FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30, 2025
RAPID CITY, SD – Today, NDN Fund announced the closing of a loan with Native Conservancy from the Copper River Delta in Alaska. NDN Fund is the impact investing arm of NDN Collective that provides loans and investment to Indigenous-owned and led businesses through braided capital financing to support loan relatives with capacity and power building in their communities.
The Native Conservancy focuses on habitat restoration, land protection, Landback, Oceanback and food sovereignty through their Stewardship Fund. This land trust formed in 2003 with the vision of creating resilient futures for Indigenous Peoples by preserving, repatriating and restoring ancestral homelands, traditional food sources and subsistence practices to revitalize Native culture, habitat, health and spirituality.
NDN Fund’s recurring support of LANDBACK efforts in the Copper River Delta – first through the Giyah Boat Company and now through this support of the parent company, Native Conservancy – is exemplary of NDN Collective’s braided capital strategy, which includes several streams of financing, power building, and capacity building to move Indigenous-led companies and organizations forward.
NDN Fund’s successful loan management ensured continued funding, as Giyah Boat Company fully repaid their first loan to set their parent company up to receive further funding. Native Conservancy and other loan relatives are also supported by NDN Fund with capacity and power building to ensure they have the resources to be investment-ready, sustainable, and prepared to achieve their goals.
By Native Conservancy securing this LANDBACK through NDN Fund, this space will continue to be available for future generations that will continue benefiting from safe waterway transportation and healthy food systems in the emerging mariculture industry.
“Our continued support to Native Conservancy recognizes the vitally important work that they do as a global conservation organization dedicated to protecting the lands and waters on which all life depends,” said Kim Pate, Managing Director of NDN Fund. “This LANDBACK deal will have far reaching future impacts on global conservation and in supporting Indigenous ways of life and supporting healthy communities.”
“Native Conservancy’s LANDBACK deal is an example of NDN Collective’s braided capital strategy that engages local communities, governments, the private sector, and other partners to strengthen support for Indigenous ways of life and protecting traditional foods for future generations,” said Aurora Warrior, Lending Officer with NDN Fund.
Native Conservancy’s President and Founder, Dune Lankard was also named a James Beard Impact Award honoree earlier this year. The Impact Awards “recognize achievements by individuals and/or organizations who are actively working to push for standards that create a more equitable, sustainable, and economically viable” food industry. The James Beard award is a testament to Dune Lankard’s decades of tireless advocacy protecting the pristine bountiful lands of the Eyak people.
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NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.