THE MISSION AT THE HEART OF THE WABANAKI COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
Tohonorourancestors’dreamofhealthandprosperity forourpeoplebyfosteringourcollectivetraditionsof respectfulrelationshipsandgiving.
A BOLD NEW CHAPTER IN THE DAWNLAND
The Wabanaki Community Foundation (WCF) represents a bold new chapter in Indigenous led philanthropy. As a 501(c)(3) public charity, WCF is designed to grow and steward financial resources that support Wabanaki cultural vitality, build generational wealth, and advance community priorities.
Among the first intratribal Community Foundations, WCF is rooted in Indigenous values of respect and reciprocity. Standing together with our philanthropic partners, WCF will be additive and supportive of existing efforts, while breaking new ground We are committed to learning from Wabanaki nonprofits and leaders, breaking down artificial silos, and aligning funding to amplify, not replace, the important work already happening across our communities Our role is to listen deeply, move with humility, and elevate community priorities.
This moment presents an extraordinary opportunity. Maine philanthropists are at the forefront of growing understanding about Wabanaki history and are demonstrating the desire for a different and more equitable future
With deep support and allyship, WCF will become an influential permanent institution directing significant philanthropic resources that help to restore balance and prosperity across Wabanaki communities.
WABANAKI RESILIENCE
The Wabanaki Confederacy includes the Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Nations, who have lived in the northeast for over 13,000 years. Wabanaki people have adapted to epic changes in the landscape and climate, and endured the harms of colonization including land dispossession, cultural suppression, economic exclusion, and genocidal actions. We are resilient. Wabanaki people have preserved our vibrancy through sustenance hunting, fishing, and harvesting, traditional ceremonies, living languages, unique worldviews, and knowledge systems that evolved across generations and time.
Today, our communities stand in a renewed spirit of self-determination. We continue to maintain and revitalize our heritage while navigating opportunities in policy, education, the arts, museums and historic preservation, technology, youth empowerment, healthcare, and economic development.
“By1852,thecascadeofeventsthathadbankruptedthetribesbegantotakeonanew narrative.Nolongerwasitthe“inferiority”ofthe“savage”wayoflifethatwhite AmericansblamedfortheimpoverishedstateoftheNativeAmericans,butinsteadit was“nativeslothfulness”thatwastoblame.Accordingtoa1852Governor’sReport onIndianAffairs,thetribesweredestinedtoremain“inaconditionborderingon pauperism untiltheirhabitshavebeenchanged ”ThoughtheState(andits progenitor,Massachusetts)—andnotthetribes—hadbeenpaupersfromtheir inception,theproliferationofthe“paupermyth”oftheNativeAmericanhadbegun tospreadlikewildfire.Nooneseemedtonoticethat,infact,itwastheStateleeching fromtribalresources,andnotthetribesleechingfromtheState.”*
CONSPICUOUSRESTRICTIONS
“Maine is conspicuous for the restrictions that the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (1980) has placed on the Wabanaki Nations for four decades. We find that the consequence of handcuffing Wabanaki self-government is today visible in the stark economic underperformance of all four of the tribes in Maine Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot. No inherent or Wabanaki-wide attributes readily explainwhyalltheWabanakiNationsinMainetrailtheirpeersbysomuch.Theone attributetheyallshareistherestrictiveconstructoftheSettlementAct.”**
*One Nation, Under Fraud: A Remonstrance; Loring, Mehnert, Gousse, March, 2022
**The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development; Kalt, Medford & Taylor, December, 2022
THEPAUPERMYTH
WCF was born from a landmark collaboration. Wabanaki leaders helped create Tekαkαpimək Contact Station, which welcomes the global public to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. Tekαkαpimək, Penobscot for “as far as one can see”, orients visitors through a Wabanaki lens, honors ancestral Penobscot homelands, and reflects continuous Indigenous presence in the Dawnland.
AN AMBITIOUS CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
WCF is governed by Wabanaki leadership - elders, organizers, artists, educators, and knowledge holders from our four Nations. Our Board of Directors brings deep collective wisdom, grounded in lived experience and longstanding trust within our communities. These are not external actors; we are of the Nations, accountable to our people, and trusted by those we serve.
Our elders and ancestors teach us to walk a path that honors the seven generations - past, present, and future. The Wabanaki Community Foundation responds to that call by honoring what was, and building what can be for our people.
WCF builds on the spirit of vision, unity, and leadership that emerged in the Tekαkαpimək project. The Foundation’s early success includes $1 million in seed funding raised through the Monumental Welcome Campaign. This forms the basis of an endowment and donor advised funds, invested for growth under a values based policy by WCF’s investment manager, Goldman Sachs. Start-up operating support is being provided by Elliotsville Foundation, Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust, Maine Community Foundation, and shoppers at the Belfast Community Co-op.
BoardofDirectors
RepresentingtheWabanakiNationsinwhatisnowknownasMaine–HoultonBandofMaliseet Indians,Mi’kmaqNation,PassamaquoddyTribe(Sipayik&Motahkomikuk),PenobscotNation.
RichardSilliboy,President(Mi’kmaq)
NewellLewey,Secretary(Passamaquoddy–Sipayik)
TheresaCochran,Treasurer(Mi’kmaq)
SuzanneGreenlaw(Maliseet)
IsaacSt.John(Maliseet)
NolanAltvater(Passamaquoddy–Sipayik)
DonaldSoctomah(Passamaquoddy–Motahkomikuk)
JenniferNeptune(Penobscot)
ShantelDeMerchant(Penobscot)
GaryStern(Non-Native)
NickFrancis,ExecutiveDirector(Penobscot)
OUR INVITATION: HELP TRANSFORM MONEY INTO MEDICINE
WCF is guided by a simple but powerful truth: Wabanaki people know best what our communities need. Well-meaning philanthropy has flowed through non-Indigenous intermediaries or been shaped by outside assumptions that do not reflect our values of interconnectedness between art, health, education, lands and waters, and all of our relations throughout the natural world.
