Native Giving

Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition

Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition Inc.
Attn: Christy Finsel
9511 Horseshoe Road
Oklahoma City, OK 73162

www.oknativeassets.org

Our frequently-used hashtags include:

  • #ONAC
  • #Oklahoma Native Assets
  • #OklahomaNativeAssetsCoalition
  • #OKNativeAssets

Communities Served: ONAC serves all federally-recognized tribes in Oklahoma and Native-controlled nonprofits, including Absentee Shawnee, Alabama Quassarte, Apache, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne & Arapaho, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Citizen Potawatomi, Comanche, Delaware, Eastern Shawnee, Fort Sill Apache, Iowa, Kaw, Kialegee, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Miami, Modoc, Muscogee (Creek), Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Ottawa, Pawnee, Peoria, Ponca, Quapaw, Sac & Fox, Seminole, Seneca-Cayuga, Shawnee, Thlopthlocco, Tonkawa, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Wyandotte, and Euchee (Yuchi).

Help build and support a network of Oklahoma Native people who are dedicated to increasing self-sufficiency and prosperity in their communities.

ONAC exists to increase the numbers of Native asset-building programs and to support those administering programs.

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Mission and Values

Mission statement

“To build and support a network of Oklahoma Native people who are dedicated to increasing self-sufficiency and prosperity in their communities through the establishment of comprehensive financial education initiatives, Individual Development Accounts and other asset-building strategies.”

Vision statement

Our vision is that Native families living in Oklahoma will have multiple opportunities to grow their assets through participation in integrated and culturally-relevant Native asset-building programs.

Our Story

ONAC, as a Native-led nonprofit, works with constituents to increase the numbers of asset building opportunities for Native families. This giving season, we ask you to support our ONAC endowment campaign. ONAC launched this campaign in September 2016. The Chickasaw Nation has generously provided a lead gift of $250,000. A strong endowment will allow ONAC to better meet the demand for our Children’s Savings Account (CSA) program (we have funded 455 Children’s Savings Accounts for Native youth since 2014); mini-grant program (to help tribes and Native nonprofits in Oklahoma to have more resources to offer financial education, credit builder/credit repair, and family emergency savings account programs); and professional development resources (including our annual conference, peer learning opportunities for asset building practitioners, and work on asset building policy and research on local and national levels).  We need your support to continue this work of serving Native communities..

Three examples of our work:

–ONAC has funded 455 CSAs as of October 30, 2017.  We are working with 18 Native partners (tribes and Native nonprofits) in Oklahoma to help build their capacity related to CSA programming.  We will open a remaining 154 accounts by April 2018 with our partners. There is expressed interest in 450 more accounts than we have the funding to currently fulfill.  The accounts create a college-going attitude for Native youth.  When young people have savings for college, it can shape their future aspirations. In The College Savings Initiative, a joint project between the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis and the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., researchers found that “in multivariate analysis, youth who expect to graduate from a four-year college and have an account are about seven times more likely to attend college than youth who expect to graduate from a four-year college but do not have an account.” (Elliott, W. and Beverly, S. (2010). The Role of Savings and Wealth in Reducing “Wilt” between Expectations and College Attendance.  Journal of Children & Poverty, 17(2), 165-185).

–In 2017, 102 individuals attended our annual ONAC Conference!  We invite any interested individuals to attend our annual conference.

–Since 2014, ONAC has granted 16 mini-grants, totaling $53,000, to Native-led and tribally-operated asset and capacity building programs, along with free technical assistance from economic development experts and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.  Reports about completed projects are available in the “Our Work” section of our website at www.oknativeassets.org.

A Good Day for ONAC and Our Constituents

An example of a good day for ONAC and our constituents is when ONAC recently met with a tribal president and we were told that one of their young tribal citizens had contacted them by Facebook to let them know that they will be attending an ONAC Children’s Savings Accounts event. The youth attends Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and was proud that they would be having a savings account for college! ONAC greatly appreciates the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of Native families. Thank you for your support!

Our Work

Communities Served

The Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition (ONAC) serves all federally-recognized tribes in Oklahoma and Native-controlled nonprofits. Tribes served include Absentee Shawnee, Alabama Quassarte, Apache, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne & Arapaho, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Citizen Potawatomi, Comanche, Delaware, Eastern Shawnee, Fort Sill Apache, Iowa, Kaw, Kialegee, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Miami, Modoc, Muscogee (Creek), Osage, Otoe-Missouria, Ottawa, Pawnee, Peoria, Ponca, Quapaw, Sac & Fox, Seminole, Seneca-Cayuga, Shawnee, Thlopthlocco, Tonkawa, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Wyandotte, and Euchee (Yuchi).

