COVID-19
HOW WE PLAN TO RAISE FUNDS
The larger picture of how we plan to raise funds:
[1] Asking you to first consider donating to one of the COVID-19 Relief Funds directly supporting tribes from our vetted list
[2] The sale of photo prints, graciously donated by Tara Kerzhner on NativesOutdoors & TK’s website
[3] Designated NativesOutdoors products.
We commit to donating 100% of all profits to the purchase of hand sanitizer, cloth masks, and the necessary shipping or transport to impacted communities. We define profits in the instance of the prints as all proceeds in excess of the cost of the print & shipping charges. For NativeOutdoors products we define this as all proceeds in excess of the cost of the product and an average $0.50 - $2 warehouse fee (rent, utilities, hourly pay for our worker).
Here’s a breakdown for our products:
Sticker $5 breakdown: $0.50 for the sticker, $0.50 for the warehouse fee, $4 direct to the communities
Shirts $34 breakdown: $22 for the cost of the shirt, $2 warehouse fee, $10 to COVID Fundraiser
Chalk Bags $22 breakdown: $10 Chalk Bag Cost, $2 warehouse fee, $10 to COVID Fundraiser
Beanie $22 breakdown $10 Beanie Cost, $2 warehouse fee, $10 to COVID Fundraiser
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS FUNDRAISING DRIVE?
The American Indian tribes and specifically Navajo Nation are getting hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis we are in. As of yesterday, April 27th, there are 1,769 confirmed cases & 60 deaths on the Navajo Nation. The absolute numbers don’t look like much however when we look at it on a per capita basis it paints a different picture. There’s about 167,000 people that live on the Navajo Nation when we look at this on a per capita basis this comes out to 1054 Infections Per 100,000 People & 36 Deaths Per 100,000 People. This would place the Navajo Nation #3 in states right behind NY & NJ in terms of per capita impacts. A big caveat on these testing numbers on Navajo is that they are woefully undercounted and don’t actually reflect the true infection rate. These disparities are exacerbated on the reservation where medical care is severely lacking. These impacts are also reflective of the impacts that many other tribes will face throughout the country.
On a personal level this crisis is immediately personal to a number of our team members who represent the Laguna Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Navajo Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and Pasqua Yaqui nations. We believe that we also are uniquely positioned at the nexus of the Outdoor Industry and American Indian Tribes to help support our communities.
HOW WE PLAN TO SPEND FUNDS THAT COME THROUGH NATIVESOUTDOORS
First off we encourage and ask that you donate to the organizations in our vetted list first before sending any funds through us. Given the scale of this issue we are working to do our part through the following.
We plan to use our existing suppliers we plan to purchase face masks and hand sanitizer for the following community contacts we have gathered. A number of tribes are requiring tribal members to wear masks when going into public however many do not have access to sewing equipment or other means to create reusable facemasks. In a number of these communities access to running water remains a challenge and also access to soap and other cleaning supplies.
Any money gathered in excess of these needs will be donated to one of the 501c3’s listed in our vetted list.
HOW WE PLAN TO HAVE TRANSPARENCY OVER WE HAVE FUNDS
We plan to publicly disclose our total sales, receipts, and donations through our website and social media channels on a monthly basis. We are also happy to answer any questions regarding this item as it is something we are deeply committed to. Please send inquiries to len@natives-outdoors.org
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DATE
We received a $5000 Grant from NDN Collective to support relief efforts in the Denver Front Range. With this money we purchased ~$2500 of masks and ~$2000 of hand sanitizer, 2500 masks and about 150 liters of hand sanitizer. We plan to work with Michael Johnson of NDN collective and our front range team members, Connor Ryan & Tara Kerzhner to distribute these items. The remaining $500 will be used to pay for shipping / driving costs to and from our warehouse in Albuquerque which will receive the masks and other costs for transport within the Denver area. We will document our mileage and gas costs. Any funds in excess of these costs will be donated back to NDN collective or donated to one of the vetted 501c3’s.
