December 10, 2025
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From the DWP Team
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By Edgar Villanueva, Founder and CEO, Decolonizing Wealth Project
What if instead of fueling the climate crisis through extraction and greed, we resourced the planet's healing? Reflecting on this past year, I'm filled with hope—because that's exactly what we're doing.
Since 2020, we've directly invested over $16 million in Indigenous communities, returned more than 17,000 acres to tribal stewardship, and reached 270 Tribes. We've influenced nearly $1 billion toward reparative giving—and we're just getting started!
Our mission at DWP is to transform wealth into collective wellbeing. Our Earth and Climate work shows what that looks like in action: when we resource Indigenous communities to protect and steward their ancestral lands, we see measurable results—healthier ecosystems, thriving communities, and solutions that actually work for all of us.
This Work Is Personal
As a member of the Lumbee Tribe, I've witnessed firsthand how Indigenous communities have been systematically excluded from the resources needed to protect our lands—even as we've demonstrated time and again that we know how to care for them effectively.
Indigenous, Black, and other underresourced communities bear the heaviest burden of the climate crisis. We're on the frontlines of environmental devastation, from polluted water to extreme weather events. Yet when Indigenous communities receive the funding and support they need, the results are tangible. For thousands of years, my ancestors and Indigenous peoples worldwide have practiced land stewardship rooted in reciprocity, balance, and respect—and that knowledge translates into restored ecosystems, protected biodiversity, and resilient communities.
Through Liberated Capital, our donor community and grantmaking vehicle, DWP is directing resources to movements led by those most impacted. Our three funding priorities—Earth and Climate, Economic Solidarity, and Wellbeing—all stem from the same principle: all of our suffering is mutual, and all of our thriving is mutual. When we heal the land, we heal our communities. When we heal our communities, we heal ourselves. We use money as medicine by redirecting the flow of capital towards those who have experienced the most harm - because they have the best solutions.
TIME100 2025 Climate Leader Recognition
This year, I was honored to be named a TIME100 2025 Climate Leader. This recognition reflects a growing understanding among policymakers, funders, and climate leaders: Indigenous-led solutions aren't just nice to have, they're essential to solving the climate crisis.
I told TIME:
The climate crisis is first and foremost a spiritual rupture—a wound in our collective soul born from centuries of extraction and disconnection.
Healing that rupture requires resourcing those who hold the knowledge of how to live in balance with the land.
While corporations and governments debate carbon markets and technical fixes, Indigenous communities are healing ecosystems at scale. We have thousands of years of proven land management practices, and when we're adequately resourced, we deliver results. The challenge isn't the science or the know-how—it's the funding gap. Indigenous communities receive a dismal proportion of climate philanthropy, even as we're demonstrating some of the most effective climate solutions available.
Indigenous Earth Fund - $1M to protect Nature with Indigenous wisdom
That recognition from TIME came at an important moment. We just announced our 2025 Indigenous Earth Fund grantees—$1 million invested in 30 Tribes and Indigenous organizations across the United States doing exactly the kind of work I described to TIME. Our Indigenous Earth Fund is the only fund that is both led by and focused exclusively on Indigenous leaders in the U.S. Since 2021, we’ve granted over $5 million to Indigenous-led climate organizations and Tribes.
Let me share a few examples of what this year's funding is making possible:
The Yurok Tribe is launching its Traditional Land Stewardship Department, purchasing life-saving fire protection equipment for cultural burning practices. This isn't just fire prevention, it's reclaiming thousands of years of knowledge about how to care for forests in ways that prevent catastrophic wildfires.
The Sage Development Authority's Anpetu Wi Wind Project will deliver 235 megawatts of clean energy on the Standing Rock reservation, creating jobs and boosting economic growth while powering the transition to renewable energy.
And in Alaska, where Typhoon Halong devastated Alaska Native communities along the Bering Sea in October, we're supporting Native Movement, Igiuig Village, and Bering Sea Elders as they build climate resilience across Alaska that doesn't depend on uncertain federal support.
