First Nations Development Institute, and its wholly-owned subsidiary , First Nations Oweesta Corporation (a community development financial institution), work in partnership with Native American tribes and communities throughout the U.S. to assist them in designing and administering financial and investor education programs. Our projects range from helping individuals and families understand the basics of financial management – opening and maintaining a bank account and using credit wisely – to helping individuals understand financial markets and a variety of financial instruments for borrowing and saving.
Learning how to manage finances ensures that Native people will be more likely to save and to challenge financial service providers to develop products that respond to their needs. Our programs result in increased investment levels and economic growth in Native communities.
First Nations Development Institute uses the Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families curriculum, which was originally developed by First Nations Development Institute and the Fannie Mae Foundation. For more information about this publication, visit our knowledge center.
First Nations Development Institute also coordinates the InvestNative investor education project (more information can be found at www.investnative.org.
Allstate & Ameriprise Economic Empowerment for Native Victims of Abuse
First Nations Development Institute received funding from the Allstate Foundation and Ameriprise Financial to deliver financial and economic literacy training that benefits Native American victims of domestic violence. This partnership includes financial and economic literacy training for selected nonprofit tribal domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions. These trainings enable domestic violence victims to learn critical financial skills necessary to help repair and support their lives and those of their children, as they recover from the physical, emotional, financial and social devastation caused by domestic violence.
Addressing Financial Abuse
In order to combat financial abuse in domestic violence situations, First Nations Development Institute provided three financial education train-the-trainer workshops in New Mexico, Arizona and Minnesota to tribal domestic violence coalitions and their member organizations. Participating organizations (Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, Southwest Indigenous Women's Coalition, First Nations Women's Alliance and American Indians Against Abuse), learned how to offer financial literacy training for their clients.
Domestic violence victims learn critical financial skills necessary to help repair and support their lives and those of their children, as they recover from the devastation caused by domestic violence. The training helps to ensure that countless numbers of Native women become empowered through financial literacy so that they may permanently escape domestic violence and financial abuse.
Financial Literacy: Life on Your Own Terms
First Nations Development Institute received a grant from the Daniels Fund to support the Financial Literacy: Life on Your Own Terms curriculum project, which has been piloted with a group of high school students at Gallup Central High School in New Mexico. The purpose of the curriculum project was to institutionalize a culturally appropriate financial and investor education class for high school students. The classes addressed personal finance topics such as responsible use of a credit card, avoiding predatory lenders, understanding banking, car buying tips, safeguarding against identity theft and basic investing skills.
Students at Gallup Central High School Participate in National Financial Capability Challenge
At Gallup Central High School (GCHS), First Nations Development Institute piloted a financial literacy curriculum based on the Building Native Communities series. Working with the school's principal, where more than 90 percent of students are Native American, First Nations received a grant from the Daniels Fund to offer an innovative financial literacy class to high school youth. After nine weeks of instruction, students in the "Financial Literacy: Life on Your Terms" class signed up to take the National Financial Capability Challenge.
The National Financial Capability Challenge was an effort to help high school students develop the knowledge and skills needed to take control of their financial futures. In 2010, high school students nationwide were invited to take a voluntary online exam to demonstrate and to assess their financial knowledge. Based on national results, three students from the GCHS class scored in the top 20th percentile and received certificates.
"I am really proud of my students and what they have accomplished in their classes," stated GCHS instructor Arnold Blum.
FINRA's New Distribution Channels for Investor Education
First Nations received a grant from FINRA(Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) to provide financial and investor education to at least 500 individuals over a three-year period by partnering with the Office of Special Trustee (OST) to provide investor education trainings, with an outcome of changing financial awareness, attitudes and behavior. First Nations will also provide financial and investor education to students in Bureau of Indian Education schools. We are also conducting a national social marketing campaign that emphasizes the importance of saving or investing tribal per capita, or trust payment, wisely. The goal of this marketing campaign is to promote changes in financial awareness, attitudes and behavior by developing and disseminating marketing materials to educate community members about financial management and investing.
Celebrating the Success of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has created a unique financial education online curriculum that can be modeled in other tribal communities to help American Indian youth learn how to manage financial resources. The impact of the online curriculum has been so successful that the Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA) awarded it the "Financial Literacy Program of the Year" during its annual spring conference in 2011.
NAFOA noted during the award winner's gathering that economic development is vital to the long-term health and success of a tribe. And, included with the growth of economic development is the financial literacy of tribal members. NAFOA's "Financial Literacy Program of the Year Award" aims to honor a financial literacy program developed and instituted by a tribe. Kathy Dugan from the Eastern Bank of Cherokee Indians and Shawn Spruce, a financial education consultant for First Nations, were on hand to accept the award.
