OVERVIEW: The Christensen Fund supports the rights and cultures of Indigenous peoples around the world.
IP TAKE: This funder has recently reconfigured its grantmaking and moved away from the regional approach of its previous work. Grantseekers who were previously excluded due to geographic restrictions may want to take a second look. The Christensen Fund is a transformative funder that provides grantees with support beyond monetary grants. The organization is exceptionally transparent and maintains a searchable grantee database on its website. It’s also accessible and approachable, but given it’s recent expansion to the national landscape, expect stiff competition.
PROFILE: Established by Allen and Carmen Christensen in 1957, the Christensen Fund is a philanthropic foundation that is based in San Francisco, California. Allen Christensen made his fortune as a civil and mining engineer and president of the Utah Mining Construction Company. Although mining was his business, his interests were eclectic travel and art collecting. His wife, Carmen, was a public school teacher, artist and instructor of studio arts. Rooted in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the fund’s mission is to “buttress the efforts of people and institutions who believe in a biodiverse world infused with artistic expression and […] to secure ways of life and landscapes that are beautiful, bountiful and resilient.” The fund’s strategy centers on “supporting and strengthening Indigenous Peoples’ efforts to secure and exercise their rights to their land, territories, resources, and sovereign systems of governance.” Grantmaking has shifted from a regional approach to a broader, rights-based strategy that focuses on the land, territories, resources and sovereign governance of Indigenous peoples. Over the years, grants have supported Indigenous causes in the U.S., as well as Africa, Central Asia, Northwest Mexico, Northern Australia and Melanesia.
At this writing, the Christensen Fund has dismantled much of its website, making it difficult to ascertain the details of its current goals and priorities.
Grants for Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights, Environment, and Global Development
While the rights of Indigenous peoples are the fund’s main concern, giving for Indigenous causes overlaps with racial justice, environmental and global development concerns.
- The foundation’s largest grants support well-established organizations working nationally or internationally to protect the rights and interests of Indigenous groups through policy, litigation, activism and organizing. U.S. grantees include Native Americans in Philanthropy, the National Congress of American Indians and the Native American Rights Fund. International grantees include Mexico’s Fondo Defensores, the International Indian Treaty Council and Kenya’s Drylands Learning and Capacity Building Initiatives.
- U.S. regional work, which was the fund’s main interest in past years, still receives some grants. Recipients include the Sogorea Te Land Trust in the Bay Area of California, the Colorado Plateau Foundation, South Dakota’s Sicangu Community Development Corporation and the Native Conservancy of Cordova, Arkansas.
- On the lower end of its grantmaking, Christensen supports some small, grassroots Indigenous groups. One grant went to Hawai’i’s Waipa Foundation, which stewards land in Kauai’s Halele`a district. Other smaller grantees include New Jersey’s Ramapough Culture and Land Foundation, the Gwich’in Steering Committee of Fairbanks, Alaska and the Afraid of Bear-American Horse Tiospaye, a Sioux group in New York State.
Grants for the Bay Area, Community Development
The Bay Area of California emerges as a geographic priority, with grants supporting community development efforts, education and culture. This is a smaller area of giving for Christensen. Grantees include City Hope San Francisco, the PTA California Congress, the Oakland Literacy Coalition and the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo, among others.
Important Grant Details:
The Christensen Fund’s grants range from $1,000 to $500,000.
- The fund’s largest grants in recent years have supported large collaboratives and organizations working for Indigenous rights. Land rights and cultural preservation are strong areas of interest.
- This funder also supports small, grassroots Indigenous groups in the U.S. and around the world. Grantees need not be based in the U.S.
- The Christensen Fund’s website has been pared down recently. Information about how to apply for a grant has been removed, and a recent tax filings indicates that the fund no longer accepts unsolicited proposals.
- For additional information about past giving, see the foundation’s tax filings.
Contact the Christensen Foundation via email at grants@christensenfund.org. The fund’s phone number is listed as (415) 644-1620.
PEOPLE:
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LINK:
CONTACT:
Christensen Fund
660 4th St # 235
San Francisco, CA 94107-1618
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