Sovereign Roots Native Business Development Program

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Executive Summary

Sovereign Roots Native Business Development Program is a nonprofit in New Mexico that supports Native entrepreneurs in tribal communities. We work only at the invitation of tribal governments, teach business courses led by Native instructors with elders as advisors, pair each participant with a Native business owner as a coach, award startup micro-grants paid to vendors and help artisans and food producers reach customers through e-commerce and markets.

Native communities have rich cultures and many entrepreneurs, and have long faced barriers of distance, access to capital and programs not built with them. Each new business keeps dollars in the community.

With this grant we will serve about 30 entrepreneurs in Year 1 in 2 communities. We follow each community's protocols and respect tribal sovereignty. We do not give legal, tax or lending advice and we do not promise any business a profit. We promise respectful teaching, careful use of funds and honest help.

Our Year 1 budget is about $222,500, growing to about $291,500 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 4 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director, a Program Director and two part-time coaches) and 7 by Year 5.

We are asking the Four Directions Economic Foundation for $65,000 for the Program Director and the micro-grant pool. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Sovereign Roots Native Business Development Program is a nonprofit organization in New Mexico. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. To strengthen Native economies by supporting Native entrepreneurs in ways that respect tribal sovereignty, culture and community.

What we do.
- Run business courses in tribal communities, led by Native instructors, at times and places chosen with each community.
- Pair each participant with a Native business owner as a coach.
- Honor traditional knowledge and cultural values in the curriculum, with elders as advisors.
- Award startup micro-grants for approved business expenses, paid to vendors.
- Support digital access, e-commerce and market access for artisans and food producers.
- Help owners understand tribal, state and federal business rules through partner professionals.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We work only at the invitation of tribal governments and communities and follow their guidance on culture and sovereignty. We do not give legal, tax or lending advice. We do not promise any business a profit. Grants are paid to vendors for approved expenses and never as cash. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of Native business owners, a tribal council member and an extension agent began visiting communities at the invitation of leaders to teach business skills in the evenings. Interest grew in each community. We kept simple records of who came and what they were building. This proposal asks for support to move from evening workshops in a few communities to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Native communities have rich cultures and many entrepreneurs, and have long faced barriers of distance, access to capital and programs that were not built with them.

Cost. Startup costs and travel to training far from home add up, and many Native entrepreneurs lack collateral because land is held in trust.

Access. Many tribal communities are far from banks, broadband and business centers, and many programs are not designed around Native values.

Safety and trust. Tribal leaders and participants want a program that respects sovereignty, culture and privacy, and funders want accountability.

Missed benefits. When Native businesses do not grow, communities lose jobs, services and cultural livelihoods, and money leaves the community.

What we hear.
- A silversmith says she sells more at a distant market than at home because no one buys online for her.
- A rancher says land in trust makes it hard to borrow.
- A council member says each new business keeps dollars in the community.
- An elder says the old ways of trading still have much to teach about business.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that a program shaped with Native communities, led by Native owners and backed by small capital can help businesses grow and keep dollars home.

Products & Services

Sovereign Roots Native Business Development Program gives Native entrepreneurs in tribal communities a safe, welcoming place to start and grow businesses in their communities.

How the program works.
1. Invitation. We work in communities that invite us, and agree on schedule, place and cultural protocols with tribal leaders.
2. Course. Weekly sessions led by Native instructors cover planning, pricing, marketing, records and e-commerce, with elders as advisors.
3. Coaches. Each participant is paired with a Native business owner as a coach.
4. Capital. Participants with a plan may apply for a startup micro-grant, paid to vendors.
5. Digital access. We help set up online stores and payment tools and share a hotspot loan program.
6. Rules. Partner professionals help participants understand tribal, state and federal business rules.
7. Markets. We connect participants with buyers, trade shows and cultural markets.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our instructors and coaches are Native business owners and advisors who pass a background check, complete our training and are paid for their time.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Services are free. We welcome every enrolled tribal member and Native entrepreneur in participating communities, and we respect each community's protocols.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Native entrepreneurs in participating tribal communities who have a business idea or a young business. Eligibility is being a Native entrepreneur in a participating community and having a business idea, and no one is turned away for the type of business.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our evening workshops we served full rooms and kept a waiting list in every community. Tribal leaders told us that many more entrepreneurs want help than we can reach. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 30 participants at 2 communities. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 90.

Where participants come from.
- Tribal governments and economic development offices.
- Native community organizations.
- Extension offices and Native CDFIs.
- Participants who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Families gain income. Communities keep dollars at home. Tribal governments gain a stronger local economy.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is an entrepreneur selling work made in her community. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Small business centers. Strong, often far from tribal communities. We bring training home.

