By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce explains the concept of nonprofits as, “A nonprofit organization has a legally approved purpose or social cause beyond profit generation. Its income is not dispersed to any shareholders but is instead invested back into the organization.”
A group of nonprofit organizations serving the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) community has joined together recently to form the Qualla Nonprofit Alliance. Participants in the Alliance include: Cherokee Historical Association, Sequoyah Fund, Center for Native Health, Museum of the Cherokee People, Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual Inc. Ray Kinsland Leadership Institute, Uwena, Becky’s Place, the Cherokee Speakers Council, and Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness.
Laura Blythe, an EBCI tribal member and Cherokee Historical Association (CHA) program manager/executive management team, said of the Alliance, “We’re coming together, sharing resources, we’re actually going to try to develop some type of an event that we can host funders for different projects in the area that we might have going on.
Whenever we can utilize each other’s resources or programming to help capacity and development within our organizations, we do that.”
Trey Adcock, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and executive director of the Center for Native Health, said the Alliance has been meeting once a quarter and is starting to have conversations with each other on building sustainable futures for their organization. “What I’ve seen is that we’re sharing resources – we’ve had guest speakers come, we’ve created a resource list…so, we’re having conversations about how we can mutually support each other and build off of each other’s capacities…it’s a lot of community-building that we’re doing.”
Hope Huskey, an EBCI tribal member and chief operating officer of the Sequoyah Fund, said it is important for people to understand where the funding comes from for nonprofit organizations serving the EBCI community. “A lot of community members maybe think that we’re tribal entities, or that we’re completely funded by the tribe and no one who’s meeting with us is. We’re all grant writing and fundraising and trying to keep our organizations alive. So, we wanted to get that out to the community, but then also build our capacity as organizations so that we can learn from each other on where are the funding dollars, how can we collaborate with those funding dollars, and just get more money into Cherokee as a whole.”
She added, “I think the goal is to look at diversity of funding so if your organization is dependent on just federal funds, how can we change that route to where you have a more diverse funding source where you’ve got foundations, like Trey mentioned, or tribal funding, state funding. Then, also private donations. There’s a lot of money in this region, so how can we tap into some of those funds as well so that when things happen like this government situation, we don’t look at losing all these nonprofits that are so essential for the Cherokee community.”
Collaboration is the main point of the Alliance and is key to all discussions.
Blythe noted, “Here, in the Cultural District, we have to collaborate with our cultural partners constantly. One, so we don’t overlap the educational pieces that we’re providing the guests. But, also, for CHA, our goal is to start diversifying the edutainment that we can provide in fun, unique ways that our guests can utilize and want to come see us again. But also, how can we blend with the community? So, keeping all those things in mind, collaborating with partners, funders, sponsors, developing the foundation, collaboration is key.”
Adcock called collaboration vital to local nonprofit organizations. “We can’t survive if we don’t have good partners. We have a relationship-based framework for how we try to conduct ourselves, so, I think for us it’s just about entering into reciprocal relationships that can be mutually-beneficial and supportive. We just can’t survive without it. We have to be able to build coalition and community.”
Huskey commented, “Sequoyah Fund likes to represent the business community as a whole, and the business community is also dependent on a lot of these non-profits, whether it’s the economic drivers that are the cultural partners, or it’s the community development support that some of these other non-profits give on financial literacy and health and wellness. We recognize that it’s really important and it’s making our community a stronger place to be.”
She went on to say, “We’re such a small community that we’re all intermingled and mixed in the ways that we support each other and the organizations anyway.
Understanding our organizations’ capacities, none of us have the ability to do all of this. So, being able to utilize the expertise of these other organizations helps. Instead of looking at it as a way to compete, it’s how do you integrate them into what you’re doing to make your project or your program stronger.”
Blythe has high hopes for the Alliance and what everyone will be able to accomplish by working together. “I think it’s tough for our area. The far western North Carolina area is always kind of an afterthought for everybody. We’re small, rural communities. Cherokee gets glamorized by outsiders a little bit. They have this awe-inspired feel towards Cherokee culture and people, but that doesn’t necessarily make them say, ‘I want to support what you do’. So, I feel like with this Alliance, we can start getting the eyes to our area on the groups that we have and what we’re trying to do for the community, not just in Cherokee but Swain County, Jackson County, local community areas.”
She added, “The community in the surrounding areas might know what non-profit is, but funders automatically think that we’re tribally-funded. We get less than 10 percent of our annual budget funded by the Tribe and that’s just something that was written in a couple decades ago.”
Adcock shared his vision for the Alliance and its partners, “In five years, my dream would be that the community really understands the role non-profits can play in the community, because I don’t feel that that’s really the case. And, that we collectively have built a donor funnel that’s supporting all of us. That’s been a challenge for all of us, too.”
Huskey said, “I think there’s an opportunity to make our organizations stronger building this network and potentially being able to access more resources for organizational development…I think we’ll be stronger non-profits at the end of five years with, hopefully, more money, but also the ability to go after more money.
One of our strong points that we’re really going to try to promote is, ‘hey whenever you’re giving to one of us, you’re sort of helping the community as a whole…it’s making your dollars spread a little more impactfully as a donor if you have this ability to give to multiple organizations, or know that these organizations are working together as a support system’. I think that can be meaningful to a potential donor.”
If you work with a nonprofit organization and would like to learn more about the Qualla Nonprofit Alliance, contact one of the following:
- Laura Blythe at laura@cherokeeadventure.com
- Trey Adcock at trey_adcock@centerfornativehealth.org
- Hope Huskey at hopehuskey@sequoyahfund.org
