2025 Board Report

NEXT BOARD MEETING
Friday, April 11, 2025 @ 9:00am - 12:00pm MDT

Google Meet link

We exist to remove the institutional barriers to entrepreneurship, erode social barriers, and expand access to capital for Native American families choosing to expand their own livelihoods. 

Here’s how we do it.

1.

Build community and networks by offering a safe, creative, and culturally relevant space that celebrates entrepreneurship -- workspace, tools, training, resources.

3.

Publish our data about the nature of Native owned businesses and the business environment on the Navajo Nation. Become a go-to source for thought leadership on Native entrepreneurship. 

2.

Support and finance select business ideas that fill market gaps. Demonstrate success rates that make the process competitive. Cultivate future business leaders and role models. 

4.

Provide loan capital to entrepreneurs, artists, and vendors on Navajo and Hopi that otherwise wouldn’t have access to traditional capital. 

YTD Financial Health

Team Development

In addition to tracking retention, learning, and performance, we also conduct a summer survey to get feedback from the team on how they fell about working at Change Labs. Here are the results from the 2024 Summer survey.

Investing in Native people

Investing in Native people, businesses, and vendors is critical to our mission.

83% of our 2023 budget was invested in human resources, including our staff salaries (and benefits) and professional services. In 2022 we accrued $683,004 in these organizational expenses and 85% ($577,968) was invested in Native staff, contractors, vendors, and small business owners.

Other ways we evaluate our impact

► PROGRAM IMPACT

We employ a third-party impact evaluation firm to track several indicators for the Incubator, Kinship Lending, and our E-ship Hub activity. Indicators are collected on a regular basis and inform our annual evaluation report.

► FINANCIAL IMPACT

In addition to tracking indicators for our programs, we also measure “success” by organizational income and how much of our income is directly invested in Native people, vendors, and small business owners.

► COMMUNITY IMPACT

Finally, Change Labs has a broader impact on the community we serve that goes beyond our programs and our finances. Are we measurably making it easier to be a business owner on the Navajo Nation? To answer this question, Heather has been working with our evaluation team to draft a “report card” to review in each Board meeting.

If you have more thoughts and ideas on how Change Labs should think about its impact, email Heather.

Our programs

E*ship Support

We drive the Native economy upwards by creating a modern & creative space to hone business skills, cultivate knowledge, and grow a strong community of Native entrepreneurs.

2025 Budget: $522,931

# of entrepreneurs served in 2023: 1151 (combined Incubator and Coworking beneficiaries)
# of entrepreneurs served in 2024 (target): 4200

  • Business Owners on the reservation experience:

    • Limited resources and information needed to make decisions about the markets they work in.

    • Lack of support from a strong business community.

    • Difficulty grasping financial concepts due to a lack of knowledge and/or discomfort discussing money.

    • The onus of understanding complex and opaque tribal policies as well as managing inconsistent, conflicting, or miscommunicated procedures.

    • The emotional labor of reconciling culture, values, and tradition with each business decision.

    In addition, the lack of physical capital and space to do business results in a number of challenges, including:

    • Unreliable internet service

    • Increased feeling of isolation and smaller support communities

    • Lack of exposure to technology tools & business trends

    • Difficulty in applying for an EIN and receiving packages

  • We deliver business knowledge, entrepreneurship coaching, access to workspace, and cultivate a community for entrepreneurs. Our workspaces serve as a hub of technical assistance, business incubation, and network-building, providing constant exposure to Native entrepreneurial role models, resources, relevant training.

  • Our workspaces serve entrepreneurs at all levels of business maturity, but our resources are designed to support entrepreneurs with achieving business growth.

Kinship Lending

Provide access to equitable capital for Native entrepreneurs through relationship-based micro lending and NSBCI programming. This budget funds all three loan products: Kinship Microloans ($10k and under), Kinship NSBCI Loans ($10k-$50k), and NSBCI Loans ($50k +),

2025 Budget: $525,521

# of loans deployed in 2023: 20 borrowers (1 cohort)
# of loans deployed in 2024 (target): 8 borrowers (1 cohort)

  • Native entrepreneurs experience difficulty getting approved for business loans, especially those based on Native land. Lack of collateral, financial statements, or an articulated business plan are some of the common reasons. Interest rates on unsecured loans are higher than unsecured loans, resulting in increased expense for Native entrepreneurs.

