The 8th Fire Competitors

The American Indian College Fund invests in Native students and tribal college education to transform lives and communities. We have one unwavering purpose – increasing the number of American Indians who hold college degrees. Currently only 14% of American Indians have a college degree – less than half the national average. Every year, we empower more than 4,000 American Indian students to start and stay in school, complete their degrees and launch careers that benefit us all. We have provided more than 143,281 scholarships and $237.1 million to support American Indian communities. The Fund also provides support for tribal college needs ranging from capital support to cultural preservation activities. We are the nation’s largest and highest-rated American Indian nonprofit organization changing the face of higher education today – one American Indian at a time. We provide more scholarships to American Indians than anyone else, and we’re the only organization that enhances this individualized financial support by funding accredited, tribally controlled colleges and universities and contributing to programs that ensure student success – starting before the first day of preschool and continuing beyond students’ first day of their first career job.

Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided specialized legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation. NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, and Indian education. NARF is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that focuses on guaranteeing that federal and state governments live up to their legal obligations. In 2020, NARF released a groundbreaking report on the obstacles to political participation experienced by Native voters. Learn more and get the report and latest actions at https://vote.narf.org/

Founded in 1944, the National Congress of American Indians is the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the country. NCAI advocates on behalf of tribal governments and their citizens, promoting strong tribal-federal government-to-government policies, and promoting a better understanding among the general public regarding American Indian and Alaska Native governments, people and rights.