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American Indian College Fund
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Based in Denver, Colorado, The American Indian College Fund provides scholarships and other support for the nation's 32 tribal colleges and universities. Tribal colleges, the vast majority of which are located on or near reservations, provide opportunity and access to post-secondary education for Indian and non-Indian students. Tribal colleges offer accredited degrees while keeping Indian culture and tradition at the heart of their curricula.
The Fund disburses approximately 5,000 scholarships annually for American Indian students and provides support for other needs at the tribal colleges ranging from capital support to cultural preservation activities.
For more information visit www.collegefund.org
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In the wake of the civil rights and American Indian self-determination movements of the 1960s, tribal leaders decided to take control of higher education on the reservations to reverse centuries of misguided and failed federal education policies.
In 1968, the Navajo Nation created a first-of-its-kind educational institution[citation needed] - a college controlled by the tribe, located on the reservation and established specifically to provide higher education to tribal members. With that, the tribal college movement was born. Since then, the number of tribal colleges and universities has grown to 30, located in 11 states and serving more than 250 American Indian Nations from every geographic region in the United States.
When the American Indian College Fund was launched in 1989, raising funds from private sector sources for providing scholarship support to the tribal colleges was its primary mission. Tribal colleges are vital to Native America and beneficial to the country as a whole because they help Native communities fight poverty through education and preserve language and culture.
Originally located in New York City, the Fund relocated to Denver, Colorado in 2002.
The American Indian College Fund's mission is to raise scholarship funds for American Indian students at qualified tribal colleges and universities and to generate broad awareness of those institutions and the Fund itself. The organization also raises money and resources for other needs at the schools, including capital projects, operations, endowments or program initiatives, and it will conduct fundraising and related activities for Board-directed initiatives.
In 2006, Wieden + Kennedy launched a new PSA campaign for the AICF called "If I Stay on the Rez." A series of five ads highlight students who have attended a tribal college and plan to use their education on the reservation to help their people. The campaign builds awareness for the preservation of American Indian culture and history.