ONAC Announces Additional 
Children’s Savings Account Partners

May 11, 2016.  We, the Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition Inc. (ONAC), announce that we have chosen six new Children’s Savings Account partners, in addition to several current partners, to work with us to open 250 more ONAC Children’s Savings Accounts for Native youth. 

The Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition (ONAC) is a nonprofit Native asset building coalition that works with tribes and partners interested in establishing asset-building initiatives and programs in Native communities, for the purpose of creating greater opportunities for economic self-sufficiency of tribal citizens. 

In March 2016, ONAC released a request for Letters of Interest for Children’s Savings Account partnerships.  We received excellent letters from tribal governments and Native nonprofits based in Oklahoma.  ONAC is thankful to all those who submitted requests for partnership.  Our coalition received requests for more accounts than we currently have funding to fulfill.  ONAC will continue to try to raise funds for future accounts.

During the next fourteen months, ONAC will work with these six additional partners to open Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) with generous grant funding from First Nations Development Institute (with support from the Ford Foundation).   ONAC will provide the $100 opening deposit for each CSA, a piggy bank, a certificate celebrating the account, a Native-specific financial education booklet, the customized letters to parents/guardians, and other related account opening materials. 

The additional CSA partners are as follows:

• Eastern Shawnee Tribe to open ONAC CSAs for youth in a financial education class they offer, as well as for youth attending their Early Childhood Learning Center in Wyandotte, Oklahoma.

• Pawnee Tribe Title VI Elderly Meals Program to open ONAC CSAs for Pawnee grandchildren being raised by their grandparents in Pawnee and Payne County, Oklahoma.

• BeLieving In Native Generations to open ONAC CSAs with youth attending Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

• Housing Authority of the Seminole Nation to open ONAC CSAs for youth residing in their housing stock, through their Resident Services program.

• American Indian Resource Center, Inc. to open ONAC CSAs for youth attending the after-school program of the Cherokee Nation Immersion School.

• The Scholarship Foundation Program of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation to open CSAs for seniors in high school, with assistance of The Johnson O’Malley Program of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.   The Scholarship Foundation Program of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation will incentivize the youth participating in financial literacy and FAFSA workshops and making additional deposits in their accounts by offering up to $200 in additional funding for the accounts.

We appreciate the interest of these tribes and Native nonprofits in establishing nest eggs of savings for these youth. 

For more information about the Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition Inc., please go to http://www.oknativeassets.org/.    If you have any questions about ONAC and the Children’s Savings Account Program, contact Christy Finsel, ONAC Executive Director, at cfinsel@oknativeassets.org.