tânisi nitotêmitik?
Back in December I discovered that raising funds to support students in Indigenous studies is a thing that even decidedly not-rich folks like myself can do, and I ran excitedly to my blog to tell you all about it!
The response was swift, and awe-inspiring. And also overwhelming! Turns out it took a little (okay a lot) of administrative work to get some endowments set up, so I had to put the kibosh on the fundraising for a bit until that got caught up.
I have now refunded all of the donations that were made through my PayPal, along with links to the new “Giving” section of the University of Alberta Faculty of Native Studies webpage so folks could re-donate and get the associated tax benefit of doing so!
That link is: https://www.ualberta.ca/native-studies/giving/
Here’s what part of that page looks like:
The Métis in Space Indigenous Futurities Award (which may have to be renamed the Indigenous Futurities Award for weird legal reasons I don’t understand) is there, as is the âpihtawikosisân Graduate Award. The Solidarity Through Scholarship for Black students is still being worked on. BUT you can still donate to it by clicking on “An area not listed” and when filling out the information below, stating that you want your donation to go to Solidarity Through Scholarship for Black students.
I also want to let you know that for the Métis in Space Indigenous Futurities Award, which is a financial-need based endowment for Indigenous undergraduate students in Native Studies, we have a donor who is willing to match all your donations up to $25,000!
This is also true of the Solidarity Through Scholarship endowment for Black undergraduate students in Native Studies; a donor is matching donations up to $25,000!
We do not yet have a donor who has put up the $25,000 to establish the âpihtawikosisân Graduate Award, so unless that happens, donations will be collected into that fund until that critical amount is accrued; it’s a work in progress!
Also, don’t feel limited by the categories that have already been established there! We still need funding that is specific to Indigenous single parents in Native Studies, for example. You could set up an endowment for that which would provide that support in perpetuity! Honestly, the sky is the limit, and whether you have thousands of dollars or just a few bucks, every bit counts!
Awesome sauce, I’m now going to pull back on this and let y’all do what you do; I never in a million years expected folks to be as taken with the idea of creating these endowments and I am still so blown away by the response and the generosity.
So kinanâskomitinâwâw mistahi to everyone!
Could the information on the form link to additional information about each fund? That’ll take some time if it ever happens; could YOU provide additional information about each fund in the meantime? https://www.ualberta.ca/native-studies/giving/funding-priorities would seem a logical place…
Thanks, great work!
Yes! It will eventually be on the site, and I will do an edit to this post when I can to provide more info!
excellent, thanks!
Is there a deadline to donate, to get the matching funds?
End of May! Still quite a bit of time 🙂