Learning from Tribal governments’ experiences with federal grant programs

What is the challenge?

Members of Native nations were disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic along multiple dimensions.¹ Congress recognized the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on citizens of Native nations and authorized multiple federal grant opportunities spanning numerous programs and agencies. It is vital to record and amplify some of the key lessons learned about the experiences of Native nations with these programs in order for the federal government to be better-positioned to support Native nations in future crises.

What are we doing?

By highlighting Native nations’ experiences of accessing and implementing a selection of federally-funded programs, including decisions not to apply to programs, we hope to highlight success in program design and point to areas for current and future improvement. To do this, we plan to collaborate with a diverse set of agencies to conduct a set of primarily qualitative, descriptive studies that aim to understand Tribal governments’access to and implementation of federally-funded programs. These descriptive studies will be led by a Tribal Engagement Fellow.

What do we expect to learn?

We expect to produce 1-3 descriptive reports that share learnings about Tribal governments’ experiences with specific programs. In addition, we plan to produce a report that will synthesize these findings, including the broader insights and shared learnings across these studies, alongside a fourth study about the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program, which has already been completed.

This evaluation is currently being implemented and is part of our Pandemic Relief and Recovery portfolio. Results forthcoming (2025).

Notes:

1. FACT SHEET: Building A New Era of Nation-to-Nation Engagement.