Colorado · Nonprofit
NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC
NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC (Colorado) receives grants from 308 organizations whose IRS filings report $47,210,037 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($5,052,309). 165 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $25M
- Funders on record
- 308
- Grants received
- $47M
- Net assets
- $89M
What Native American Rights Fund Inc does
Mission
The native american rights fund holds governments accountable. We fight to protect native american rights, resources, and lifeways through litigation, legal advocacy, and legal expertise. As established by native american rights fund's (narf) first board of directors, (continued on schedule o)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) continues to provide high-level legal advocacy and programs that serve tribal nations and their communities across the country. Our mission and work are to simply assist tribal nations in living according to their culture and identity through the assertion, defense, and evolution of tribal sovereignty and the protection of their treaty rights. NARF's casework and programming assist tribal communities in addressing ongoing adverse threats to tribal interests and their homelands. NARF is guided by five mission priorities, which include the preservation of tribal existence, the protection of tribal natural resources, the promotion of human rights, the accountability of governments to Native Americans, the development of Indian law and by extension, the education of the public about contemporary Indian rights, laws, and issues. A board of directors consisting of tribal and indigenous leaders from across the country guide the direction of NARF to the fulfillment of our mission in protecting tribal nations and their communities. Our litigation management committee and corporate officers ensure that the programs and cases NARF engages in under the…
$13,417,723 spent$601,041 earned by the program95% of program spendingNational Indian Law Library In 1972, NARF founded the National Indian Law Library (NILL) to serve the research needs of NARF attorneys. NILL's resources are also available to the public however, and hundreds of research requests are received weekly. The library houses a unique and valuable collection of federal Indian and tribal law materials and provides specialized legal research assistance. It also provides online bulletins to keep advocates aware of the latest legal developments and most recent news in Indian law. Researchers around the world have access to the resources of the National Indian Law Library through online access to our library catalog (https://nill.softlinkliberty.net/liberty). The catalog contains information on over 18,000 titles held in the NILL collection. Copies of most resources can be delivered to researchers in a timely way and many catalog records provide links to free resources that are available on the internet. NILL's collection includes catalog records for approximately 7,000 articles, 4,500 books, and 1400 tribal law resources. Many of these items are freely available online and are easily accessed via a link in the catalog record. NILL is the only…
$668,470 spent5% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,086,193.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $51M to $73M (+42%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 80% · 2018 16% · 2019 21% · 2020 8% · 2021 8% · 2022 6% · 2023 9% · 2024 5% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
John Echohawk
Executive director
Board chair
Lacey Horn
Chairwoman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 39 funders to 116 funders, grant income rose $1.8M → $7.3M.
38 of 308 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 308 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 14 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 14 funders to its left
36% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 18% · 2019 14% · 2020 10% · 2021 13% · 2022 13% · 2023 13% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
39% of NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Colorado, across 39 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 63 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 63 civil rights nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $600k on record.
- Department of Justice$600k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Colorado
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 50 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC?
- NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC (Colorado) receives grants from 308 organizations whose IRS filings report $47,210,037 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($5,052,309). 165 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC have?
- IRS filings report 308 organizations giving $47,210,037 in grants to NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC, 165 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,052,309 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Colorado. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 308 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing