Building Native Communities Suite of Products


Earned Income Tax Credit

Building Native Communities: A Guide to Claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) (2004)

A Tribal Leader's Guide to Launching an EITC Campaign (2005)


Financial Education

Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families - Instructor's Guide (2001)
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Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families - Participants Workbook (2001)

Financial Education Resource Guide (2002)


Investor Education

Building Native Communities: Investing for the Future (2006)


Individual Development Accounts

Building Native Communities-Saving for the Future, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) for Native Families (2006).


First Nations Development Institute (First Nations) and our sister organization, First Nations Oweesta Corporation (Oweesta), is at the forefront of national and international efforts to develop products to address the key issues facing Native communities in terms of financial education and asset-building. With the 2000 publication of the original Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families (BNC) curriculum, funded by the Fannie Mae Foundation, First Nations drew upon two decades of work to strengthen community-based Native organizations to develop what has become the preeminent Indigenous financial education curriculum.

Our partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation led to the development in 2003 of a BNC consumer workbook focused on assisting Native community members in accessing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – the largest federal aide program for working families. The workbook has been tested in numerous communities around the country and has helped hundreds of Native families claim an average of $1,700 per tax return that was previously left unclaimed. The current workbook comes with a partner handbook (developed in 2004-05) targeted at assisting tribal and community leaders in developing outreach campaigns to promote the EITC.

A third addition to the BNC curriculum is a workbook for participants in Native Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), produced in 2005. The workbook, Saving for the Future, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) for Native Families, was developed as part of the Expanding Native Opportunities: Native IDA Initiative of the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund of the US Department of Treasury. The initiative is a multi-year training and technical assistance program co-directed by First Nations, Oweesta and CFED.

The most recent addition to the Building Native Communities publications is an investor manual titled Building Native Communities: Investing for the Future. Investing for the Future teaches general investment principles in an intuitive and culturally focused course curriculum. The curriculum illustrates how to identify personal or business related goals and outlines various ways of achieving them. Easy to read and teach, each session offers exercises and insights through story shorts that take place in a tribal community setting.

Oweesta offers regular train-the-trainer workshops on financial education and EITC to provide community practitioners with the necessary skills to adapt and teach these products in their community. For more information go to: http://oweesta.org/