Native Nations Investment Reports

23 Nations by Wade Patton

"23 Nations" by Wade Patton. Commissioned for the 2020 Native Nations Investment Report. Depicts each Native nation within this region, represented by their traditional home structure.

23 Nations by Wade Patton

"23 Nations" by Wade Patton. Commissioned for the 2020 Native Nations Investment Report. Depicts each Native nation within this region, represented by their traditional home structure.

The Bush Foundation invests in Native Americans and the 23 Native nations across our region. This longstanding commitment is core to our mission. How and what we support changes over time as we continue to learn from and with our grantees, partners and Native communities.

In 2017, we made a decision to track and review our past work with Native communities. These reports show our Native-focused investments and highlight some of the organizations and people we support.

Native people represent approximately 2% of the total U.S. population, yet research shows only 0.4% of mainstream U.S. philanthropic dollars are going to serve Native communities. We, and the broader philanthropic community, can and should do better. We strive to do more good every year. These reports are a way for us to track and share our work toward our commitment to Native communities.

Charts from the 2020 NNIR

2020 Native Nations Investment Report (PDF)

Data in this report reflects efforts to intentionally track our work in Native communities, across our investment strategies. The data comes from surveys (staff, board and advisory committee), our internal grant database (2018-2019 grant payments) and other internal records. 

2018 Report Chart

2018 Native Nations Investment Report (PDF)

Data for this report was gathered from the our internal database. Grant data was available since 1970. Grant payments and amounts were available since 1982 and grants were categorized by our program areas (as reflected in this report) since 2012.