What is the Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition?

ONAC is a nonprofit asset-building coalition that works with Oklahoma tribes and partners interested in establishing asset-building initiatives and programs in Native communities, for the purpose of creating greater opportunities for economic self-sufficiency of tribal citizens.  The coalition is Native-led and one of only several Native asset-building coalitions in the country.  Our goal is to increase the number of sustainable Native asset-building programs in the state and to support those administering such programs by providing free technical assistance, networking opportunities, mini-grant funding, administrative policy guidance advocacy, and promotion of what is working well with these programs at a state and national level.

Brief History of the Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition

In 2001, a meeting organized by the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis and First Nations Development Institute was held to determine interest in the development of an intertribal consortium or coalition of tribes having initiated (or about to initiate) asset-building programs. From 2001 until 2006, Karen Edwards (Choctaw), a Project Director at the CSD, continued working with several Native asset-building practitioners in Oklahoma to build the base for the coalition.  They conducted outreach and meetings. During this time, CSD and First Nations Development Institute, both classified as tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, financially supported ONAC. By 2006, ONAC was a project of First Nations Development Institute and they paid Karen Edwards, as a consultant once she retired from CSD, to be the project manager for ONAC.

In 2007, a group of tribal representatives met, at the Cherokee Casino and Resort in Tulsa, and agreed to become an organized Native-focused asset-building group, along the lines of those developed in some other states. ONAC remained a project of First Nations Development Institute until 2014 when the coalition was approved as a tax exempt organization.  Currently, while our focus is on serving Oklahoma tribes and Native nonprofits, we are now working on a national level with our participation in asset building advisory groups, requests for administrative policy guidance at the federal level, and in our ability to open Children’s Savings Accounts for Native youth residing in various states.

What ONAC Provides Constituents:

  • Asset-building resources, models and strategies.
  • An annual Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition Conference.
  • A forum to talk about tribal, local, state or federal asset-building policies.
  • Opportunities to connect and partner with Native and non-Native asset-building practitioners in Oklahoma and around the country.
  • Outreach to Oklahoma tribal leaders, tribal government programs, and other Oklahoma-based Native organizations  and businesses to provide information about asset-building.
  • Free asset-building program design and implementation technical assistance and training.
  • Mini-grants to tribes and Native nonprofits for asset-building projects.
  • When available, funding for specific pilot Native asset-building projects.
  • Administrative Policy Guidance requests to federal programs, as needed (such as our request for information about tribal TANF-funded Individual Development Account program purchases, etc.)
  • Opportunities to speak at national asset-building conferences about your asset-building programs, as available

Why Your Support is Needed

To advance ONAC’s mission, ONAC is seeking to raise $5 million to fund an endowment for general operations expenses and program support.  A strong endowment would make ONAC sustainable and viable well into the future.  As of 2016, ONAC’s annual operating budget is $251,522.  Endowment funding of $5 million would allow ONAC to draw 5% a year ($250,000).  With the sustainability that an endowment provides, ONAC would then continue to seek foundation and individual donor support, as well as memberships, sponsorships, and other donations to offer more Children’s Savings Accounts and asset building grants in the state, in order to better meet the demand for our coalition services.

ONAC exists to increase the number of Native asset-building programs and to support those administering the programs. Beyond our Native asset-building coalition in Oklahoma, there are few other such Native coalitions in the country. ONAC’s first priority is to serve tribes, Native nonprofits and other supporters in Oklahoma. Given the lack of other Native asset-building coalitions near us and around the country, we also invite those interested in Native asset-building outside of Oklahoma to join our listserv and participate in our conferences, webinar, and peer-learning calls, given the need for such information in other Native communities. To help continue the work of this coalition, ONAC needs your assistance. We invite you to join as a coalition member. Additionally, we welcome donations and sponsorships.  All membership donations, endowment gifts, and general donations are fully tax-deductible as no goods or services are provided in exchange. ONAC appreciates your support and looks forward to partnering with you as we all enhance Native asset-building activities in 2017 and beyond.

Thank you for considering this request for support!

Contact Us

Organization Contact:

Christy Finsel
ONAC Executive Director

Website: http://www.oknativeassets.org
Phone: (405) 401-7873
Email: cfinsel@oknativeassets.org

Address:

Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition Inc.
Attn: Christy Finsel
9511 Horseshoe Road
Oklahoma City, OK 73162