Founded by California Indian leaders and Native led, the Native Cultures Fund has practiced community grantmaking and program development at Humboldt Area Foundation since 2002.

NCF grantmaking committees continue to be made up of Native California culture bearers, language revivalists, artists, and educators — former grantees make the grants. The Native Cultures Fund has made $2.3 million in grants to 315 community-based project in more than 100 California Native communities.

Since 2016 the Native Cultures Fund has also distributed the Jack Montoya Scholarship for Native students in California who are actively strengthening their cultures to attend a four year university or graduate program.

In addition to grantmaking, the Native Cultures Fund supports programs like the the Live Your Language Alliance conference for knowledge sharing among Indigenous language teachers. NCF curated the River As Home exhibition, helped to advocate for Yurok language to be adopted for language credits into the Eureka public schools, and co-founded the Humboldt State University Big Time with Native students at HSU. We continue to advocate, connect, and support Native peoples in the movements that arise from within California Indigenous communities.