Interview with Christy Finsel, Executive Director
Jen: How was ONAC Fund Created?
Christy: ONAC started the ONAC Fund with an anonymous donation. The ONAC Fund is managed by ONAC and the funds are held with J.A. Glynn Investments in Missouri.
Jen: How are your investment funds catalytic in a way that is different from other funds?
Christy: The ONAC Fund is the only Native-led fund in the country providing this range of proven and evaluated integrated wrap-around asset-building services at a national level. The ONAC Fund shifts power in that we serve Native families that may not otherwise served by Native CDFIs, Native financial institutions, and other lenders (as we can serve in geographic areas that are not in the geographic footprint of those lending partners). ONAC also shifts power with this Fund by leveraging our relationships with federal, tribal, state, and other Native-led nonprofit partners to assist ONAC with program outreach (helping us reach harder-to-reach Native families). For the revolving loan fund, ONAC will use non-traditional credit evaluation and will connect constituents to other asset-building resources which may help strengthen their personal and business financial wellness. ONAC provides transformational services as we offer culturally-relevant and Native-led asset-building services that help Native businesses, entrepreneurs, and other Native families build sustainable assets.
Jen: How do you describe the kind of non-financial returns the fund offers?
Christy: The ONAC Fund provides a variety of non-financial returns. These include access to finance for the underbanked and unbanked; increased skills for budgeting, managing credit, and purchasing a home (all through our financial coaching program); increased expectations that children will graduate from college (through ONAC seed-funded Children’s Savings Account program we offer); increased options during emergencies (through ONAC emergency savings account program and emergency cash assistance program); access to culturally relevant Native-specific ONAC financial education that aligns with Native understandings of assets being beyond money; more options for tax preparation in local Native communities; basic information about how to access safe and affordable bank accounts (through ONAC Get Banked Indian Country Campaign); and access to capital (through revolving loan fund participation).
Jen: Can you describe how you use integrated capital to do your work?
Christy: For the past 22 years, ONAC has built deep relationships with over 300 federally-recognized tribal
Christy Finsel (Osage), ONAC Executive Director, working with Seminole family to open Children’s Savings Accounts and a family Emergency Savings Account. Photo Credit: Ann Sherman, ONAC, 20
governments across the U.S., as well as with numerous Native-led nonprofits. ONAC is a hybrid organization and wears four hats while administering seven programs.
1). ONAC is a direct provider of asset-building programs. By this, we mean that we run our own national seed-funded Children’s Savings Account, emergency savings account, emergency cash assistance, down payment assistance, financial coaching, and Native Bank On/banking access incentive programs. We also offer cash incentives for credit building and homeownership and support Native Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites to help tribal citizens claim their tax credits. With all these programs we run, we include Native-specific and culturally relevant financial education. ONAC also includes Native arts and language preservation into our programming. These programs are a form of initial reparation funding in Native communities and help us try to lessen racial and gender wealth gaps.
2). ONAC is an intermediary grant funder. We have awarded 85 grants since 2014 to tribal governments and Native-led nonprofits. The majority of the grants have been awarded to Native-led Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs to they can provided needed tax services and make tax time asset-building time in Native communities.
3). ONAC administers two Native asset-building networks: the national Native EITC/VITA Network to support Native VITA practitioners and advocate for their needs, and the national Native Bank On/Get Banked Indian Country to promote banking access given the over 50% rate of unbanked and underbanked Native peoples in the U.S.
4). ONAC conducts national Native asset-building research and provides technical assistance and training for tribal governments and other Native-led nonprofits to administer their own asset-building programs. These programs are designed to meet the social, cultural, and financial wellness needs of tribal citizens and Native Hawaiians across the country. The current $1 million in the ONAC Fund will be used to support these current programs. We rely on our many Native partners across the country to help us with outreach for these programs. Going forward, the ONAC Fund could grow to also help ONAC purchase a brick and mortar office building and a mobile unit so we could travel for ONAC account opening events (see #1 above about the programs we offer). Also, we will be launching a flexible revolving loan fund.
Jen: How do you address racial justice, income inequality, and/or gender justice through your products and services?
Christy: ONAC serves tribal citizens and Native Hawaiians across the U.S. As a Native-led grassroots nonprofit, with twenty-two years of experience, we advance racial and gender justice by serving low-income Native families (a majority of women seek our services) that have been left out of mainstream asset-building opportunities. We have documented the extensive asset-stripping that has occurred in Native communities (and still continues today). Our integrated asset-building programming is designed to help Native families build crucial Native assets throughout their lives. ONAC is in need of capital to scale the effective programs we have already designed and implemented. The ONAC Fund advances income justice through its emergency cash assistance program. Climate justice will be supported through the revolving loan fund and support of clean energy projects.
Jen: Can you share with us an example of an investment?
Christy: ONAC already provides all the asset-building programming mentioned in earlier responses. ONAC seeks grants and other investments to continue that programming. ONAC also seeks investments for an office and mobile unit purchase. We are developing a revolving loan fund that will be offered to those in our financial coaching program. We are considering loans of up to $20,000, up to a five to ten-year loan term (depending upon the amount of the loan), and an estimated 5-7% interest rate (as our goal is to serve lower-income Native families). ONAC is thinking through the terms for the other loan types and can speak more specifically with interested parties about those terms.
Jen: What do you tell people who think your fund is risky?
Christy: By not investing in the ONAC Fund, given that there are not other Native entities providing this range of programs to tribal citizens across the country, Native families will not have the necessary resources for banking access, investor education, financial coaching, down payment assistance, children’s savings for college, emergency savings account formation, emergency cash assistance, access to Native-led VITA services in rural and urban areas, and access to capital.
Investment Thesis/What is your rationale for your approach to investing?
Building upon ONAC’s 22-year history as an Indigenous and women-led asset-building coalition that provides culturally-relevant wrap-around asset-building programming (financial resources), ONAC has established a fund and is seeking capital to continue providing such services, purchase an office building and/or mobile outreach unit, and start a flexible revolving loan fund.
Geography: Across the United States, serving American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities residing throughout the U.S. ONAC started in Oklahoma and has kept the name. ONAC has worked in a national capacity since 2018. We received an anonymous donation of $1 million in 2022 and have not yet deployed these funds in the communities we currently serve. We have used these funds to start the ONAC Fund.
Year Founded: 2022
# of Investments: 0
# of Investors: 1 (donors, funders, supporters, investors)
Funds Raised: $1,262,314 since inception
What’s on Christy’s Mind?
Book: Hallelujah Anyway, Rediscovering Mercy, by Anne Lamott
Song: It is back to school time in our household. To celebrate, we recently had a Jackson 5 ABC dance party in our living room.
Podcast: I am a citizen of the Osage Nation. I have been listening to the Bloomberg, In Trust podcast, https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-in-trust-podcast/