Reflecting on Four Years of Community and Impact

Dear Relatives,

On March 11, 2020, when COVID-19 was officially declared a worldwide pandemic, the public was gripped with fear, confusion, and anxiety. That same day, we closed our offices to allow our staff to go home early — to rush to the supermarkets to buy whatever was left on the shelves before the countywide shelter-in-place order went into effect. As Indigenous People, the arrival of COVID-19 was nothing new. Since first contact, we have been fighting against diseases brought by colonizers, dispossession, and assimilation. For over 500 years, we as a people have been able to ensure our survival by leaning into the collectivist concept of community to overcome the obstacles placed upon us. As we have done countless times before, we gathered as a staff, as a community, and as a family to meet the challenges of COVID-19. We adapted to continue serving all the communities that we do, uplifted by the active memory of the resiliency and strength of those who came before us.

COVID-19 brought many changes to the world of philanthropy, and many nonprofit organizations had to close their doors, but the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples (SGF) has been able to endure and flourish due to our board’s leadership, our staff’s resilience, and strong support from our partners throughout the Indigenous world. We hold a responsibility to model and embody work that respects and supports community-based strategies. Our vision for community renewal and revitalization is an approach that is responsive and respectful, keeping in mind the uniqueness of each Indigenous community with which we work. This trust-based model of philanthropy that we use has now expanded into the larger world of philanthropy and allowed us to mobilize resources for a wider range of issues that impact grassroots communities.

Our organization derives its name from a precept of the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy). This precept mandates that chiefs consider the impact of their decisions on the seventh generation yet to come. The legacy of the work you will read about both reflects on our more than 47 years of self-determined philanthropy and envisions our commitment and responsibility to the next seven generations. This legacy is to be a good Ancestor. We do our part by advancing Indigenous Peoples’ self determination through the frontline work we support, and this has led to us partnering with thousands of Indigenous community-based organizations across six continents.

We are proud of the accomplishments that we and our partners have achieved in these unprecedented times, and we are committed to the work that remains to be done. We thank our philanthropic partners and our sister organizations, but most importantly we give thanks to the regular everyday people who have long supported the vision of a self-determined, Indigenous future for all our Peoples.