NDN Collective cuts 40 percent of employees after funding losses

RAPID CITY – Like many other nonprofit organizations across Indian Country, the Rapid City-based NDN Collective has taken a major blow in funding. Despite these setbacks, it isn’t going anywhere, said founder Nick Tilsen.

“I think that the powers that be would love for an NDN Collective to go away,” Tilsen said. “But we’re not going anywhere. … We have a role, and we’re gonna live out that role, and we’re gonna be here for a long time to come in this formation because it’s required for us, and we see that, and we are stepping into that responsibility.”

At its peak, NDN Collective’s assets surpassed $50 million, according to the organization’s leaders. This year, its assets declined to roughly $25 million. The significant funding loss, coupled with fewer returning funders, prompted the organization to lay off 40 staff members, accounting for roughly 40 percent of its staff.

“It’s been a real grieving for us to have to let go of a significant amount of our comrades, our relatives, the people who have worked alongside us for years,” said Gaby Strong, NDN Collective’s vice president. “We’re impacted by this preemptive compliance on behalf of philanthropy. Corporations are going to placate and acquiesce to this administration and the narratives that are being pushed right now where DEI has been completely dismantled.”

Many funders worry they will be seen as supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion by giving money to organizations like NDN Collective, Strong said.

“We’re in a turbulent time,” said Strong, who is Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota. “So the pivot was necessary. … We absolutely needed to do this. The intention is to remain strong and come out stronger.”

This disruption also significantly impacted the grants that NDN Collective disperses annually. In 2024, the organization said it distributed $26.9 million in grants to 315 grantees and $9 million in loans.

NDN Collective core leaders discussed and announced these changes on August 27 in the most recent episode of the Land-Back For the People Podcast, later clarifying changes in an interview with ICT.

“I think one big thing is it’s not lost on us that we’re in a moment in history in this country and in the world where there is democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism,” Tilsen said. “It’s a direct threat to tribal sovereignty and Indigenous self-determination.

Therefore, it’s a direct threat to everything NDN Collective stands for and fights for in this world.”

The changes did not affect ongoing disbursements for grants in 2025, including funding for the Collective Abundance Grant, Community Self-Determination Grant and Community Action Fund.

Nick Tilsen speaks at a rally in Rapid City, South Dakota. (Credit: ICT file photo). Credit: (Photo: Willi White for NDN Collective)

“This wasn’t just a response to the political, legal and financial landscape that the country is in,” Tilsen said. “This is seven years as an organization at NDN Collective and that part of our culture is to reflect at seven years. … At the same time, there were all these shifts happening: funding was decreasing, federal funding was locked up.”

Moving forward, the organization will have more of a local focus on the Rapid City community, but that doesn’t mean the organization won’t continue to fund the rest of Indian Country and beyond. Core work, including grant making, lending and advocacy, will continue.

“NDN Collective is continuing to do that work,” Tilsen said. “We’re just continuing to do that in a different way.”

Work in the Black Hills region will include efforts to block and prevent mining operations in the Black Hills specifically around Pe’ Sla, support for the He Sapa Restoration Act, the development of a 70-acre affordable housing and community center project in Rapid City and the Bison Homelands Initiative.

The Bison Homelands Initiative is new, said Wizipan Little Elk Garriot, NDN Collective president. The project would involve creating what could be the single largest buffalo range in North America by working with tribes and individual ranches.

“NDN has already made investments in buffalo over the past several years and this is a natural outgrowth of that,” said Garriot, Sicangu Lakota. “It’s a way to really live into all of these initiatives. Very similar work is happening amongst our network all over the country. … People are talking about food sovereignty and language and housing and development. And so this is the reflection of the larger network here in this part of the country for this region.”

Outside of the Black Hills, NDN Collective will launch the Land Back Action Network, which will serve as NDN’s main function for grant making and resourcing. The previous open call method for lending will be phased out, aside from the Collective Abundance Grant, which is open to Oceti Sakowin (Dakota, Lakota and Nakoda) people in South Dakota, Minnesota and North Dakota. It will also serve as a way to connect NDN’s nearly 1,500 community partners, which include tribes, artists and nonprofits across North America.

“We’re doubling down and continuing to do place-based work but we’re being very intentional,” Tilsen said. “Our grant making will continue to be national and international as well as local.”

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