Grantmaking with First Nations and Indigenous communities requires more than adding cultural language to an existing process. Done poorly, grantmaking to Indigenous communities can replicate colonial power dynamics, impose inappropriate accountability requirements, and fund activities that don't reflect community self-determination. Done well, it can be genuinely empowering — resourcing communities to define and pursue their own vision of wellbeing. This guide outlines the principles and practices for culturally appropriate grantmaking with First Nations, Māori, and Pasifika communities.
Standard grantmaking was designed by and for Western nonprofit organisations. When applied to Indigenous communities, several mismatches arise:
Governance structures: Indigenous organisations may operate through consensus decision-making, elder leadership, or cultural protocols that don't resemble the corporate board model that most due diligence frameworks assume.
Documentation requirements: First Nations organisations — often smaller, under-resourced, and facing legacy disadvantage — may not have audited financial statements, formal constitutions, or the administrative infrastructure that standard applications require.
Funding cycles: Annual or short-term grants are misaligned with the long-term, intergenerational timeframes of much Indigenous community work.
Western outcome frameworks: Standard outcome measurement tools may not capture what matters in Indigenous contexts — language revitalisation, cultural continuity, connection to country, community cohesion.
Power dynamics: The funder-grantee relationship's inherent power asymmetry is amplified by the historical context of colonial institutions controlling resources and decision-making for Indigenous communities.
Self-determination
Funding should support Indigenous communities' right to determine their own priorities, design their own solutions, and control their own resources. Funders who impose their theory of change on Indigenous communities are not exercising self-determination.
Relationship before programme
Indigenous grantmaking works best when built on genuine, long-term relationships — not transactional grant rounds. Invest in relationships before and during funding, not only at application time.
Cultural safety
The grantmaking process itself should be culturally safe for Indigenous applicants and grantees. This means:
- Applications that don't require knowledge of Western nonprofit processes
- Assessment panels that include Indigenous voices
- Communication styles that are respectful of cultural protocols
- Flexibility in application formats (oral applications, community meetings, narrative formats)
Long-term and flexible
Multi-year, flexible funding allows Indigenous organisations to build capacity, develop leadership, and pursue long-term community goals — rather than constantly adapting to funder priorities.
Proportionate due diligence
Due diligence requirements should be proportionate to grant size and organisational capacity. Demanding audited accounts from a small community-controlled organisation that doesn't have them is not proportionate — it's exclusionary.
Fund overhead and capacity
Indigenous organisations often have higher capacity-building needs due to historical underfunding. Fund organisational development, administration, and leadership alongside programme costs.
Key considerations:
- Prioritise community-controlled organisations (Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations — ACCOs) over mainstream organisations working with Aboriginal communities
- Understand the distinction between organisations that serve Aboriginal people and organisations controlled by Aboriginal people
- Be aware of the specific cultural protocols, language groups, and community contexts relevant to the communities you're funding
- Engage with peak bodies (NACCHO for health, land councils, etc.) to understand sector priorities and dynamics
- Avoid funding that duplicates or undermines existing Aboriginal-controlled services
Due diligence adaptations:
- Accept community references and relationship-based evidence alongside formal documentation
- Understand that community governance may look different from corporate governance
- Recognise that First Nations organisations may have complex accountability to community that isn't captured in formal reporting
Key considerations:
- Understand the distinction between mainstream organisations serving Māori and kaupapa Māori organisations (driven by Māori values and controlled by Māori)
- Recognise tikanga (cultural protocol) and te reo Māori as assets, not barriers
- Engage with iwi, hapū, and urban Māori authorities as significant governance and accountability structures
- Consider Treaty of Waitangi obligations in your grantmaking — funding Māori-led solutions is part of upholding the Treaty
- Wānanga (Māori universities), kōhanga reo (language nests), and kura kaupapa (Māori schools) have specific funding needs and contexts
Key considerations:
- Pasifika communities in New Zealand and Australia are diverse — Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, Cook Islander, and many other Pacific nations have distinct cultures and priorities
- Church and faith communities are central to many Pasifika organisations and governance structures
- Community and family (aiga, kāinga) structures shape decision-making
- Language accessibility is important — applications and reporting in Pacific languages should be accepted
Standard outcome measurement frameworks often fail to capture Indigenous wellbeing outcomes. Better approaches:
- Work with communities to define their own measures of success
- Accept qualitative and narrative evidence alongside quantitative data
- Use self-determination indicators (community control, cultural continuity, language use)
- Build evaluation capacity within communities rather than imposing external evaluation
Growing numbers of funders are explicitly committed to decolonising grantmaking — examining how colonial structures have shaped grantmaking practices and actively working to dismantle them. This includes:
- Shifting power to Indigenous-controlled funds
- Employing Indigenous staff in programme roles
- Engaging Indigenous communities in governance of the funder itself
- Publicly acknowledging the funder's position in relation to colonisation
Tahua's grants management platform supports culturally responsive grantmaking — with flexible application formats, relationship management tools, and reporting frameworks that can be adapted to Indigenous community contexts.