'Hunger Games' have no place in Indigenous fundraising

Author Shannon VanRaes
Indigenous charities and qualified donees only received $1 for every $138 received by non-Indigenous organizations

Why It Matters

Ideas of scarcity and competition are rooted in colonial practices. Asking Indigenous-led organizations to compete for funding via social media only exacerbates issues of inequality, executives say.

Hillory Tenute was disappointed but not surprised when she opened an email inviting Indigenous organizations to compete for corporate donations this September as part of an online advertising campaign. “That’s the part that was really disgusting, that they wanted it to be a social media campaign,” says Tenute, executive director of Indigenous Youth Roots, a national charity that collaborates on programs, grants and opportunities grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and being. She wrote about the offer in a LinkedIn post but didn’t identify the private company that made it, focusing instead on the issues the overture highlighted.

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