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Tiwahe Foundation received a grant from the MN Disaster Recovery Fund that allows us to provide funding to the Twin Cities American Indian community to meet critical needs in response to the COVID crisis. With this additional funding, we will double our grantmaking in the Twin Cities American Indian community in 2020. This includes funding grants in our ongoing focus areas (education, economic self-sufficiency, culture, and health and wellness) and also addressing COVID-related basic needs of our community such as food, housing, caregiving costs, etc. For a short time, we are increasing the maximum AIFEP grant amount to $5,000 (it’s usually $2,500). American Indian who live in the Twin Cities (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington counties) are encouraged to apply.

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The Oyate Network Alumni are also invited to apply for grants up to $5,000 to address needs in their American Indian community. Only individuals who participated in a Oyate Network Cohort Training are eligible to apply. Alumni must have a 501c3 nonprofit organization identified as a fiscal sponsor in order to receive the grant.

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The Tiwahe Foundation announced today that Shirley Sneve, President and CEO, is leaving the organization effective July 24, 2020. The Foundation wishes Shirley the best of luck in the future.

Despite the significant turnover in staffing our organization has experienced in the past three years, Tiwahe Foundation finances are strong. We continue to grow our endowment and build partnerships with funders and individual donors who share our mission and values. The board’s intent is to refine our business practices and policies as needed to ensure a healthy workplace and retention of valuable and effective employees going forward. We appreciate and honor the ongoing support and generosity of our funders, donors, and partners as well as your patience and continued support during this transition.

The Tiwahe Foundation board of directors is taking this opportunity to refresh our vision and strategic priorities. We have always espoused the core values of family, respect, trust, generosity, circle of giving, and Indigenous worldview. We will continue to strengthen our practices, programs, and partnerships to ensure we live these values in all of our work and interactions. In short, we’re going to decolonize our Foundation.Tiwahe Foundation remains committed to racial equity and social justice. Especially during these current times of racial strife, pandemic, and social unrest – when our community needs us most – Tiwahe Foundation continues to work with and for our American Indian relatives.In the coming months, Tiwahe Foundation will be conducting a search for a new President and CEO and other new staff. During this transition period, it will be our priority to find the best qualified individuals to lead and staff the Foundation, while continuing our day to day operations under the interim leadership of Joy Persall and Roger Meyer. Questions during the Foundation’s transition process should be directed to Joy at [email protected] or 612.722.0999.Joy will be serving as the Interim Executive Director, working with the Board and staff on the day-to- day operations of Tiwahe and Roger will be providing general transition support to the Board of Directors and Joy, as well as supporting the Search.Joy brings a wealth of experience working with organizations locally and nationally. Having served as Headwaters Foundation of Justice Associate Director, and Executive Director of Native Americans in Philanthropy and Dream of Wild Health, Joy supports Native American, Indigenous and People of Color in transition and developing community-based leadership. Roger brings over 20 years of working with organizations in transition and experience working in the Twin Cities urban American Indian community, having been Interim Executive Director of the Tiwahe Foundation, St. Paul’s American Indian Family Center and Minneapolis’ Division of Indian Work.

About Joy Persall

Joy Persall, Ojibwe Metis’ serves as a Leadership Coach, Facilitator, and Strategic Organizational Consultant. Joy has 30 years of experience leading nonprofit, philanthropic and community organizations, guiding transitions and developing leaders. Persall supports leadership and organizations through coaching, team building and strategic facilitation for systemic change. Joy is a Bush Leadership Fellowship Alum. M.A. in Organization Development & Management and CEBC Coaching Certification, is a World Institute for Action Learning Senior Coach, certified in Leadership Circle Profile and Organizational Culture, and the Intercultural Development Inventory. Joy’s leadership experience includes Associate Director of Headwaters Foundation for Justifce, Executive Directors of Native Americans in Philanthropy and Co-Director of Dream of Wild Health.Joy is committed to community, family, working for equity, justice, and caring for Mother Earth. Primarily, Joy is a gardener of people, teams, and organizations, developing their ability to grow, learn and create new solutions in a grounded atmosphere of human dignity and deep respect.

Joanna Boyer:

For additional tuition resources and the freedom of a dependable laptop, a home printer, and workspace. Resources will continue to help the grantee to work part-time. Impact areas: education and health and wellness.

Peyton Counts:

To begin Ph.D. coursework in clinical psychology and work on a thesis focused on Native American suicide prevention. Impact areas: education and health and wellness.

Michael Loso:

Reach the goal of completing 26 academic credits toward undergraduate degree with a GPA of 3.6 or higher. Impact area: education.

Apryl Joe:

To increase my knowledge and awareness about trauma work and healing focusing on non-Native and Indigenous approaches and practices. This learning will include conducting informational interviews with Native organizations who are doing similar work, interviewing Indigenous elders to learn more about traditional healing and wellness practices, plus developing an Indigenous healing framework that can be used to support Indigenous people with their own self-healing journey.

George McCauley:

To develop Project Hawatay to serve as an educational resource on video for Omaha language, values, and culture, including the necessary cultural protocols for developing these resources. Impact area: culture.

Lisa Skjefte:

To participate in Summer 2020 summer classes to complete a Master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Minnesota. Impact area: Education and health and wellness.

Roy Taylor:

To purchase the necessary equipment, software, and services that will assist me to produce and broadcast radio quality documentaries, and weekly community radio broadcast. I will also produce and stage theatrical drama, comedy, storytelling, and performance opportunities. Impact area: economic independence.

Kira Vanderlan:

To start a home organization and design business. Impact area: economic independence.

Lauren Panklow:

To assist with transportation to college. Impact area: education.

COVID-19 artist grants awarded in June 2020 

$1,000 grants were awarded to the following artists to share their work with the Tiwahe Foundation to demonstrate our resilience in times of pandemic. Tiwahe will share their work on our website and thought social media. Congratulations to the artists! 

Robert Desjarlait: visual arts, Isabelle LaBlanc: poetry, Tom LaBlanc: poetry, Pearl Swaney: poetry, Marcie Rendon: writing and visual arts, and Will Robinson: hip hop. 

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Boozhoo Relatives,

I am excited to join the Tiwahe Foundation as the newly hired Program Director. First, I want to say thank you to everyone who has taken time to welcome me to the Tiwahe Foundation. I look forward to working with our Tiwahe team, our community partners, our grantees, and our Oyate leaders to strengthen our Circle of Giving. A little bit about myself – I am a mixed-heritage Anishinaabekwe, a proud tribal citizen of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe at Leech Lake, with relatives also from White Earth and Lac Courte Oreilles communities. I am graduate of the University of Minnesota, and I’ve worked in the Twin Cities Native communities for the past two and a half decades in various roles. I live in Minneapolis with my longtime partner John, and our dog Bronson. I come to my work with the Tiwahe Foundation having divided my time over the past two years between my role at KFAI Fresh Air Radio as the co-managing editor of our audio storytelling program and my role as the Director of Creative Evaluation at Inspire to Change, a consulting firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. I feel both roles have prepared me to help tell the stories of our relationship to our land and to one another as we tell the stories of Tiwahe’s Oyate Network Leaders and Family Empowerment grantees. My own story would not be possible without the love and support of the Tiwahe Foundation. As Program Director, it’s my intention to give back to our communities by building on the trust and support shown to me over the past decade. The value that we place in giving and sharing with one another is vital to keeping the Circle of Giving strong, and I am committed to do my very best to strengthen and build our individual and collective capacity. I look forward to working with you all!