We are all about empowerment and cultivating a sense of self-efficacy, confidence and pride in our tech fellows and founders. Your dollars directly support our fellows on their path to becoming a tech professional or entrepreneur who will empower themself, their family, and their community, thereby reversing a centuries-long trend of intergenerational poverty and disempowerment.
When you invest in Indigenous people, you also invest in the future of the planet. It's our cultural responsibility to be stewards and protectors of the land, and when we thrive, our environment thrives.
It is often Indigenous people who are on the frontlines of protecting our planet from climate change, yet rarely get the recognition. In general, if you invest in Indigenous communities, you also invest in the land and protect the climate, because caring for the land is our cultural responsibility as stewards. Mother Jones reported on a recent study by the Indigenous Environmental Network and Oil Change International, which found that Indigenous-led resistance to 21 fossil fuel projects in the US and Canada over the past decade has stopped or delayed an amount of greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual US and Canadian emissions. These gains are for everyone. Most importantly here, when you invest in communities who share a fundamental cultural view that we are deeply connected with the Earth, when you empower and sponsor people who have ties to that worldview, suddenly you have more folks in power who view it as their responsibility to protect land, air, forest, and water, and can use that power to do so. And yet, Indigenous people in the US and Canada remain the most disempowered group in pretty much every category I can find. That latent knowledge, responsibility and potential is just waiting to be empowered, and that's what we focus on.
It's because of people like you that we can even do this work. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Danielle Forward
CEO & Founder, Ex-Facebook
Enrolled Tribal Member, Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians
