Chinook Fund Inc

In filing year 2025, Chinook Fund reported 52 grants totaling $435,000. Grant amounts ranged from $5,000 to $20,000, with a median of $5,000. Among the largest grants were $20,000 to Fuerza Latina for program and operations assistance; $20,000 to Lamar Unidos for program and operations assistance; and $20,000 to Western Regional Advocacy Project for its fiscally sponsored project, Housekeys Action Network Denver. Other grants included $15,000 to Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center for its fiscally sponsored project, Ignacio Out and Equal Alliance, and $10,000 to Sisters of Color United for Education for its fiscally sponsored project, Alchemy Ritual Goods.

Chinook Fund’s Giving Project is its core resource-building, leadership-development, and grantmaking program. The organization describes a cohort of 15–25 people taking part in a six-month process. Its 2026 workshop materials outline screening meetings, site visits, and final decisions by the Giving Project. The Spring 2026 application offered Start-Up Grants of up to $4,000 and Established Grants of up to $10,000, with applicants choosing between general operating and project support. The materials recommend general operating support in many cases.

Eligibility described in the Spring 2026 workshop included operating in Colorado, or being a regional Indigenous group whose boundaries overlap Colorado, and having an annual organizational budget of $350,000 or less. The workshop also says Chinook Fund does not fund direct services to individuals, groups serving as pass-throughs to individuals, other foundations or pass-through funding to groups, individuals or organizations controlled by one individual, scholarships, or profit-making organizations except worker-owned cooperatives. Groups whose work or decision-making body is based outside Colorado are also excluded, with possible exceptions noted in the workshop materials. Applicants approved or declined in the Fall 2025 cycle had to wait until the Fall 2026 cycle.