DECOLONIZING WEALTH PROJECT AND LIBERATED CAPITAL AWARD $1 MILLION TO INDIGENOUS-LED CLIMATE AND CONSERVATION INITIATIVES

27 organizations will benefit through Liberated Capital, a fund of Decolonizing Wealth Project, helping to uplift Indigenous efforts across the U.S. to combat the climate crisis

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – November 25, 2024 – Today, the Decolonizing Wealth Project and their funding mechanism, Liberated Capital, announced the distribution of $1 million in grants to 27 Indigenous-led organizations and tribes across the US through their Indigenous Earth Fund (IEF). The funding will support grantees’ efforts to tackle climate change and conservation through traditional Indigenous cultural practices and innovations. Grantees include local organizations working toward ancestral land return, land stewardship and conservation, advocacy, and youth engagement and education.

Since its inception in 2021, IEF has distributed over $4 million in capital to 38 Native-led organizations, and, as a result, has engaged over 200 tribes across the U.S. These grant-making initiatives reflect the Decolonizing Wealth Project’s mission to redirect resources to historically overlooked or marginalized communities, with a focus on supporting traditional Indigenous cultural practices as effective solutions to the climate crisis. Highlights of past grantees who have made significant strides through their climate work as a result of IEF funding include SAGE Development Authority creating the first Indigenous-owned utility-scale wind farm in the U.S; the creation of an Indigenous Storytelling Hub featuring digital shorts and a podcast series set to launch in 2025 by Indigenous Led; dam removal and flow restoration campaigns led by Save California Salmon, and more.

“Indigenous peoples safeguard much of Earth’s biodiversity, yet philanthropy has chronically underfunded their work,” said Edgar Villanueva, CEO of Decolonizing Wealth Project. “Our Indigenous Earth Fund addresses this critical gap by channeling resources to Indigenous climate and conservation leaders who have maintained vital ecological knowledge and practices across generations. This fund reinforces our steadfast commitment to Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.”

The Indigenous Earth Fund is rooted in the belief that Indigenous peoples must lead the charge for climate action and land conservation. Despite their longstanding history in protecting our planet and helping to mitigate climate change, Indigenous-led organizations receive a disproportionately small share of philanthropic climate funding. Through the Indigenous Earth Fund (IEF), Decolonizing Wealth is challenging philanthropy to prioritize investments into Indigenous communities in their efforts to save the planet. 

“Decolonizing Wealth Project’s Indigenous Earth Fund is breaking the funding paradigm,” said Natali Segovia, IEF Advisory Committee member and Executive Director of Water Protector Legal Collective. “Where philanthropy often asks Indigenous Peoples and organizations to fit into squares, IEF is rooted in the principles of restorative justice and the practice of self-determination. IEF moves funding to Indigenous-led organizations whose initiatives are building power on their own terms, bringing ancestral and contemporary knowledge together to address the urgent quandaries facing our planet for the benefit of all our relations.”

“Thanks to the generous support of Decolonizing Wealth’s Indigenous Earth Fund, the Bering Sea Elders Group has continued to realize our mission of protecting our traditional ways of life, the Bering Sea, and our children’s future,” said Jaylene Wheeler, Executive Director of the Bering Sea Elders Group. “This grant has been instrumental in enabling several convenings where our Tribally-appointed Elders meet to exchange knowledge, discuss strategy, and galvanize the community. With our renewed funding, we will continue to expand our advocacy and communications to organize, maintain key partnerships, and protect our home.”

The continuing grantee partners for the Indigenous Earth Fund are:

• Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians – Portland, OR
• Aloha Kuamoʻo ʻĀina – Kailua-Kona, HI
• Bering Sea Elders Group – Anchorage, AK
• Brave Heart Society – Lake Andes, SD
• Children of the Setting Sun Productions – Bellingham, WA
• Ekvn-Yefolecv – Weogufka, AL
• Flower Hill Institute – Jemez Pueblo, NM
• Great Plains Action Society – Iowa City, IA
• Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice – Honolulu, HI
• INDIGENOUS LED – Santa Fe, NM
• Mālama Loko Ea Foundation – Haleiwa, HI
• Native Movement – Fairbanks, AK
• Nihikeya – Pinon, AZ
• Northern Chumash Tribal Council – Guadalupe, CA
• Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples – Marina del Rey, CA
• San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity, Dine’ Centered Research Evaluation – Yatahey, NM
• Save California Salmon – Orleans, CA
• Sicangu Community Development Corporation – Mission, SD
• Water Protector Legal Collective – Albuquerque, NM
• Wishtoyo Foundation – Ventura, CA

The new grantee partners for the Indigenous Earth Fund are: 

• California Indian Museum & Cultural Center – Santa Rosa, CA
• Confederated Tribes of The Goshute, Duckwater Shoshone, Ely Shoshone – Baker, NV
• Grandmothers Growing Goodness – Nuiqsut, AK
• Lāhainā Strong, a Project of Our Hawaii Foundation – Kailua, HI
• Maidu Summit Consortium – Chester, CA
• Mazaska Talks – Seattle, WA
• Shinnecock Kelp Farmers – Southampton, NY

ABOUT DECOLONIZING WEALTH PROJECT

Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP), an Indigenous-led racial justice organization, works globally to disrupt the existing systems of moving and controlling capital using education and healing programs, radical reparative giving, and storytelling. Through its fund, Liberated Capital, DWP moves unrestricted resources to Indigenous, Black, and other people-of-color-led initiatives working for economic and racial justice. 

www.decolonizingwealth.com  

www.decolonizingwealth.com/liberated-capital 

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