Institutions
The College Fund supports Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) in their efforts to strengthen students, emergent leadership, education, language and culture, health and wellness, the environment, and so much more, all moving our mission of transforming Native lives and communities.
Our work in partnership with TCUs focuses on supporting our relatives from cradle to career and beyond. This institutional capacity-building work consists of supporting TCU grantee partners in co-visioning programming, technical support, professional development, research and networking opportunities, and program elements that directly support students’ and communities’ needs.
Cultivating Native Student Success
Cultivating Native Student Success provides tribal colleges and universities the opportunity to examine their current enrollment management approaches and design long-term strategies that include holistic, place-based, and collaborative student supports to promote transformative and systemic change that impacts Native student success.
2025 Cultivating Native Student Success Convening
The American Indian College Fund and AIHEC are excited to host an opportunity to learn, network, and advance TCU Native Student Success.
Native higher education experts, organization partners, and TCU staff will come together to engage in discussions, workshops and breakout sessions about the Native student journey, strategic enrollment management, data storytelling, and the constantly evolving landscape of higher education.
TCU Programs
Our Programs, in partnership with TCUs, strengthen degree programs, support faculty and staff, prioritize students, and engage tribal nation communities across several program areas of targeted impact: Native Arts, Environmental Stewardship, Computer Science, Indigenous Early Childhood Education, Native Teacher Education, Adult Education, Women’s Leadership, Native Student Veterans, and more.
Programs TCU Capacity Support and Impact
2023-2024 Data
$12.9+
MILLION
4960+
34
Tribal Colleges and Universities
Tribal colleges and universities provide dynamic higher education opportunities, most on or near reservation lands. Known for their remarkable programs, culturally-relevant curricula, and familial student care – tribal colleges allow students to further their careers, attain an advanced degree, or better support their communities.
(DRUM) Circles Project
TCU Developing Research in Undergraduate Mathematics
WestEd and the American Indian College Fund have partnered to create greater math success for Native students studying at tribal colleges.
Institutions News
Read blog updates from our institutions teams
American Indian College Fund Sponsors Five Tribal College Environmental Science Programs
American Indian College Fund Sponsors Five Tribal College Environmental Science Programs Program to Develop Culturally Relevant Science Programming to Benefit Tribal Communities and Lands in Northern Great Plains States Denver, Colo.—August 5, 2021–The American Indian...
American Indian College Fund Awards Four Tribal Colleges with Four-Year Computer Science Initiative Grants
Computer science education provides today’s college students the necessary skills and opportunities to thrive in today’s world. Yet American Indian and Alaska Native peoples are still and have been historically underrepresented in the computer science fields. To remedy that, the American Indian College Fund launched its Tribal College and University Computer Science Initiative to create new and expand existing computer science programs at higher education institutions serving American Indian and Alaska Native students to meet the community and workforce needs of Indigenous communities and to provide career opportunities for Native students in computer science fields.
SIPI: Supporting Our HSE Students During the Coronavirus Pandemic
By Jim Snyder, SIPI HSE Instructor Note from the editor: This blog post was written in November 2020, but could not be published at the time due to required and delayed external permissions. We are publishing it now to share SIPI’s perspective and experience of HSE...
American Indian College Fund Receives Unrestricted Gift from MacKenzie Scott Foundation
The College Fund learned the MacKenzie Scott Foundation, headed by the billionaire novelist and philanthropist of the same name and her husband Dan Jewett, selected it to receive an unrestricted gift. Cheryl Crazy Bull, President and CEO of the American Indian College Fund said, “This gift is timely and pivotal because, in combination with the generosity of our network of current and future supporters, we now have the capacity to grow greater opportunities for American Indian and Alaska Native communities and to create lasting change. MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett’s acknowledgement of our work is a testament to the important role of education to transform the lives of our students, their families, and communities.”
The College Fund is committed to eliminating the college attainment gap among Indigenous people and continues to appreciate and rely upon the support of every one of its current and future supporters to meet its goals to transform the lives of Indigenous students, their families, and their communities through a higher education.
