The Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul has announced twenty-seven grants totaling $3.3 million to organizations working to create jobs and economic opportunities in the region, with a focus on Native-American tribal communities.

The foundation, which has committed at least 40 percent of its 2013 grant portfolio to programs and Native-operated nonprofits working to build community and individual financial know-how, access to capital, and entrepreneurial skills in tribal communities, awarded $500,000 to the First Nations Development Institute in Longmont, Colorado, to fund an internal database and three public reports that will highlight asset-building opportunities in areas such as the arts, energy, food systems, and cooperative business models; $500,000 to the Hopa Mountain Foundation in Bozeman, Montana, in support of Native leaders working to improve education, ecological health, and economic development in their communities; and $300,000 to the D.C.-based National Congress of American Indians in support of the organization's efforts to leverage its relationship with tribal leaders and Native organizations to strengthen tribal economies.

Recipients of grants focused on asset building in non-Native communities include Minneapolis-based Build Wealth Minnesota, which was awarded $150,000 over two years to establish a community development financial institution and provide financial education and access to credit for low-income people; Cookie Cart of Minneapolis, which will receive $100,000 over two years to support a youth social entrepreneurship project focused on teen employment and training; Homes of Oakridge Human Services, Inc. in Des Moines, which was awarded $150,000 over two years for job training and placement programs focused on refugees and hard-to-place workers; the Seattle Foundation, which will receive $500,000 over two years in support of its work to increase economic opportunities in low-income communities; and Ujamaa Place in St. Paul, which was awarded $150,000 over two years to provide job training for economically disadvantaged African-American men.

The foundation also awarded a number of grants to organizations working to improve public policy. They include an award of $139,200 to the Great Plains Institute to hold a series of convenings in North Dakota to gather input on policy recommendations for North Dakota's oil-and-gas Legacy Fund; and $500,000 over three years to the Portland-based Oregon Business Council Charitable Institute in support of regional pilot projects designed to improve job prospects for low-wage workers and to educate the public on the indirect costs of poverty.

"The time is right to take a hard look at the undeveloped potential for creating jobs and economic prosperity on Native American tribal lands and beyond," said NWAF president and CEO Kevin Walker. "The grants we are announcing offer a mix of strategies designed to help low-income workers move to living-wage jobs and develop the skills needed to build personal financial stability."

For a complete list of the foundation's second-quarter grants, visit the Northwest Area Foundation Web site.