COVID-19: How to Help Native Communities
The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting tribal communities in disproportionate number and uniquely challenging ways. Many of our communities are facing urgent needs in accessing food, water, medical supplies, and household items.
If you would like to contribute to efforts to support these communities, we’ve put together this list of relief funds administered by organizations that we know and trust.
GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS/Pueblos and Tribal Communities in the New Mexico/Southwest Region:
- Pueblo Relief Fund In an effort to meet the most critical needs of the 20 Pueblo Nations during the COVID-19 crisis, the All Pueblo Council of Governors (APCG) and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC), have created and are administering a Pueblo Relief Fund.
- Native American Relief Fund to support Tribal and Pueblo Communities in New Mexico and surrounding regions in responding to COVID-19, administered by the New Mexico Community Foundation in collaboration with the Santa Fe Community Foundation and the Navajo-Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund.
GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS/ Nationwide (with some distributing internationally)
- First Nations Development Institute COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund is designed to distribute funds efficiently and swiftly to Native nonprofit organizations and tribal programs that need it most. Initially, funds are being prioritized in high-concentration areas – California, New Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, New York, Navajo Nation, Hopi Nation and COVID-19 hotspots.
- NDN COVID Response Project: Designed to provide immediate relief to some of the most underserved communities in the country. NDN’s intent is to quickly distribute resources to frontline organizations, Tribes, and individuals who are providing essential services to Indigenous communities within the next 15-45 days to provide gap resources during this health crisis.
- Native American Community Response Fund organized by Decolonizing Wealth Project, in partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy and the National Urban Indian Family Coalition.
- Flicker Fund organized by The Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous People directs grant support to stressed Indigenous communities on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, where some are already facing issues of hunger, lack of access to water, and unable to secure basic hygiene and material supplies needed for everyday life.