Celebrating 25 years of community work.
The Native Cultures Fund convenes a committee to make granting decisions twice a year, in spring and fall. Current deadlines for 2025 are April 15 and October 15.
NCF grant funding is between $1,000 and $10,000, with most grants falling between $1,000 – $5,000.
Grants can be made to individuals, non-profits, community partnerships, or Tribal Nations. They are made to projects that reflect the transmission of knowledge across generations, based in California Indian culture, art, values, and traditional practices. We define culture in the broadest possible way: As the foodways, languages and cosmologies, ceremony, sacred sites, sports, architecture, arts, teachings and knowledge systems, stories, music, dance, land stewardship, hydrology, maritime traditions, and much more that are indigenous to California.
The Native Cultures Fund supports cultural projects with a connection to the lands commonly referred to as California spanning from the Tolowa Dee-ni’ in the north, to the Chumash peoples in the south, and east to the Paiute and Washo peoples along the Nevada border.
Grants are not made to support capacity of large organizations, for economic development, or for projects not rooted in California tribal cultures.
Grant decisions are shared about 60 days after deadline dates.
How to Apply
- Contact us to schedule a time to speak with a Program Officer to discuss your project.
- Call 707.267.9906 or email nativecultures@hafoundation.org.
- Download: The Native Cultures Fund Application (.pdf)
- Please ensure you download the file to access fillable fields.
If you have trouble with the PDF version of the application, please contact the NCF team to assist you.
- Please ensure you download the file to access fillable fields.
- *Optional: Share your draft application with our team no later than 2 weeks before the deadline.
- This is an opportunity for early review and feedback of your draft application.
- Submit your final application electronically or through paper mail by 11:59pm on the deadline.
- Send completed applications via email, in PDF formatting, to nativecultures@hafoundation.org
- Or send via postal mail to Native Cultures Fund, postmarked by due date to:
Native Cultures Fund
363 Indianola Rd
Bayside, CA 95524
Inquiries about the grantmaking process or for assistance, please reach out to our team at nativecultures@hafoundation.org or 707.267.9906
Questions about projects and ideas are welcome, email or call us any time.
Grant Committees
NCF Grant and Scholarship recommendations are made by committees of California Indian culture bearers from across the 50-county region of California. Committees change each season so many of the cultures we serve can be represented. Committees are made up of three to five people with a balance of gender, age, geographic representation, and cultural expertise. Having grants reviewed and recommended by community members who come from the traditions that we support is integral to the fabric of the Native Cultures Fund.
If you would like to serve on a committee or would like to nominate someone who has deep knowledge of their own California Native culture and interest in strengthening every California Native community, please email us at nativecultures@hafoundation.org. We welcome your insight!
Many of our grantees are doing work that is ceremonial, and therefore private nature. We respect their traditions and do not ask for photos or share information publicly about their important work.
Ka’m-t’em Photography Project
This project was supported by the Jack Montoya Fund and involved cultural mentorship between generations by creating an opportunity for youth to work with an elder, a photographer, a book chapter author, and the book editors. The mentor photographer and authors guided youth in the process of capturing Indigenous knowledge through photography. To learn more about this work, visit their webpage.