“To Indigenous people, philanthropic money is medicine, a restorative force inasystemthathaslongwithheldresourcesfromourcommunities.Moneyis like water; it’s a precious, life-giving resource. Money should be a tool of love that facilitates relationships and helps us thrive rather than something that hurts and divides us. If we use it for sacred, life-giving, restorative purposes, itcanbemedicine.”
Edgar Villanueva, Decolonizing Wealth
Partners in this work are setting in motion ripples of changeacross families, communities, and generations We can transform philanthropy in Maine and beyond. With your participation, we are seeding a future where Wabanaki communities flourish. The cocreation of WCF embodies shifts from: Non-Indigenousframeworkstocommunity-ledpriorities.
Culturalsurvivaltoculturalresurgence.
TheinhibitionofWabanakiwealth-buildingtofutureabundance.
This is more than an appeal to stand with us. We are inviting donors into a movement that puts philanthropic power into Indigenous hands as part of a larger vision for healing and prosperity. We aim to join forever in kinship, as together we restore balance, reclaim abundance, and grow a legacy rooted in trust, reciprocity, and Indigenous strength.
Our goal of a $20 - $50 million capital campaign will create a living endowment, drawing 5% annually to nourish what matters most. Programmatic commitments and donor-advised funds are most welcome. We are also testing a bold idea: that those in a position to do so consider an outright transfer of assets to the Foundation above and beyond usual cycles of giving.
StrengthenCulturalVitality
$7.0millionendowment-AnnualDraw:$350,000
LanguageLearning&CulturalApprenticeships
$2Mprincipal→$100,000/year
Fundlanguagerevitalizationeffortsandculturalknowledge apprenticeships,suchasceremonyleadership.
Rematriation&IndigenousledResearch
$2Mprincipal→$100,000/year
Fundrematriationandrestorationeffortsofsacreditems andstories,archeologicalresearch,documentation,and preservationofarcheologicalsites
TribalMuseums
$3Mprincipal→$150,000/year
Supporttribalmuseumdevelopment,operations,and capitalneeds
ExpandEconomicOpportunity
$4.5millionendowment-AnnualDraw:$225,000
Fast-trackMiniGrantsof$15,000orless
$3Mprincipal→$150,000/year
Meetcareerandbusinessdevelopmentneedsofindividual artisans,guides,foodproducers,andothercultural practitionersthroughmicrogrants,mentorships,andother supports.
ArtistandCulturalPractitionerCooperatives&MarketAccess
$15Mprincipal→$75,000/year
Supportdevelopmentandsustainabilityofcooperative marketplatformsandcollectiveNGOmodelsforcultural goodsandservices
InvestinYouth&Education
$4.5millionendowment-AnnualDraw:$225,000
FlexibleScholarshipsandLearnerSupport
$2Mprincipal→$100,000/year
Meetneedsfortraditionalmentorshipsandinternshipsas wellasstipendsthatallowfullparticipationofrising Wabanakilearnersinhighereducationsettings
YouthDevelopment&Leadership
$1Mprincipal→$50,000/year
Supportyouthgatherings,in-stateandnationaltravel, leadershipandculturallygroundedexperiences.
YouthAthletics
$15Mprincipal→$75,000/year
Sponsorcross-communityactivitiesandevents,including “TeamWabanaki”participationintheNorthAmerican IndigenousGames
YOUR VOICE, YOUR INSIGHT, AND YOUR SUPPORT WILL HELP SHAPE THE NEXT CHAPTER OF WABANAKI SOVEREIGNTY AND OUR SHARED PROSPERITY.
WE WELCOME YOU INTO THIS JOURNEY AS A COMPANION IN BUILDING A FUTURE OF BEAUTY, BALANCE, AND BELONGING.
WABANAKI COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INAUGURAL CAMPAIGN
BEAUTY,BALANCE ANDBELONGING
FoundationofGenerationalWealth
$3.82millionendowment
FutureWabanakiNewbornRetirementAccounts
$1Mprincipal→$50,000/year
$1000eachprospectivelyfortheapprox50newbabiesbornper year
Today’sWabanakiChildren&YouthRetirementAccounts
$2.82Mprincipal-One-timeawards
$1000eachretroactivelyforthe2,820childrenandyouthunder theageof18(approx29%ofWabanakipopulationin2025)
FosterCommunityConnections
$3.0millionendowment-AnnualDraw:$150,000
IntertribalGatherings&Events
$1.5Mprincipal→$75,000/year
Supportgatherings,events,andtraveltoreconnecteldersand kin,preservesharedtraditions,andnurturecross-community ties
TraditionalFood&Medicine
$1.5Mprincipal→$75,000/year
InvestinWabanakifoodandmedicinesovereigntyprojects
IncreaseWabanakiPhilanthropicProwess
$8millionendowment-AnnualDraw:$400,000
EndowWCFCoreOperations
$6.5Mprincipal→$325,000/year
AssurecapacitytoperformallfunctionsofaCommunity Foundationinperpetuity,includingcommunitygovernance, outreachandorganizing,philanthropicrelationships,funds management,grantmaking,programadministration,and legalandfiduciaryduties.
ServeasaTrustedIntermediary
$1.5Mprincipal→$75,000/year
Facilitateandadministerdonor-advisedfundsalignedwith WabanakivaluesServeasafiscalsponsorforotherWabanaki NGOsandasanintermediarywithothergrantmakers
