U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Native Asset Building Initiative

The Native Asset Building Initiative (NABI) is a joint funding opportunity, offered through a partnership between the Office of Community Services (OCS) Assets for Independence (AFI) program and the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) program. The purpose of this initiative is to support innovative asset-building projects, which feature Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), financial education, and related services, to enable low-income Native American, Alaskan Native, Native Pacific Islanders, and Guam Native individuals and families to acquire long-term assets and improve their economic status. Asset building is an approach to overcoming poverty that emphasizes the value of sound family budgeting, money management, savings, and investment in long term assets. OCS and ANA have partnered to increase access to and awareness of asset building opportunities in Native American communities. OCS and ANA are program offices within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

OCS and ANA will accept applications to establish and administer asset building projects with a focus on AFI projects. The AFI focus of each project requires that eligible participants are given access to matched savings accounts, called IDAs, in which participants save earned income for the purchase of a home, for business capitalization, or to attend higher education or training.

Grantees will provide an array of additional supports and services to enable low-income individuals and families to become economically self-sufficient for the long term.  Additional services offered to participants may include financial literacy education, credit counseling, coaching on money management and consumer issues, business support, home ownership support services, and other supportive services that enable them to become more financially secure. The IDA portion of the project is funded by OCS. ANA funds may be used to pay for costs associated with project administration and to provide other asset-building strategies.

Amount: Awards will range from $50,000-$1,250,000 per year for 5 years. The average award size is expected to be $465,000.

Eligibility: Successful NABI applications are awarded grants from two separate program offices; therefore, eligibility for NABI applicants is limited to organizations that meet eligibility criteria for both programs. NABI provides funding to the following categories of entities that either have 501(c)(3) status or are joint applicants with a 501(c)(3) Native non-profit organizations:

• Native 501(c)(3) non-profits serving Native Americans
• Federally recognized tribal government entities and Alaska Native Villages (as defined in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act)
• State and local government agencies, and state colleges and universities located in Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which serve Native Hawaiians and Native American Pacific Islanders

NABI also provides funding to the following categories of entities that are not required to have 501(c)(3) status or apply jointly with an organization that has such status:

• Native Non-profit Credit Unions designated as low-income credit unions
• Native Non-profit CDFIs

Link: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2015-ACF-ANA-NO-0954

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