2. Native CDFIs. Essential lenders with limited training capacity. We partner.

3. Tribal economic development offices. Support businesses with limited staff. We add capacity.

4. Federal and state programs. Offer funds with complex rules. We help participants apply.

5. Online courses. Convenient and not designed around Native values.

What makes us different.
- Native instructors and coaches.
- Elders as advisors and cultural protocols respected.
- Training in the community, at times chosen with leaders.
- Micro-grants paid to vendors.
- E-commerce and hotspot support.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with tribal governments, Native CDFIs and extension offices to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Tribal governments and economic development offices. We will meet leaders and agree on how we work together.
- Native community organizations. We will share information at gatherings with permission.
- Extension offices and Native CDFIs. We will share a referral form and a named contact.
- Community radio and newsletters. We will share information with each community's approval.
- Word of mouth. Participants tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit instructors and coaches through Native business owners' groups and tribal economic development offices.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, businesses started, online sales begun and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Meet with tribal leaders and begin the first courses.
- Months 4 to 10: Run courses in participating communities, with coaching and micro-grants.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey participants and tribal partners, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. Classes are held in tribal community buildings, libraries and schools, provided by the community at no cost.

Safety and privacy.
- We follow each community's protocols and obtain permission before sharing stories or images.
- Micro-grants are paid to vendors and reviewed by two people.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $7,500 of equipment once at the start: laptops, tablets and hotspots for classes and loan ($4,000), portable projector and sound system ($1,500), travel equipment and portable supplies for classes in remote communities ($2,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director. The Program Director, paid $46,000 a year, manages courses, communities and grants. Two part-time Native business coaches, each paid $24,000 a year, work with participants. We add coaches as we add communities.

Management & Organization

Dr. Lucas Begay, Executive Director. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a Native business owner who learned most of what I know from relatives and a few good mentors. I will complete the training we require of our coaches so I understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Program Director manages courses, communities and grants, and part-time Native business coaches work with participants. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a tribal council member, a Native business owner, a Native CDFI lender, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney, an elder and a graduate. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A tribal economic development director, an extension agent and an elder give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director, paid $54,000 a year; program Director, paid $46,000 a year; native Business Coach (part-time), paid $24,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 30 participants at 2 communities.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 45 participants at 2 communities.
- Year 3: About 60 participants at 3 communities.
- Year 4: About 75 participants at 3 communities.
- Year 5: About 90 participants at 4 communities.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 53 percent of our budget, down from about 68 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $65,000 from the Four Directions Economic Foundation for the Program Director and the micro-grant pool, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Program Director salary, $46,000.
- Other: Micro-grant pool paid to vendors, $19,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 43% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $222,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $9,000 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $150,500; tribal and State Economic Development Funding $40,000; native CDFI and Corporate Partners $24,000; individual Donors $8,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director $54,000; program Director $46,000; native Business Coach (part-time) $24,000; micro-Grant Pool about $30,000; elder and Cultural Advisor Honoraria about $6,000; travel to Communities about $10,000; workshop Materials about $4,000; digital Access and E-Commerce Support about $5,000; administration and Insurance about $9,000; about $3,100 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $16,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $4,000 for laptops, tablets and hotspots for classes and loan; $1,500 for portable projector and sound system; $2,000 for travel equipment and portable supplies for classes in remote communities; $2,500 for attorney review of the participant agreement, grant policy and privacy policy; $1,800 for flyers, banners and a simple website; $1,700 for coach training and background checks; $2,500 for first insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($16,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $53,000, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $69,000. We start with $6,000 from our founding board and $65,000 in startup support from a community foundation and a Native CDFI, $71,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $222,500 in Year 1 to about $291,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $150,500, $139,000, $152,500, $141,000 and $155,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: tribal and State Economic Development Funding from $40,000 to $64,000; native CDFI and Corporate Partners from $24,000 to $48,000; individual Donors from $8,000 to $24,000. Our surplus is planned at about $9,000 in Year 1, about $9,900 in Year 2, about $11,600 in Year 3, about $12,100 in Year 4 and about $14,300 in Year 5. We grow from 2 communities to 4 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $65,100, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $8,900 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per entrepreneur. In Year 1, our total costs are about $7,117 per entrepreneur served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more entrepreneur served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $3,080 per entrepreneur.

After the grant. Tribal and state economic development funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free native entrepreneurship option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of entrepreneurs and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $150,500 in Year 1, growing to $155,500 in Year 5.
- Tribal and State Economic Development Funding: $40,000 in Year 1, growing to $64,000 in Year 5.
- Native CDFI and Corporate Partners: $24,000 in Year 1, growing to $48,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $8,000 in Year 1, growing to $24,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director $54,000; program Director $46,000; native Business Coach (part-time) $24,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: micro-Grant Pool $30,000; elder and Cultural Advisor Honoraria $6,000; travel to Communities $10,000; workshop Materials $4,000; digital Access and E-Commerce Support $5,000; administration and Insurance $9,000. These grow between 4% and 6% a year.
- Equipment: $7,500 at the start, then $1,500 to $2,500 a year.
- Startup costs: $16,000, paid once from $71,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 30 in Year 1, growing to about 90 in Year 5. Sites: 2 in Year 1, growing to 4 by Year 5. Courses run in each community on a schedule chosen with leaders, with coaching through the year.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs