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Making Connections – The Sustainability Model and Alaska Tribes

In 2014, Foraker received funding from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust that was designed to enhance our ability to serve rural Alaska Native serving nonprofits and tribal governments by testing the validity of the Foraker Nonprofit Sustainability Model in those organizations. The project became known as “Making Connections.” This report documents the research and findings of a three-year process.

We thank the Murdock Trust for their support of this project

The Making Connections project, which was supported by this grant, was designed to assess how the lenses of the sustainability model are helpful in the way Alaska Native tribes are exercising tribal governance. Currently, many tribes operate with governing tools that result in limited effectiveness. These tools are often designed and controlled by the federal government, funded by the federal government, and organized around social programs that do not reflect indigenous ideas of how authority should be exercised. In most cases, these tools do not maximize the opportunity for leadership to deal with current and complex challenges that face Alaska’s tribal governments and the people they serve. We recognize this fundamental dilemma in their current framework, and we have been testing our assumption that the sustainability model is a way to rethink where they are today and where they want to go. Whether we are working with a tribal government or Native nonprofit (one that is governed and led by a majority Alaska Native board and staff), we wanted to learn more about how our sustainability model can be a platform to help Alaska Native leaders ask new questions and rethink methods for effective governance from the inside out. We also wanted to share these insights with the funding community to create a better understanding of the structures that are both supporting and challenging the tribes and Native nonprofits in Alaska.