COMMUNITY PARTNERS PROGRAM
Our Community Partners Program is our core offering, and sits at the center of all of the Foundation’s work. The Partners Program supports tribal community leaders and their organizations in realizing the visions and goals they have for their communities.
The Community Partners Program offers dynamic support to tribal community leaders and their organizations. The Foundation does not seek to shape programmatic offerings. Rather, we aim to provide culturally attuned connections to philanthropic resources, platforms and tools that will empower tribally-led programs, native-led organizations and individual tribal community leaders to deliver on their core missions. Our support is customized and dependent upon a partnership of mutual design. It is not “top-down,” or modeled on sponsorship. Together, we develop a mutual strategy of holistic support within three areas:
Peer support, mentoring and training
Philanthropic resources
Partnerships and collaborations
Peer Support, Mentoring and Training
Typically, peer support and mentoring are long-term and relational in content. We respond to the specific programmatic needs of the partner, seeking to collaboratively and creatively meet challenges. Training or coaching is typically a short-term offering and content is industry specific, such that it might include board training, strategic planning or financial management. Often, content specific trainings are available through existing structures. Where appropriate, the Foundation will work to identify and facilitate appropriate peer, mentor and training supports from the wider field.
Philanthropic Resources
The Foundation works to connect community partners to nonprofit and philanthropic resources with similar missions or objectives. Our goal is to serve as a centralized nonprofit resource for tribal community leaders and their programs on the Wind River Reservation.
Partnerships and Collaborations
The Foundation may engage in formal partnerships or collaborations where there is a compelling reason to have a nonprofit sector partner-- for example, to serve as a fiscal or administrative partner for specific projects or programs. We may host and convene tribal community leaders to facilitate collaboration and support. In addition, the Foundation may provide administrative, research, or other forms of support to facilitate tribal community leaders achieving their goals.
*As of April 2020 WRF suspended all programs and shifted our focus to the distribution of the WRF COVID Response Fund.
**As of October 2021 WRF initiated WRF Restructuring and Transformation. The WRF COVID Response Fund will continue to operate during this time.