- Details
- By Brian Edwards
- Economic Development
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Interior's Office of Strategic Partnerships, Native CDFI Network, and Michigan-based technology firm Syncurrent announced a 10-year partnership that will provide all 574 federally recognized tribal nations with free access to an artificial intelligence-powered funding platform.
The announcement came during the Native CDFI Network's annual policy and capacity building summit in Washington, D.C. The partnership aims to help tribal governments more efficiently identify and secure funding for programs, services and infrastructure development through Syncurrent's AI technology platform, which consolidates federal, state and philanthropic funding opportunities into a unified database.
According to Native Americans in Philanthropy, Native American populations receive only 0.4% of philanthropic dollars despite making up 2% of the U.S. population. The new partnership seeks to address this disparity by improving tribes' access to grants, loans and other funding opportunities.
The partnership represents another step in tribes' growing adoption of AI technology, which tribal enterprises have already begun implementing for everything from automated accounting to customer analytics and language preservation.
Many tribes currently spend more time finding and writing grants than implementing them, Bazile Panek, tribal liaison for Syncurrent and citizen of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, told Tribal Business News recently. The platform aims to address this capacity issue by using AI to match tribes with relevant funding opportunities.
The system relies primarily on publicly available tribal data, with additional information sharing available on an opt-in basis.
"We felt it was important to ask — how can we give the most amount of value for the least amount of data?" Dhruv C. Patel, co-founder and CEO of Syncurrent told Tribal Business News. "If a tribe is comfortable uploading a document with their housing strategy or an economic development plan, that can help with the search, but we will never require it."
The platform's AI technology typically reduces the grant search process "from months to minutes," Patel said. Future versions will include AI-assisted grant writing and compliance features.
"Tribal Nations have long faced systemic barriers to accessing capital and securing their fair share of federal, state, and philanthropic dollars," said Pete Upton, CEO of Native CDFI Network. "This partnership is a testament to the power of collaboration, innovation, and an unabiding commitment to equity."
The White Earth Nation of Ojibwe has been testing the platform since early 2024. "The platform's simplicity has allowed us to identify and collaborate on critical funding to meet our community's needs," Eugene Sommers, the tribe's District II Representative, said in a statement.
During a presentation at the Native CDFI Network's summit, Patel demonstrated how the platform consolidates information from multiple funding databases and uses AI to match opportunities with tribal nations. The system also includes features to assist with grant compliance and deadline management.
When asked about extending the free access to Native CDFIs, Patel indicated the company is exploring that possibility, saying "We're working on it. If you want to help us, reach out."
The platform's current version focuses on identifying funding opportunities, while planned updates will add automated grant writing and compliance tools. Tribal nations can begin using the platform immediately by visiting Syncurrent.com to create an account.
