Indigenous communities have suffered the worst socioeconomic impacts of attempted genocide, institutional racism, and social injustice for generations. They are disproportionately affected by police abuse and state sanctioned violence, mass incarceration, health systems deficiencies, LGTBQ+ bias, and environmental racism. A simultaneous challenge of invisibility and mischaracterization persists in popular media. Less than 0.3 percent of total U.S. philanthropic support explicitly benefits Indigenous peoples who are infrequently involved in decision-making, providing power building opportunities, or community infrastructure.
With an interdisciplinary and multimodal approach, NDN Collective builds power at multiple levels to address complex issues of structural racism from multiple angles. It seeks to reform the current lack of philanthropic and capital investments in Indigenous communities. NDN Collective focuses its work in three thematic areas. It works to defend its people, communities, and nations against negative resource extraction that poisons people, pollutes water, destroys land, contributes to climate change, and violates human rights. It works to develop Indigenous communities in a regenerative and sustainable manner, based on their values and connection to land, culture, and identity. It works to decolonize minds, communities, and sovereign nations, which is directly related to Indigenous people’s ability to prosper.
NDN is working towards a future where both the mindset of mainstream philanthropy understands and funds Indigenous communities, and grassroots organizations serving and led by Indigenous communities thrive. NDN sees a world of equity and justice, where Indigenous people have the tools needed to be the architects of their future.
Indigenous communities have suffered the worst socioeconomic impacts of attempted genocide, institutional racism, and social injustice for generations.
NDN Collective is a movement building organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. They achieve this with their three-pronged motto, “Defend. Develop. Decolonize.”
Tilsen has over 17 years of experience working with non-profits and tribal nations on projects that have a social mission.
NDN sees a world of equity and justice, where Indigenous people have the tools needed to be the architects of their future.
NDN Collective builds the collective power of Indigenous Peoples, Communities, and Nations throughout continental North America as well as U.S. Territories toward the attainment of authentic self and land determination, and community restoration.
The organization exercises multiple levers to scale and build impact including proximate funding to address critical needs of grassroots organizations; narrative change via Indigenous content creation, amplification, and preservation; and acting as a system orchestrator and bridge builder.
President & CEO, NDN Collective
Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective Founder, President and CEO, is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Tilsen has over 17 years of experience working with non-profits and tribal nations on projects that have a social mission. Prior to launching NDN Collective, he was the founding executive director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation for 12 years. Working in his home community on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Tilsen built place-based innovations that have the ability to inform systems change solutions around climate resiliency, sustainable housing and equitable community development. He sits on the boards of the Indigenous Peoples Power Project, the Water Protector Legal Collective, and helped with on the ground organizing in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock. He continues his community organizing work and firmly believes that we need to both defend Indigenous nations from destructive resource extraction while simultaneously building the sustainable communities of tomorrow. Tilsen received an honorary doctorate from Sinte Gleska College in South Dakota. Nick has received numerous fellowships and awards from Ashoka, Rockefeller Foundation, Bush Foundation, and the Social Impact Award from Claremont-Lincoln University.
