Organizations Filed Purposes:
Tanka Fund's mission is to return buffalo to Native American lands, lives and economies.
Tanka Fund operates a grants program to provide needed capital to Native buffalo ranchers for essential infrastructure, animals, lease payments on land, and strategic business planning. During the past year, Tanka Fund issued a grant of $15,000 to the Brewer Buffalo Ranch in Slim Buttes, SD, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Brewer ranch is a project of the tax-exempt organization One Spirit. The grant was issued to assist the Brewer family in building a fence on their 800-acre ranch to ensure their buffalo would not escape as well as covering the cost for a used ATV so that the family can check on their herd and move them if needed. The grant and improvements not only benefited the Brewer Family of four, but also the entire community of Slim Buttes and Pine Ridge. The Brewer ranch operates a meat house to harvest buffalo and other wild game so that the meat can be available to address hunger and lack of nutrition on the reservation. As the Brewer Ranch expands their herd, more buffalo meat will be available to the community. In addition to this achievement, the Tanka Fund Board of Directors has made strides in re-structuring its grant program to better serve the needs of Native buffalo ranchers. A new tiered structure is under development that will include grants for Planning, Operations, and Sustainability.
Our second program is the development of a Native buffalo caretakers cooperative called Tanka Resilient Agriculture that can provide hands-on training and technical assistance to Native ranchers in regenerative management. This training is essential for Native buffalo ranchers to compete and succeed in the growing buffalo market and capture the value of raising grass-fed, organic Native buffalo. This past year, Tanka Fund researched and met with experts in the field of cooperative business development to initiate the process of creating a membership plan for the coop. While direct benefit has not yet accrued to the community, we do believe our achievements in the coming year will provide avenues to move at least 3 ranch families into substantiated regenerative management practices and thereby financial health.
Executives Listed on Filing
Total Salary includes financial earnings, benefits, and all related organization earnings listed on tax filing
| Name | Title | Hours Per Week | Total Salary |
|---|
| Dawn Sherman | Member | 1 | $0 |
| Nick Herndandez | Secretary-Treasurer | 2 | $0 |
| Mark Tilsen | Vice President | 2 | $0 |
| Zach Ducheneaux | President | 2 | $0 |
Data for this page was sourced from XML published by IRS (
public 990 form dataset) from:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/202013219349324811_public.xml