Protect History - Help Us Recover from DOGE Cuts

DOGE cuts have erased 2/3 of our budget for the next two years. Please help us build a bridge-fund to keep our crucial programs going.

Who We Are

The Whose Land Project empowers local organizations across the nation to build community and foster learning through engagement with the land and its history. We provide educational and cultural programming to schools, community groups, and tribal nations working to preserve memories and stories of place, focusing in particular on erased histories and the legacies of land dispossession and displacement.

Urgency of the Moment

On April 3, 2025, DOGE terminated three of our federal grants, including a two-year project expected to cover over 65% of our programming budget. Overnight, we lost $200,000 in funding and will not be paid for three months of expenses already incurred.

Whose Land was far from alone in this destructive action. All 56 State Humanities Councils have been defunded as have cultural institutions, big and small. The current administration is working to bury, destroy or outright forbid the sharing and preservation of history. This is an existential moment for anyone who cares about history and culture.

Our Response

In the face of this onslaught, Whose Land is retooling our core program to address the moment. Our top priority is to leverage our existing projects and broad network to bring together threatened cultural groups from across the country to share resources and collaborate.

Especially well-timed for this work is our Whose Land 250 project which has been in the works for nearly two years. Aligned with the semiquincentennial of the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence, the project will celebrate grassroots stories of everyday people not typically included in remembrances of founding father narratives. These are exactly the histories currently at risk of being erased.

We may be a small organization but we are determined to be part of a national solution rather than to turn-inward or give up. We are determined to do all we can to protect local voices and crucial memories of place.

Funding Strategy

Our plan:

We will seek to recover the lion’s share of our lost funding through direct services contracts with schools and partners and through additional grant funding from foundations, some of whom are meeting the moment by creating rescue grants.

But those funding sources will take time and are not guaranteed. To stay afloat during this challenging moment, we need a bridge-fund. We seek to raise 10% of our losses, or $20,000, through direct donations in the next four months.

Please consider donating to our bridge fund. Your donation will allow Whose Land to stay open and to continue to support our community-based, educational and tribal nation partners while protecting authentic stories and the histories of all Americans.