Here's what keeps me up at night: this year, we received 180 applications requesting over $9 million in total. While our $1M is a substantial investment impacting thousands across the country, it represents just under 12% of what communities requested—revealing the scale of unmet need for funding solutions that work.
Our grantee's impact over the past five years is undeniable. From the Shinnecock Tribe reforesting kelp in the Hamptons to protect the beaches and waterlines, to Sigcangu Co. reintroducing over 1,000 buffalo, which has strengthened soil health, reduced invasive species, and created economic development opportunities for the Lakota economy.
The work of IEF grantee partners protects and heals the planet for all of us.
California Tribal Land Return - Over 17,500 acres returned
In 2024, we launched the one-of-a-kind California Tribal Land Return Initiative. This is a comprehensive model that combines funding with wraparound support to help Tribes overcome the legal, financial, and systemic barriers that have hindered land return.
Our inaugural cohort includes 11 Tribes and Tribal organizations representing 30 Tribes in total from across California. We're providing technical assistance, individualized coaching, and digital storytelling training. The goal: help these Tribes successfully reclaim and rematriate 25,000 acres of ancestral land.
Here's what has been achieved so far:
- Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria: 305 acres
- Tule River Indian Tribe: 17,023 acres
- Tamien Nation Land Conservancy: 235 acres
- Amah Mutsun Land Trust: 50 acres
That's 17,613 acres returned—70% of the way toward our goal—in just eight months.
This model works, and we're ready to scale it wider in California and nationally. Our research indicates there is more than 1,000,000 acres in California with high potential for rematriation. To deliver the same kind of impact we’ve seen this year in CA and beyond requires long-term, substantial investment. The returns are incredible: healthier ecosystems, protected biodiversity, strengthened tribal sovereignty, sustainable land management and stewardship practices that benefit us all.
All Our Thriving Is Mutual
Since 2020, DWP has invested over $16 million in Indigenous communities through our Indigenous Earth Fund, the California Truth and Healing Fund, and initiatives such as our California Tribal Land Return. We've reached more than 270 Tribes, empowered over 11,000 Indigenous youth, and contributed to the rematriation of more than 17,000 acres of land.
Let me be clear about something: Indigenous-led climate solutions deliver results. Our grantee partners are proving it every day—from kelp reforestation to buffalo restoration to cultural burning practices that prevent catastrophic wildfires. Yet Indigenous communities receive a tiny fraction of climate philanthropy from major U.S. foundations. Meanwhile, billions of dollars flow annually to corporate-led technical fixes—often controlled by the same legacy institutions that helped create the climate crisis in the first place.
That isn't just inequitable. That's poor strategy.
A trillion dollars.
It sounds audacious because it is. And anything less isn't commensurate with the scale of harm or the opportunity for repair. We've already influenced nearly $1 billion, helping wealthy individuals, foundations, and businesses become partners in healing rather than saviors dispensing charity. When resources flow to those closest to the challenges, solutions scale faster, last longer, and create broader community benefit.
An Invitation
There's a lot of talk in philanthropy about "repair" these days (ahem.. I’ll take some credit for that!). Here's what actual repair looks like: 17,613 acres of land returned to Indigenous stewardship. 11,000 Indigenous youth engaged, 270 Tribes resourced to protect their lands and practice their traditions. That's not a theory of change, it’s actual change happening right now.
According to the Forest Tenure Funders Group's 2024-2025 Annual Report, less than 8% of funding reaches Indigenous organizations directly, and demand consistently outpaces supply by 6 to 1. The solutions exist. What’s missing is the investment.
This is your invitation to be part of the healing. Not a savior. Not a donor who writes a check and walks away. A partner in repair who understands that your own healing is tied to the healing of the land and the people who protect it.
Ready to join us?
Reach out to Lauren Hadi at lauren@decolonizingwealth.com or donate here.
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