NDN Collective gets awarded $12M from Jeff Bezos

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - Recently, a local, indigenous-led nonprofit received $12 million from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s Earth Fund.

Earth Fund distributes $10 billion to activists, scientists and other initiatives working to address climate change.

NDN Collective in Rapid City will use its $12 million to support smaller Native American groups working on climate justice work over the course of three years.

“We are not an intermediary organization, but a movement infrastructure organization. Thus, the $12 million from the Bezos Earth Fund will be used for the purpose of building the infrastructure for our movement and funding innovative, Indigenous-led climate solutions that honor our relationship to Mother Earth and all life,” CEO and President Nick Tilsen wrote.

Started in 2018, NDN Collective works with more than 200 indigenous groups in the United States of America. Started in 2018.

“This work is deeply embedded in our values as an all-Indigenous team of changemakers, community builders, and grassroots organizers. We descend from ancestors who were in constant relationship with the land and all creation, and today, we continue to honor those ancestral teachings, living out the same values of being in right relationship with the land, our Mother Earth and all life,” Tilsen said.