December 8, 2025
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Press Release
The Indigenous Earth Fund is investing $1 million in 30 organizations advancing youth leadership, food sovereignty, buffalo restoration, and a range of Indigenous-led climate and land stewardship solutions
New York, NY (December 8, 2025) — Today, Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) announced the awardees of the 2025 Indigenous Earth Fund (IEF), comprised of 30 organizations working to unlock resources for Indigenous-led climate and conservation advocacy efforts. This $1 million funding round, powered by DWP’s Liberated Capital fund and donor community, will support Tribes and Indigenous organizations across the United States that are advancing climate solutions rooted in ancestral wisdom and ecological stewardship, while championing bold advocacy to dismantle systemic barriers and push for policy change that protects people and the planet.
As a leader in the philanthropic community, DWP has invested over $16 million in Indigenous communities across the United States through IEF and other funds like its California Truth and Healing Fund and its new California Tribal Land Return Initiative, reaching more than 270 Tribes, empowering over 11,000 Indigenous youth, and contributing to the rematriation of more than 17,000 acres of land.
Guided by CEO and Founder Edgar Villanueva (Lumbee), who was recently named to the 2025 TIME 100 Climate Leaders list, DWP’s continued investment will further scale Indigenous advocacy efforts rooted in ancestral knowledge, youth leadership, food sovereignty, buffalo restoration, and a range of Indigenous-led climate and land return initiatives.
“Indigenous climate leadership holds the key to a healthy Earth,” said Edgar Villanueva, Founder and CEO of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital. “For centuries, Indigenous peoples have nurtured their lands and communities with resilience, wisdom, and care. Our Indigenous Earth Fund is a commitment to sustaining that leadership, supporting organizations that turn traditional knowledge into protective and in some cases, regenerative action, building pathways for collective wellbeing that will benefit the generations to come.”
Highlights of this year’s grantees include, but are not limited to:
- The Yurok Tribe is launching its Traditional Land Stewardship Department to purchase life-saving fire protection equipment for cultural burning practices.
- The Sage Development Authority’s Anpetu Wi Wind Project, which will deliver 235 MW of clean energy, create jobs, and boost economic growth on the Standing Rock reservation.
- Alaskan organizations: Native Movement, Igiuig Village, and Bering Sea Elders. This funding is especially urgent given October's Typhoon Halong, which devastated nearly 50 Alaska Native communities along the Bering Sea. As federal climate funding faces cuts, Indigenous communities bear the brunt of both the crisis and the disinvestment. IEF's Alaska grantees are building climate resilience that doesn't depend on uncertain federal support.
"This year, we received a record-breaking 180 applicants with a combined request amount of over $9M to support stellar Indigenous climate justice projects from Tribes and Native nonprofits across the nation. In a year when many Tribal organizations saw significant decreases in federal funding, we’re thrilled to provide $1 million to our Native communities. However, the funding gap for our communities is painfully obvious. $1 million only accounts for about 12% of the resources needed. We invite individuals and funders who are looking to support proven climate and nature-protecting activities to reach out to learn more about how they can be a part of next year’s round,” said Dr. Dana Arviso, Decolonizing Wealth Project, Director, Indigenous Programs.
"Supporting Indigenous-led solutions goes beyond funding; it honors the knowledge, resilience, and vision of our communities. Knowing that Indigenous communities are enclaves of cultural and climate resilience, the Indigenous Earth Fund empowers those who have long cared for the land to protect ecosystems, revitalize traditional practices, and create sustainable futures rooted in culture and community." - Rowen White, Indigenous Earth Fund Advisory Committee Member and Founder and Strategic Director, Sierra Seeds.
For those interested in learning more, please visit: https://www.decolonizingwealth.com/initiatives/indigenous-earth-fund
About the Decolonizing Wealth Project:
Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) is committed to bringing truth, healing, and repair to the global community. Established in 2018 and led by Edgar Villanueva, an Indigenous award-winning author and expert on wealth, spirituality, and social justice, DWP operates through three key strategies: sector transformation, storytelling and culture, and reparative giving. DWP’s work has radically transformed the philanthropic sector and has facilitated the distribution of nearly $1 billion for social justice efforts. Through its fund and donor community, Liberated Capital, DWP has granted over $30 million to support economic solidarity, wellbeing, and earth and climate efforts primarily led by Black and Indigenous communities. In May 2025, DWP launched its 10-year Moonshot strategy to influence $1 trillion in reparative giving by 2035.
27 organizations will benefit through Liberated Capital, a fund of Decolonizing Wealth Project, helping to uplift Indigenous efforts across the U.S. to combat the climate crisis.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – November 25, 2024 – Today, the Decolonizing Wealth Project and their funding mechanism, Liberated Capital, announced the distribution of $1 million in grants to 27 Indigenous-led organizations and tribes across the US through their Indigenous Earth Fund (IEF). The funding will support grantees’ efforts to tackle climate change and conservation through traditional Indigenous cultural practices and innovations. Grantees include local organizations working toward ancestral land return, land stewardship and conservation, advocacy, and youth engagement and education.
Since its inception in 2021, IEF has distributed over $4 million in capital to 38 Native-led organizations, and, as a result, has engaged over 200 tribes across the U.S. These grant-making initiatives reflect the Decolonizing Wealth Project’s mission to redirect resources to historically overlooked or marginalized communities, with a focus on supporting traditional Indigenous cultural practices as effective solutions to the climate crisis. Highlights of past grantees who have made significant strides through their climate work as a result of IEF funding include SAGE Development Authority creating the first Indigenous-owned utility-scale wind farm in the U.S; the creation of an Indigenous Storytelling Hub featuring digital shorts and a podcast series set to launch in 2025 by Indigenous Led; dam removal and flow restoration campaigns led by Save California Salmon, and more.
“Indigenous peoples safeguard much of Earth’s biodiversity, yet philanthropy has chronically underfunded their work,” said Edgar Villanueva, CEO of Decolonizing Wealth Project. “Our Indigenous Earth Fund addresses this critical gap by channeling resources to Indigenous climate and conservation leaders who have maintained vital ecological knowledge and practices across generations. This fund reinforces our steadfast commitment to Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.”
“Thanks to the generous support of Decolonizing Wealth’s Indigenous Earth Fund, the Bering Sea Elders Group has continued to realize our mission of protecting our traditional ways of life, the Bering Sea, and our children’s future,”
— Jaylene Wheeler, Executive Director of the Bering Sea Elders Group.
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