First Peoples Fund
Rapid City, SD · EIN 82-0583682. Reported 62 grants totalling $3,425,000 to 47 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For First Peoples Fund, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A23) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 47 distinct organizations, with 51% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 24% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $20,000. Half of what it reported fell between $20,000 and $50,000; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $1,750,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian Land Tenure Foundation | Little Canada, MN | $1,750,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lakota Fund | Kyle, SD | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Lightning Boy Foundation Inc | Santa Fe, NM | $100,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Warm Springs Community Action Team | Warm Springs, OR | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Mni Sota Fund | Minneapolis, MN | $75,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Red Eagle Soaring | Seattle, WA | $75,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Dakota Wicohan | Morton, MN | $70,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Minnesota Indigenous Business Alliance | Saint Paul, MN | $70,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| 4-Directions Development Inc | Red Lake, MN | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| American Indian Community Housing Organization | Duluth, MN | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Autry Museum of the American West | Los Angeles, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Chi Ishobak Inc | Dowagiac, MI | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Four Bands Community Fund Inc | Eagle Butte, SD | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Indigenous Roots | Saint Paul, MN | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ke Kukui Foundation | Vancouver, WA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Native American Community Development Institute | Minneapolis, MN | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Two Worlds | Albuquerque, NM | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Wisconsin Native Loan Fund Inc | Lac Du Flambu, WI | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Indigenous Peoples Task Force | Minneapolis, MN | $40,000 | 3 | 2 | 2022 |
| Neo Philanthropy Inc | New York, NY | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Oyate Teca Project | Kyle, SD | $27,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| New Native Theatre | Saint Paul, MN | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Northwest Native Development Fund | Coulee Dam, WA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Tank Ltd | New York, NY | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| White Earth Reservation Tribal Council | Mahnomen, MN | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| An Opera Theatre | Minneapolis, MN | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Blue Bird Lifeways Inc | Colstrip, MT | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Cheyenne River Youth Project Inc | Eagle Butte, SD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Christian Relief Services Charities Inc | Alexandria, VA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Citizen Potawatomi Comm Dev Corp | Shawnee, OK | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Indigenousways | Santa Fe, NM | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Juneau Arts and Humanities Council | Juneau, AK | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Kawerak Inc | Nome, AK | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Menominee Indian School District | Keshena, WI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Muskogee(creek) Nation | Okmulgee, OK | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Nacdc Financial Services Inc | Browning, MT | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Nisto Incorporated | Sisseton, SD | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Northwest Native American Basketweavers Assn | Black Diamond, WA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Oglala Sioux Tribe | Kyle, SD | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sitting Bull College | Fort Yates, ND | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Hopi Foundation Lomasuminagwtukwsiumani | Kykotsmovi, AZ | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mni Wichoni Health Circle | Fort Yates, ND | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Movement Strategy Center | Oakland, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Nicolaysen Art Museum | Casper, WY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Redbud Resource Group | Santa Rosa, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Southwest Organizing Project | Albuquerque, NM | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples Inc | Arcata, CA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
12 of 47 (26%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- White Earth Reservation Tribal Council
NAEB GRANT -2021-002 GIZHIIGIN ARTS INCUBATOR - The Tank Ltd
FPF NAEB 2021-005 GROUNDWATER ARTS - Neo Philanthropy Inc
RESILIENCE FUND- ARTCHANGE US - Cheyenne River Youth Project
EMERGING POETS FELLOWSHIP - FPF-EPF-002 (2021-2022) - Indigenous Peoples Task Force
EMERGING POETS FELLOWSHIP - FPF EPF 001 (2021-2022) - Nisto Incorporated
EMERGING POETS FELLOWSHIP - FPF EPF 003 (2021-2022)
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 37 of 47 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 | $225,000 | $20,000 |
| 2022 | 26 | $470,000 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 18 | $730,000 | $50,000 |
| 2024 | 6 | $2,000,000 | $50,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
66% of its giving went to organizations in Minnesota. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $20,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Minnesota.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from First Peoples Fund's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 2977, Rapid City, SD, 57709.
EIN 82-0583682 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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