- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Food | Agriculture
A new partnership between Native-serving agricultural organizations will provide grants of up to $40,000 to tribal governments to expand existing sustainable agriculture programs.
The Sovereign Equity Fund (SEF), a nonprofit organization spun off from the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF) in 2023, has focused on grants primarily for colleges and universities. Now, SEF has partnered with NAAF to broaden its scope through a new project.
The Green Horizons Project will offer one-year grants to both state and federally- and state-recognized tribes, with a maximum award of $40,000. The goal is to support projects that will help Native producers improve soil health, water use and other sustainability metrics. The request for applications opened March 1 and will remain open through June 15. SEF Executive Director Courtney Chavis told Tribal Business News that the funding is best-suited to support tribal projects already underway.
“We found ourselves in a prime spot to come to the table and to provide funding at a time when it is most direly needed, and to help tribes maintain existing agriculture practices,” Chavis said. “We want to accelerate and amplify those existing efforts.”
Potential uses for the grant award range from capacity building and technical assistance to purchasing new equipment for ongoing programs. For example, a Green Horizons award could support training for employees already working on soil health improvements or fund an additional hire for an existing water-use program, Chavis said.
“We want to present funding that could meet specific gaps,” Chavis said. “I've been on both sides of the grant application - I've been the grantor now and I’ve worked with the National Congress of American Indians in capacities where I was the grantee, often, so I know what it's like to run into the issues of capacity building or training. This will come in and kind of alleviate things of that nature.”
This Green Horizons funding opportunity is a part of NAAF’s larger request for applications for their 2025 grant season, which opened in early March. NAAF funding covers one- and two-year projects for a range of uses, per the fund’s overview. Applications for NAAF funding are due May 1.
Green Horizons is SEF’s second major project and the first grant launched directly under its banner. SEF’s other initiative, the Cultural Foodways Fund, was developed in 2023 by NAAF and the Mellon Foundation before being transferred to SEF in 2024.
The Cultural Foodways Fund provides $200,000 grants over two years to support the preservation, education, and sharing of traditional food gathering and cooking methods at tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). The program launched its second cohort of six recipients late last year.
SEF was established to connect private and philanthropic support with the agricultural projects and organizations already working with NAAF. NAAF itself was created in 2018 following the Keepseagle v. Vilsack settlement, which found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had discriminated against Native American farmers and ranchers in loan programs. Because of legal restrictions, NAAF cannot accept private funding, Chavis said. SEF was formed to create a pathway for private donors to support Native agriculture.
Private funding accomplishes two major goals, Chavis said: it avoids the bureaucratic hurdles of federal funding and helps fill gaps in support that have emerged with budget cuts by the Trump administration.
“We want to be able to tell our story through the work we're doing with this funding, without oversight from those who have no idea because they're not in our shoes,” Chavis said. “It's very important for us, even in times like this, that we're continuing to build sustainable agriculture over time in Indian Country.”
