Native Governance Center

Tribal finance:using a Native nation rebuilding approach to tribal finance, we equip tribal leaders with the inspiration, skills, resources, and connections they need to effectively improve their tribal financial systems. During the 2-year cohort, we work with elected officials and finance department administration to build their financial capacity through in-depth financial assessments, educational training and resources, peer learning with other Native nations, group conference attendance, mentorship and technical assistance, and project based funding. In 2023 we hosted 3 in-person and 1 virtual convenings and awarded grants to all participating Native nations. Three nations graduated from cohort.

Leadership development:native Governance Center provides leadership development opportunities for indigenous changemakers through the Native nation rebuilders (nnr) program. This two-year, cohort based program was built to strengthen leadership in our region by equipping indigenous changemakers with tools and frameworks they can use to help rebuild their nations. Over 203 Native changemakers from across the region have participated in the program. In 2023, we supported the 12th cohort of rebuilders, participated in more than 20 community events, such as pow-wows and indigenous-led conferences, and engaged 22 individuals from 11 Native nations for cohort 13. We also launched ""taste of rebuilding"" lunch and learn webinars, which we provided to 28 participants.

Community engagement:native Governance Center educates, engages, and shares information with the broader community around topics related to sovereignty, Native nation rebuilding, and current events in indian country. In 2023, we hosted three virtual community engagement events for the general public that reached a combined live audience of approximately 344 people, made connections with 15 Native panelists and artists, delivered content by carrying out 29 external presentations totaling 36 instruction hours and reaching 1,904 participants, wrote 14 original news stories on topics related to our mission, created 3 animated explainer videos, launched three new episodes of a sovereignty-focused video series called wings with wayne that received 148,800 views, and participated in 16 media interviews (local and national outlets) to raise awareness about Governance and sovereignty on a broad scale. We released 13 original resources on our website. Our resources section received over 83,900 views by over 39,900 unique visitors. Three of our top 5 most-viewed resources were on the topic of land acknowledgement. Site-wide, visitors downloaded our resources over 4,650 times. In 2023, Native Governance Center received the Minnesota council of nonprofits' mission award for anti-racism initiative for its community engagement work. Ngc also led the we are still here: Minnesota (wash-mn) campaign and taskforce, a research-based movement that works to dispel and change harmful narratives about Native americans.

Tribal Governance support: working side-by-side with tribes that have identified specific needs or issues, Native Governance Center helps create and implement Governance solutions through training, technical assistance, and consulting services. We listen to Native nations' needs and provide them with a variety of indigenized tools and expertise for developing strong Governance systems in support of their sovereignty. In 2023, we presented to several tribal councils about nation rebuilding and provided our indigenous leaders in Governance program to 34 tribal leaders and staff from 2 Native nations. We provided our tribal civics program to 22 grassroots community leaders from 2 Native nations, building on our momentum from releasing the guidebook in 2022. We also conducted listening sessions at community events.