Mino-Niibi Fund 

Sharing Good Water

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Native-to-Native Giving:
Supporting Native-led organizations with small grants

Since 2012, the Mino-Niibi Fund for Indigenous Cultures has provided small grants through re-granting to Indigenous-led organizations in the Americas and the Pacific working to revitalize their own cultures, traditions, lands and livelihoods. These funds support work to document and protect Indigenous knowledge, revitalize threatened languages, protect Native foodways and seed sovereignty, conduct youth-elder cultural exchanges, and empower Indigenous women.

Mino-Niibi means "good water" in the Ojibwe language. As a vital resource and powerful spirit, we see making small grants as an honorable and life-affirming process, like sharing good water. We hold reciprocity central to all our partnerships; including reciprocal learning, sharing and respect, and honoring the right to self-determination. The Mino-Niibi Fund helps connect our grantees with one another, other like-minded organizations doing similar work, and additional sources of funding and support through our Te Ha Alliance for Indigenous solidarity.


The Mino-Niibi Fund is governed by an all-Indigenous council from the TCC board of directors and senior staff. These individuals are connected to their local Native communities and to communities in the regions we fund. We have one grant cycle a year.

The Mino-Niibi Fund is by invitation only

 Current Grantee Partners

In 2021-2022 we awarded 18 grants serving Indigenous groups in 9 countries. We are honored to support these partners and thrilled to share their work with you.

 Past Grantee Partners

Since launching the Mino-Niibi Fund for Indigenous Cultures in 2013, The Cultural Conservancy is proud to have awarded over 70 grants supporting more than 33 Indigenous partner organizations in 14 countries.

Please select any image below to learn more about our past partners and their powerful work.

 
 

Map

Our Current and Past Partners throughout the Americas and Pacific

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Grantee and partner information - select blue points above

Explore past grantee and partner information - select red points above

 

 Thank You to our Funders

We gratefully acknowledge our generous funder, Tamalpais Trust, who has enabled us to establish this Indigenous-led global re-granting program and support its growth.

 
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We also acknowledge support from other funders that have helped expand this program:

 
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We are deeply grateful for these philanthropic partnerships to support Indigenous rights and eco-cultural revitalization.
We also welcome individual funders to support this work!