The Native American Cultural Center provides support for activities related to our mission and priorities. Please see programs for a concise list of our recent activities. Our annual cycle has various phases, and it is helpful for you to understand our timeline if you are seeking our support.
Our long-range plan is to secure a building for the Conciliation Museum project, an ambitious undertaking of international significance that will be located in San Francisco. The planning, organizing, and support activities necessary to realize this plan are the major priorities of the year, and they occupy the majority of our effort from July through December.
In addition, we also support a wide variety of indigenous cultural activities from January through June. These include educational activities such as a class on California Indians at San Francisco State University that is co-sponsored by NACC, and the very popular online educational site called Abalone (which you are visiting right now) that is maintained by a talented group of web professionals. Educational activities comprise the bulk of our work in the winter. Storytelling is also a winter focus.
The springtime at NACC is full of activities related to our popular activities called “Native Spring.” This is a concentrated three-month long festival of activities for the general public on the wide variety of indigenous activities in California. The purpose of “Native Spring” is to raise awareness among all populations in California about indigenous cultures and activities, and to expand our winter educational activities into the beautiful outdoors. NACC specifically selected spring time as the season of our support for public activities to take advantage of this important time in nature for California Indians, and to counter the stereotypical programs that surround Thanksgiving (which has been mythologized erroneously by most Americans).
NACC prefers to co-sponsor activities with other organizations, and it collaborates with many groups in the winter to plan and prepare for the Native Spring offerings. 90{b8f043770e4071302fec5a6e6fdc477566e775f5f6a23ad0c4136f32de3203a4} of our activity grants are small: the average grant is $500. Those organizations wishing to collaborate with NACC on a Native Spring program should contact us late in the year, by December 15. You should write a short description of your proposed program or activity, along with your contact information, and send it to us at info@nativecc.com. We welcome all ideas, but regret that we cannot support everything due to funding constraints
In addition to “Native Spring” activities, NACC sometimes supports projects that the Board feels deserve special attention. Many times these projects are co-funded by other sources of support (foundations, tribal organizations, corporations, etc.), and they may fall outside of our annual timeline and cycle. Again, send your proposal to us at info@nativecc.com and we will circulate it for consideration. Include your contact information, short biographies of the key people on the project or activity, and a detailed budget with the amount you are requesting from NACC. Special projects that fall outside of our normal annual cycle of events require additional time to consider, so please submit your proposal with at least two months lead time. NACC accepts ‘special project’ proposals on a rolling basis throughout the year.
Finally, NACC occasionally seeks out artists and activity guides who can help it accomplish a specific and targeted project. In 2002, an example of this is the team of artists and programmers that has helped assemble Abalone, our new online website. NACC will list future opportunities on our website, and will distribute information to those on our mailing list. If you would like to receive our announcements, bookmark our site and visit regularly and sign up for the mailing list on our DONATIONS AND FEEDBACK page.
NACC has a short list of activities that get special consideration and attention, both during ‘Native Spring” and throughout the year. These include (but are not limited to):
California Indian Dance and Song RestorationsBasket WeavingCalifornia Indian Regalia and Ornament artistryStorytellingCalifornia Sacred Sites Protection and EducationCalifornia Ethnobotanical activities and Lands Restoration activitiesK-12 and College Education activitiesPublic Awareness activities (programs, documentaries, websites)Museum CollaborationsNACC does not fund support to individuals (except when they are offering a program), general operating grants, organizatonal grants over $1,000, fundraising campaigns, political campaigns, emergency grants, or loans.
NACC is an independent 501(c)3 organization, and gratefully accepts contributions for activities related to its mission by foundations, coporations, tribal organizations, and individuals.
You may write to NACC at PO Box 14408, San Francisco CA 94114.