indian Country for the past 25 years to catalyze growth and development in communities of Indigenous Peoples through business education and institutions which support development of Indigenous business and economies. This session will provide insight into successful and unique grant making practices through the perspective of mainstream philanthropy, grant recipients and Indigenous leaders.
Malcolm Macleod, Johnson Scholarship Foundation; Sherry Salway-Black, Johnson Scholarship Foundation; Rick Williams, Johnson Scholarship Foundation; Levi Esquerra, NAU-FCB Center for American Indian Economic Development (CAIED); Tori Lackey, Johnson Scholarship Foundation

♦ Ourselves, Our Work, Our World: How can emerging and established leaders in Native Philanthropy work to invest in Leaders
Lagging behind many industries, philanthropy and nonprofits struggles to draw in and retain emerging leaders. At the same time, philanthropic institutions struggle with issues of diversity, equity and inclusion, and few philanthropic resources flow to Native and other communities of color in ways that honor and reflect their values and ways of working. These challenges may be intertwined. In this session with Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, we will reflect together on how Native and mainstream philanthropy cultivates and supports leaders and how those leaders can continue to push for institutional change in their communities and in larger systems.
Tamir Novotny, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy; Carly Bad Heart Bull, J.D., Strategy and Learning Team – Bush Foundation; Juanita Wilson, Western North Carolina Leadership Initiative – Western Carolina University

♦ Implementing and Sustaining programs that work in Indigenous Communities: 25 years of Project Venture
This session will include a brief powerpoint of Project Venture and go into some detail on what some of the challenges and barriers have been in implementing the program in the US, Canada, and Hawaii. The presentation will examine some of the lessons learned, the process of developing capacity to implement and sustain a successful program, as well as implications for funders
McClellan Hall, M.Ed,  National Indian Youth Leadership Project

10:30am-11:00am  —  Break

11:00am-12:30pm  — Youth, Art, Culture and Social Justice Plenary

This session will feature the perspectives of Native non-profit leaders about the importance of authentic partnerships with philanthropy towards advancing equity and social justice in Native communities. Panelists will highlight their work in art, culture and education, and the importance of investing in the next generation of leaders to inspire innovation and change.
Cheryl Crazy Bull, American Indian College Fund; Lori Pourier, First Peoples Fund;  Shirley Sneve, Vision Maker Media; Tia Oros Peters, Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples; Sarah Eagle Heart, Native Americans in Philanthropy (moderator)

12:30pm-1:00pm  —  Closing/Blessing

*Content subject to change