Alaska Small Business Development Center

Creative Mechanisms for Funding Economic Development: Indigenous Communities

October 21, 2024

On Wednesday, October 16, 2024, Alaska SBDC State Director Jon Bittners joined a panel with Cody Seaton and Bernadette Grafton, who shared their experience and answered questions about funding, planning for funding, and tools EDA offers that tribal communities can use to support their projects.

Session Summary

Introduction to Funding in Indigenous Communities

Big Water Consulting’s Kevin Klingbeil began by introducing how tribal and indigenous communities have and can use innovative funding mechanisms to fund simple and complicated projects.

  • Since most grants are competitive and thus funds are limited, filling funding gaps with non-competitive sources is imperative for tribal and Native community economic development.

  • Stacking traditional and non-traditional capital requires special attention since not all funding sources can be used together.

  • Each Native community is unique in that some are located in rural, urban, or areas in-between that require funding tailored to their own community’s specific conditions.

  • Tribes have often been under-considered in state-focused funding programs, but the emphasis on engaging and including Native stakeholders is increasing throughout the country.

Key takeaways:

  • Each indigenous community is unique. The types of funding needed and the ways capital from different sources are “stacked” must be tailored for each project.
  • The 105(l) Lease program provides funding to reimburse facility costs. The program allows Tribal Nations and Tribal organizations to be compensated for carrying out Federal functions under a self-determination contract or self-governance compact. The program is underutilized, especially by small tribes.
  • The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) exists in every state and every federally recognized tribe is eligible to apply for their own tribal allocation of these funds.
  • Funding notifications aimed at Native communities should be written with direct and simple language. Native communities do not always share the communication style that federal programs use to communicate their funding opportunities which can create knowledge gaps.

 

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Creative Mechanisms for Funding Economic Development: SSBCI