DECEMBER 2018 NEWSLETTER
Reflections and Revisioning: IFIP’s Year of New Horizons
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dear Members and Friends,
Happy Solstice Season! As the year ends and we usher in the New Year, IFIP celebrates your support and commitment to Indigenous philanthropy. This has been a busy year for IFIP, where we launched new programs, hosted a global conference, and witnessed the realization of our strategic framework.
Guided by a pledge to grow our community, IFIP worked on rolling out new programs to benefit our members and to inspire and influence a greater set of funders actively involved with Indigenous issues.
At our Global Indigenous Funders Conference last October, more than half of attendees were first-time conference participants. IFIP’s conference and programming reflected our community’s commitment to elevate Indigenous priorities while reminding the wider funding sector of the fortitude and importance of Indigenous-led solutions.
2018, however, was not without challenges. Indigenous defenders across the globe continue to be threatened, prosecuted and assassinated for defending their territories and way of life. We are seeing an alarming trend of governments and new administrations putting Indigenous rights and livelihoods in peril. Simultaneously, Indigenous Peoples continue to receive a small fraction of the overall global giving by U.S. foundations. According to the Foundation Center’s report The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations, between 2011-2015 funding to Indigenous Peoples represented only 1.2% of the total global giving from top U.S. foundations. Despite these challenges, this e-newsletter focuses on the possibilities and opportunities for funders to build on Indigenous-led solutions, growing IFIP’s global community, and committing to the kind of philanthropy that results in the accountability needed for equitable relationships between funders and Indigenous Peoples.
We can act on this pledge together. IFIP is acting on addressing the gaps and working with our members to bring meaningful programs. We invite you to invest in IFIP’s future by engaging with our new programs and supporting IFIP with a year-end financial contribution. IFIP will use your organization’s investment to towards our new member focused programs, growing, and influencing.
On behalf of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, thank you for your steadfast commitment to Indigenous issues and rights. We look forward to engaging with each of our members in 2019 and to continue to build the new programs aimed to strengthen the funding community.
Warm regards,
Lourdes Inga
Executive Director, IFIP
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