Native Cultures Fund Grants

Grantmaking

The Native Cultures Fund convenes a committee to make granting decisions twice a year, in spring and fall. Current deadlines for consideration are
April 1 and October 15. 

NCF grant funding is between $1,000 and $10,000, with most grants falling between $1,000 - $5,000.

Grants can be made to individuals, non-profits, community partnerships, or Tribes. They are made to projects that reflect California Indian culture, art, values, and traditional practices. We define culture in the broadest possible way: As the foodways, languages and cosmologies, ceremony, sacred sites, sports, architecture, arts, teachings and knowledge systems, stories, music, dance, land stewardship, hydrology, maritime traditions and much more that are indigenous to California.

The Native Cultures Fund serves the area from the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation in the north, to the Paiute Nations to the east and down to Chumash territory in the south.

Grants are not made to support capacity of large organizations, for economic development, or for projects not rooted in California tribal cultures.

How to Apply

Download: The Native Cultures Fund application (.pdf)
Please ensure you download the file before you begin to complete it.
If you have trouble with the PDF version of the application, please contact the NCF team to assist you.

The application can be returned via email, in PDF formatting, to nativecultures@hafoundation.org

or, via mail to Native Cultures Fund, postmarked by due date to:
Native Cultures Fund
363 Indianola Rd
Bayside, CA  95524

Inquiries about the grantmaking process or for assistance, please reach out to our team at nativecultures@hafoundation.org or 707.267.9906

Questions about projects and ideas are welcome at nativecultures@hafoundation.org.

The Decision Makers

NCF Grant and scholarship decisions are made by committees of California Indian culture bearers from across the 50-county region of California. Committees change each season so many of the cultures we serve can be represented. Committees are made up of three to five people with a balance of gender, age, geographic representation, and cultural expertise. Having grantmakers come from the traditions that we support is integral to the fabric of the Native Cultures Fund. If you would like to serve on a committee or would like to nominate someone who has deep knowledge of their own culture and interest in strengthening every California Native community, please email us at nativecultures@hafoundation.org.

Some of our recent grantees

 Ka’m-t'em Photography Project

This project was supported by the Jack Montoya Fund and involved cultural mentorship between generations by creating an opportunity for youth to work with an elder, a photographer, a book chapter author, and the book editors. The mentor photographer and authors guided youth in the process of capturing Indigenous knowledge through photography.