Oklahoma Asset-Building: Promoting Economic Security for Life
First Nations Development Institute received a grant from the Ford Foundation to launch the "Building Economic Security for Life" project. The purpose of the initiative is to promote an asset-building agenda at the state and local levels that will provide income and program strategies to ensure family economic security. First Nations has partnered with Oklahoma Native Asset Coalition and Oklahoma Policy Institute to promote a research agenda that builds on the momentum of family asset-building strategies.
Oklahoma Policy Institute
The Oklahoma Policy Institute (OK Policy) is a member of Oklahoma Assets, a coalition of asset-building practitioners and organizations committed to identifying and strengthening programs and policies that help achieve economic security for Oklahomans. OK Policy, as one of the partnering organizations of Oklahoma Assets, received a grant to develop a series of publications and webinars on financial education. The following is a recent interview with David Blatt, executive director of OK Policy, on the importance of family economic security in Oklahoma.
An Advocate for Economic Security A Conversation with David Blatt
In a small office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sits a gentleman fervently reviewing state economic policy and the latest legislation impacting families in the state of Oklahoma. David Blatt, now serving as the executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute (OK Policy), recently sat down with First Nations Development Institute staff to discuss why he is part of a growing movement for asset-building programs and financial education for Oklahoman families.
Blatt is recognized as one of the state's leading experts on financial policy, and he has been with the Oklahoma Policy Institute since it was founded in 2008. The Oklahoma Policy Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a state economy that provides shared prosperity for all Oklahomans through economic opportunity and financial security. OK Policy is a member of Oklahoma Assets, a coalition of asset-building practitioners and organizations committed to identifying and strengthening programs and policies that help achieve economic security for Oklahomans. OK Policy, as one of the partnering organizations of Oklahoma Assets, received a $40,000 grant from First Nations and the Ford Foundation to develop a series of publications and webinars on financial education.
First Nations: What does it mean to you to work towards family economic security in Oklahoma? What hope does your organization provide to the communities you work in?
Blatt: I believe that all families should have access to assets. Everyone should be able to own a home in a good neighborhood. OK Policy is a think tank, and we provide research, policy analysis and a framework for policy changes at the state level. In our financial education work, we focus on the importance of savings, investing and ownership of assets.
First Nations: Why should we continue to invest in asset-building programs?
Blatt: If you are going to have success in any community, you need asset-building programs. Everyone needs access to housing, education, healthcare and financial resources. Building assets leads to the reduction of poverty.
First Nations: What hope will Oklahoma Assets provide to families and communities in Oklahoma?
Blatt: We can bring partners together to make a difference. We can help people become homeowners even open a savings account. A savings account can change a person's life. We can create change in people's lives.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation School-Based Financial Education Project
Our goal with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation school-based financial education project is to support systemic change that will positively impact the economic security of Native families. We will use the public school setting to offer customized, experiential financial education and Individual Development Accounts to Native youth in several high schools in McKinley County in New Mexico. This project offers bundled services to American Indian families and will help Native people work towards a better economic future.
Mad City Money a Hit at Cherokee High School Guest Columnist: Shawn Spruce
What do you get when you pack 96 teenagers, 53 community volunteers, nine merchants and enough blank checkbooks to fill a wheel barrow into a high school gymnasium? A no holds barred, wild frenzied shopping spree better known as Mad City Money, a fully interactive financial skills simulation offered nationwide to teach sound money management to high school students.
Created by the National Credit Union Association, Mad City Money takes a different approach than a traditional class room learning environment to provide basic savings, budgeting, and decision making skills, and was presented recently to the freshman class at Cherokee High School in Cherokee, North Carolina.
The Mad City event was organized with community support from more than twenty partnering Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians tribal programs and local businesses that provided the necessary volunteers to run the simulation. Staff from First Nations Development Institute, with whom the Eastern Band maintains a close partnership, focused on community based financial education training and were also on hand to provide technical support and customized program materials.
In order to combat financial abuse in domestic violence situations, First Nations Development Institute provided three financial education train-the-trainer workshops in New Mexico, Arizona and Minnesota to tribal domestic violence coalitions and their member organizations. Participating organizations (Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, Southwest Indigenous Women's Coalition, First Nations Women's Alliance and American Indians Against Abuse), learned how to offer financial literacy training for their clients.
At Gallup Central High School (GCHS), First Nations Development Institute piloted a financial literacy curriculum based on the Building Native Communities series. Working with the school's principal, where more than 90 percent of students are Native American, First Nations received a grant from the Daniels Fund to offer an innovative financial literacy class to high school youth. After nine weeks of instruction, students in the "Financial Literacy: Life on Your Terms" class signed up to take the National Financial Capability Challenge.
What do you get when you pack 96 teenagers, 53 community volunteers, nine merchants and enough blank checkbooks to fill a wheel barrow into a high school gymnasium? A no holds barred, wild frenzied shopping spree better known as Mad City Money, a fully interactive financial skills simulation offered nationwide to teach sound money management to high school students.
