Country: United States

Organization: American Indian College Fund

Year the initiative began: 1995

Project Website: www.collegefund.org

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions:

• Main barrier addressed: Cross-cultural myopia
• Main insight addressed: Develop community assets

Youtube upload:

What is the goal of your innovation?
To increase awareness of American Indian tribal colleges, and the life-changing work that is being done at these institutions.

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
We take participants on tours of the tribal colleges and surrounding American Indian communities and expose them to tribal cultures that are in danger of extinction. In visiting rural areas like northern Arizona and western Montana, we expose participants to land that hasn’t been shaped by development and it inspires people to preserve our earth. When we visit the accredited tribal colleges we tour the campus and learn about the academic programs offered. Courses are taught through the lens of each tribe’s culture, and this way cultural preservation happens in the institution as a whole. Tribal colleges are also cultural centers where languages are taught, historical artifacts are preserved, and oral histories are handed down. While financing college is a huge challenge for American Indian students, they are able to obtain degrees and advance themselves and their families out of poverty without having to leave their culture and home. When groups visit the colleges, part of their tour admission goes to support of the colleges. Once they have seen the colleges and how they change the lives of their students, many become long-time supporters of the American Indian College Fund.

Describe your approach in detial. How is it innovative?
Our tour participants do not passively observe, they are immersed in the land and the culture of the tribes. Because the Fund is staffed primarily by American Indians, we offer a unique experience in Indian Country; one where people are welcomed as family rather than guests. Last spring at a crafts demonstration on the Hopi reservation the tour leader lost her group for a while- she finally found them in the living room with a local looking at pictures of her grandchildren in their regalia. On that same trip the group was invited to a blessing ceremony in a hogan for the Diné College graduation on the Navajo Reservation. Each tour is led by a local tour guide, who shares the stories and lifeways of the tribes with the group. The tours also visit national landmarks, such as the Little Bighorn Battlefield, but the history of the site is told from the American Indian perspective. By visiting the tribal colleges, participants are able to interact with American Indians who are advancing in the modern world while maintaining their cultural beliefs.

What types of partnerships or professional developement would be most beneficial in spearding your innovation?
Partnering with international tourism agencies would help spread the Fund’s message of Educating the Mind & Spirit to the world. Interest in American Indian culture does not just exist in the United States. There are many people from around the globe who would be interested in learning about the tribal colleges and what they are doing to preserve American Indian cultures and educate their people. Involvement in international tourism conferences and distributing our tour materials to different countries would help us grow our support.

In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
We encourage self-determination through education for American Indians, and believe education for and about them will reduce poverty on reservations. (20)

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
We measure our impact by the number of people that become our organization’s supporters. By seeing first-hand how our efforts improve the live of Native peoples and help preserve their culture and language while enabling them to transform their lives from poverty to hope, people contribute to future scholarships and capital campaigns. We have a remarkable conversion rate in terms of turning our tour participants from tourists to supporters—close to 50%. As a result of their support, more students are educated, and libraries, computer centers, and day cares are built as a result. In addition, many people have never been to a reservation before, and have preconceived notions of alcohol abuse, crime, and more. By meeting and interacting with Native people in their home environments and learn the beauty behind Native lifeways. As a result, our approach has a leveling effect, helping our participants realize our constituents are all individuals, and this helps to eliminate negative stereotypes.

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
With groups of only 10-20 people, each person on the tour gets to know tour staff and the Native tour guide from that culture personally. This provides a personalized experience that large groups are unable to match. We do not have to promote enthusiasm in the tour participants- once they are in the communities they are always excited to meet students, see local artwork and explore the landscape. We plan tours around local events such as potlatches and cultural festivals. Participants are participants at these events, and help prepare the buffalo, or dance in the Grand Entry of a powwow.

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
Before each tour Fund staff visit the community and meet with tribal college faculty and other community members. The tribal college faculty members routinely take the tour planners around and show them what would be best to highlight. They also make clear what is sacred and private to the tribe. We often collaborate with local American Indian non-profits to showcase their work on the tour. Participants are always interested in local arts, so many local artists are asked to do demonstrations of their techniques. The communities and colleges are always glad to see people interested in supporting their educational efforts.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
The tours help travelers understand the value of the area’s cultural heritage by showing them how integral it is to the tribal member’s everyday lives. They also see how quickly it is disappearing. This is motivation to support the institutions that are trying to keep it alive. Many colleges have environmental science programs that highlight what the tribe is doing to preserve their land. Local residents see the interest and appreciation that visitors have for their everyday lives, and it gives them perspective that not everyone has the gift of a strong identification with their culture.

Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The tours usually cover their incurred expenses with the tour fees. The goal is not to make money off the tours, but to use them as a tool to inspire people to give to American Indian education and tribal colleges. We would like to increase the number of new participants on the tours (particularly international participants) so that we can spread our message to a wider audience. If we were to see a large spike in interest we could arrange more tours to more colleges each year.

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
The tours attempt to cover the expenses with tour fees. In most cases, the Fund breaks even on the tours themselves. However, when people have the opportunity to see what we do in person- to meet the students and hear their stories- they are often inspired to give donations and endowments. The Fund employs 25 full-time staff and has a small core of volunteers. The Fund’s staff is funded through an operating budget that is determined by the board of directors and is funded through the Fund’s general fund, which covers overhead. As a nonprofit, the Fund does not generate revenue, but is a fundraising organization that raises money for student scholarships and tribal college capital expenses for the nation’s 32 tribal colleges.

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
We hope to increase the number of new participants on the tours. To this end, we have been mailing tour materials to a wider audience in the last two years. We also are researching opportunities to distribute materials to potential participants overseas. If we had mailing lists of individuals or organizations which have shown an interest in American Indian culture or access to an international tourism expo, we could increase the reach of our message.

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
The main barrier to expanding the program is staff time. Each tour is meticulously planned down to the last detail, and we only have one Event Coordinator to oversee and execute each tour. To keep the level of quality high, we are forced to keep the number of tours low. Also, getting higher numbers of participants on the tours allows us to get our message out to more people. We don’t want to have large tours, as that reduces the quality of the experience, but we would like slightly higher attendance rates to each tour.

What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
The Fund knows that the best way to understand what we do is for participants to talk to our students and see the tribal colleges. The barriers that our students overcome are enormous, and their success stories almost always end with, “… and there’s no way I would be here today without that scholarship.” We always have students speak at fundraising events, in part because their stories deserve to be told, and also because it is so powerful to hear how donating to a scholarship fund can change lives. We realized that the best way to inform people about the impact of donating was to take them to the areas and people that they were helping. Seeing the reservation communities in person helps people understand both the natural beauty of our country, and also the levels of poverty that American Indians face. Having meals with tribal college presidents and faculty allows participants to have the time to ask questions about how tribal colleges work. Hearing a grandmother speak a dying language to a child makes people understand the value of saving the language. The Fund can write eloquently about these things in marketing materials, but as with all things, experiencing it in person has a much greater impact. In 1995 we created the first Journeys for the Mind & Spirit. Each summer since then Fund employees have taken groups to some of the most remote parts of the country to explore the nations within our nation. Almost all of our past tour participants cite the tour as a turning point in their commitment to the Fund. As we have executed more tours over the years we have utilized participant surveys to refine the experience and maximize the time that we have with our guests in Indian Country. The tours are now top-flight experiences that mix college tours, history lessons, cultural experiences, education, sight-seeing, and exploration of nature, all from an American Indian perspective, into one amazing adventure.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Lucia Novara is the Special Events Coordinator for the American Indian College Fund. She is responsible for the promotion, planning and execution of the Journeys for the Mind & Spirit, along with the annual Flame of Hope Gala in New York City, and various regional fundraising events.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.
The American Indian College Fund is the nation’s largest provider of scholarships to American Indian students, and it supports more than 30 tribal colleges across the nation. Journeys for the Mind & Spirit tours are a cultural immersion experience, which are held each summer in different locales with different tribes and cultures. Our participants interact with American Indian students and faculty; learn about American Indian history; visit sacred, historic, and revered natural sites in Indian country; and are immersed in American Indian culture to learn by about the nations within our nations and the challenges their people face. The tours create understanding between American Indian and non-Indian people and further opportunities for educational support of our students and tribal colleges, providing educational opportunities to lift people out of poverty.

Contact Information
Ms. Lucia Novara
Special Events Coordinator
American Indian College Fund
8333 Greenwood Boulevard
lnovara@collegefund.org