We exist to keep decision-making power with communities. Support those communities already doing the work. Disrupt traditional grant-making. Move money.
ABOUt
The Waterers are disruptors of philanthropy that stemmed out of Local Control, Local Fields, an initiative of ArtPlace America, a people-powered process led by grassroots Assemblies in six geographies that shaped the use of a funding pool to further strengthen their local creative place-tending field of practice.
The Waterers are the entrusted fund stewards of the Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native Nations geographic region Assembly. Our Assembly centers Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) creatives as leaders. Our gift-making strategy attends to the nuance and complexities of this region.
By the end of 2021 we redistributed $2.76 million through three separate initiatives, funding BIPOC artists, culture bearers, and organizations across the hills, lakes, prairies, woods and 23 Native Nations, as colonized into 3 states by scores of treaties. We believe in investing in small, local, and the non-colonial. Racing Magpie is where we chose to house this work to build our capacity to collectively lead and steward this fund.
Vision
Our vision is to radically transform the paradigm of ‘giving’ from a scarcity economy model to one of abundance and cooperation. We envision funding and resources that continue building communities with unrestricted funding. Imagine if the elder beadworkers, culture-bearers, story-weavers had just as much access to funding as the white-led Arts agency? It can happen in a funding paradigm where we center local BIPOC Artists and culture bearers to make the decisions.
Mission
Our mission is to propel the philanthropic field to change how it redistributes funding to prioritize BIPOC Artists and culture-bearers who have been historically exploited. Traditional competitive grant processes and systems make sustaining, let alone applying, out of reach. We urgently center land, identity, healing, and time - recognizing the land and peoples grounded in cultural power who make up the field of creative place-keeping.
Values
Our values are a compass, both in who receives funds and shapes our process. We boldly diverge from the types of traditional ‘grantmaking’ we’ve all experienced. We believe in mending the connective tissue to deepen the roots of relation, and taking risks to build trust and capacity through every step of our design and decision making. Our choices seek reconciliation.
Our Process
Unlearning Colonial Philanthropy
Our program doesn’t rely on distant program officers who don’t know the geographies or people - the Waterers identify individuals within their respective localities to make the decisions.
Our Community
Artists and culture bearers already exist in our communities. Our Assembly and all who receive funding are invited to be in relation, to make decisions, mentor each other, and build camaraderie and alliances.
Blossoming connectivity
We invite everyone associated with this program to be in continuous relation to each other as peers, mentors, advocates, and fellow practitioners.
Sustaining Practice
Recipients don’t apply; they get recognized for their work by their communities. We will amplify the possibility of mutual support and aid, and comfort of knowing who to call for healing.
Our three steps:
Immediate Disbursement
We distributed a first round of funds immediately. We moved quickly because of COVID-19 and the global uprising after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Immediate and unrestricted funding was, and is still vital.
Future Building
We then looked to a new set of distributions because while watering the existing trees in our forests, we must also tend to the new sprouts. The funds towards future building served as gifts of recognition for work being done for and by BIPOC communities.
Amplify Sovereignty
A significant portion of funds was set aside for Native reparations and the Land Back Movement - targeting funds to Native organizations in our region. Our strategy centered sovereignty, self-determination, culture, language as determined by those who identify politically and culturally in this way.
