When Nicholas Banovetz joined Better Way Foundation as executive director in 2022, he helped to steer a shift in its grantmaking. The family foundation, guided by Catholic values and devoted to early childhood education, opted to focus 100 percent of its giving on Native communities, investing fully in Native leadership.

“We are a foundation that is striving to be a good ally, and for us, that means total resource activation—an approach I learned from the Russell Family Foundation,” Banovetz told NPQ.

In its total commitment to Native communities, Better Way Foundation is an outlier. Less than 1 percent of philanthropic dollars in the United States explicitly benefit Native Americans, and Native-led organizations receive only half of that. Moreover, only 20 percent of large foundations give to Native communities and causes at all.

How might this change? Native Americans in Philanthropy recently partnered with The Bridgespan Group on a report, The Impact and Opportunity of Investing in Native Communities, that interviewed more than 40 Native leaders to investigate this question. One theme we heard repeatedly is that truly transformative change begins when non-Native philanthropy embraces Indigenous values and ways into its own work.

Scholars such as LaDonna Harris (Comanche Nation), founder and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity, have identified and documented characteristics of Indigeneity, which she defines as being centered on the values of reciprocity, responsibility, relationships, and redistribution. Native Americans in Philanthropy, building on the work of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, has adapted these hallmarks into its philanthropic framework. We call them the five Rs (adding “respect” to the four Rs set forth by Harris).

“The five Rs are what make Native philanthropy so different than non-Native philanthropy,” Dana Arviso (Diné), director of Indigenous programs at Decolonizing Wealth Project, told NPQ.

What Are the Five Rs When Investing in Native Leadership and Giving Frameworks?

Respect begins with recognizing the rights, worldviews, and self-determination of Indigenous peoples. This means approaching partnerships with humility, honoring sovereignty, and making space for Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Respect is the foundation of all meaningful and lasting collaboration.

For instance, on a site visit to learn more about the land-based learning curriculum of the NACA (Native American Community Academy) Inspired Schools Network—a group of Native-led, Native-serving charter schools—a non-Native funder participated in a buffalo harvest, rolling up her sleeves to help clean and process the animal. “That kind of walking the walk matters,” said Anpao Duta Flying Earth (Lakota, Dakota, Ojibwe, and Akimel O’odham), the school’s executive director.

Read the full article about investing in Native giving frameworks by Erik Stegman and Rohit Menezes at Nonprofit Quarterly.