SSBCI SUCCESS STORIES: AKIAK NATIVE COMMUNITY

Akiak Native Community was approved for up to $647,000 in SSBCI funding in late 2023. The Tribal Council quickly put Akiak Holdings, its economic development company, to work to implement the SSBCI strategy through a venture capital investment into a new Tribal enterprise – a business wholly owned by the Community, the revenues of which will support the Community’s public services.
 
The Akiak Native Community chose to invest SSBCI capital in Yupiit Grant Services, a grant lifecycle services company that supports Tribes, nonprofits, and Native communities in identifying, qualifying for, and administering federal grants in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of southwest Alaska. The Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) is larger than the State of Washington with an 85% indigenous population.  It is home to 56 remote, federally-recognized Alaskan Tribes across three indigenous cultures: Yup’ik, Cup’ik, and Athabascan.
 
With poverty rates exceeding 45% in many villages, most YKD Tribes rely heavily on federal grants to provide basic services in their communities. Nearly all of these villages are inaccessible to each other, and none have access beyond the YKD via connecting highways or roads. In addition to driving on the frozen Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in winter, travelers use small aircraft, boats, or snowmachines to connect to other communities. Most local economic activity is anchored in harvesting – including fishing, hunting, and crafting of food and clothing from the harvest – and many families operate on a subsistence basis. Access to federal grants is critical to the local economic and community infrastructure services in all YKD tribal communities.
 
In addition to improving access to and stewardship of federal grants, the Akiak Native Community sees the investment in Yupiit as contributing to the Tribe’s goal of economic sovereignty – increasing unrestricted revenues that can be invested back into community services as determined by the Tribal community, to complement grant support and fund other needs or initiatives. The Tribe anticipates putting revenue from Yupiit into a fund that will support elders in retirement, among other initiatives.
 
Finally, this investment will create direct economic opportunities within the YKD tribal communities – Yupiit has already created two jobs for tribal members, and depending on uptake for its services, will add additional Tribal community staff.
 
This SSBCI-supported transaction represents not only a small business financing opportunity – but also how a Tribe used SSBCI to invest in a longer-term strategy to support both its own economic and community development projects that benefit tribal members and increase grant revenue and economic opportunity for the surrounding YKD tribal communities.

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