When the W.K. Kellogg Foundation first approached a group of tribal college presidents in 1994 with a $23 million grant for a handful of their institutions, the tribal college leaders didn’t exactly trip over themselves to get the money.
“They basically [said], ‘That’s not how we want to do it,’” recalls Valorie Johnson, a longtime Kellogg program officer who approached the tribal college leaders with the grant offer.
“‘If there’s $10,’” she says the tribal college leaders told her at the time, “‘we want it to be split among all of us.’”
When then-Kellogg Foundation CEO Russ Mawby asked Johnson if the tribal college leaders were excited about the grant, she told him they were but that “there were a couple of things they wanted to change.”
“I thought [Mawby] was going to be upset, but he was quite the opposite,” Johnson says.
So much so that, instead of going forward with the initial plan, the foundation honored the tribal college leaders’ wish. They distributed the money among several tribal institutions, many of which were in a state of disrepair at the time.
Nearly two decades after that decision, the Native American Higher Education Initiative is still reaping benefits. Those familiar with the grant’s impact say the schools have seen improved campus infrastructure, increased student enrollment and a greater ability to leverage other funds.
