Native Youth and Culture Fund (United States)

First Nations believes that Native youth represent the future of Native communities and that investing in youth and giving them a sense of place and tradition in the community ensures a future of bright and capable leaders. They seek programs that meet youth where they are, support them in accomplishing their goals and dreams as future leaders, and shape pathways that prepare them for an empowered adulthood guided by their cultures and families.

Focus Areas 

• Grant opportunities are focused within six key areas:
  • Achieving Native Financial Empowerment
  • Investing in Native Youth
  • Strengthening Tribal & Community Institutions
  • Advancing Household & Community Asset-Building Strategies
  • Nourishing Native Foods & Health
  • Stewarding Native Lands

Priorities

• All proposals must demonstrate their project or program will carry out one or more of the following:
  • Provide structured day or overnight camp activities.  Camps are defined as structured day or overnight programs that focus on recreational, cultural, educational, youth leadership, and intergenerational mentoring activities.
  • Focus on preserving, strengthening, or renewing cultural and/or spiritual practices, beliefs, and values of Native youth.
  • Engage youth and elders in activities that demonstrate methods for documenting traditional knowledge systems, practices, and/or beliefs.
  • Increase youth leadership and their capacity to lead through intergenerational educational or mentoring programs.
  • Increase youth access to and sharing of cultural customs and beliefs and traditional Native art forms using appropriate technologies (traditional and/or modern), as a means of reviving or preserving tribal language, arts, history, or other culturally relevant topics.

Benefits

• Through this Fund, two-year grants ranging from $20,000 to $60,000 will be awarded to Native youth programs and projects that focus on increasing youth leadership and providing opportunities for intergenerational transfer of knowledge.
  • 10 to 12 grants of up to $60,000 will be awarded to structured day and/or overnight camp programs that focus on recreational, cultural, educational, language, Native youth leadership and intergenerational mentoring activities. (If you are applying as a camp program you must indicate this within the application.)
  • 4 to 8 grants of up to $60,000 will be awarded to programs supporting Native youth by California-based tribes or California tribally controlled non-profit organizations. These grants are made possible through their California Tribal Fund (CTF). The CTF was created to support California-based, California-Native-led nonprofits and tribal programs in controlling and protecting their food systems, water, languages, traditional ecological knowledge, and land.
  • 10 to 12 grants of up to $60,000 will be awarded to programs supporting Native youth that demonstrate alignment with one or more of the program priorities.
• Period: The grant period for this funding opportunity will commence in July 2024, and end in July 2026.

Eligibility Criteria

• Tribes, Native-controlled nonprofits, and Native-controlled community organizations using a fiscal sponsor, located in the United States or U.S. territories are eligible to apply. First Nations considers “Native-controlled” to mean that the majority (51% or more) of the organization’s Board of Directors is tribally affiliated.
• Types of eligible applicants include, but are not limited to:
  • Federal- and State-Recognized Tribal Governments and Departments
  • Native-controlled 501(c)(3) nonprofits
  • Native-controlled community organizations with fiscal sponsorship
  • Native 7871 Organizations

For more information, visit First Nations.