  • We provide kinship-based low-interest loans to Navajo and Hopi entrepreneurs in need of working capital. Loans are coupled to a six-month cohort-based financial education program and one-on-one business coaching. We incentivize consistent loan repayment with 25% loan forgiveness.

  • We target entrepreneurs operating on Navajo or Hopi Nation with an existing business that is generating revenue. Our average loan size is $5,000, but we seek prospective borrowers in need of working capital between $2,500 - $50,000.

Kinship Capital

To increase access to capital and other financial resources for Indigenous entrepreneurs.

2024 Budget: $92,883

# of entrepreneurs served in 2024 (target): 180 (workshop attendance)

  • The historical lack of availability and accessibility of venture capital to Native American entrepreneurs can be attributed to a combination of systemic, economic, and cultural factors. Including:

    • The complex regulatory environment on Native American reservations, involving federal, tribal, and state jurisdictions, can create uncertainties and obstacles for venture capital investment. Investors may be deterred by the intricacies of navigating multiple legal frameworks.

    • The lack of representation of Native American entrepreneurs in the broader venture capital ecosystem contributes to a lack of awareness and understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within these communities.

    • Disparities in education and access to entrepreneurship training on Native land can limit the development of business skills among Native American entrepreneurs, impacting our ability to present compelling business cases to venture capitalists.

    • Some investors may perceive ventures in Native communities as higher risk due to factors such as the regulatory environment, remoteness, and historical challenges.

  • Change Labs will build a venture fund that can provide significant and diverse capital to Navajo entrepreneurs as well as technical services, mentorship, and a network of social and political operatives. By demonstrating achievement of the fund’s goals, we can build pathways for entrepreneurs in our network to access more venture funding to grow businesses on Native land.

  • Change Labs will develop a thesis for the venture fund in 2024. The thesis will outline the target beneficiaries, their needs, and the impact we expect to see by creating a fund.

Doing Business

We conduct the research and collect the data needed to advocate for evidence-based policy changes to support the Navajo small business environment on the Navajo Nation.

2024 Budget: $40,638

# of entrepreneurs served in 2022: 80 event attendees, 9,589 YouTube views
# of entrepreneurs served in 2023: 130 event attendees
# of entrepreneurs served in 2024: 90 event attendees

  • Doing business on the Navajo Nation is not easy. There is countless commentary as well as published studies on market deficits and the complexity of the business regulatory environment, but this has not had a significant effect on policy reform or improvement to the regulatory environment.

  • Our policy work is always in partnership with other stakeholders. But despite how we focus our efforts in a given year, the objectives are always consistent:

    1. Develop a nuanced understanding of the major constraints to starting a business on tribal lands to share with allies and potential partners

    2. Contribute to collective activity with like-minded partners and stakeholders to develop a clear plan of action for policy change

    3. Develop a strategic plan for the Navajo economy that emphasizes support for Navajo entrepreneurs

    Currently, Doing Business is our only program that generates revenue. Our partners include: ACES School, Dineh Chamber of Commerce, Native Women Lead, NM Community Capital, and Native Community Capital.

  • The policies we target impact Navajo entrepreneurs operating on the reservation, whether formally or informally. The educations events we plan target all elected leaders on the Navajo Nation as well as the Navajo small business community. Our commissioned research is in service to the Navajo Nation government and Chapters.

Financial analysis

Change Labs finances

In 2024 we secured $2,528,708 in grant funds and $58,416 in public donations. We earned $350,000 in service income in 2024, $3,569.87 in merchandise and venue rental sales, and $72,507 in investment revenue.

As of March 31, 2025 we have already secured $865,000 in new grant funds for the year with $2,265,000 pending grants in our waterway.

Runway & budgetary need

As of March 31, 2025 we have $10,013,048 in our accounts, $6,650,000 of which is allocated for NSBCI loans. This leaves a balance of $3,363,048.

We accrue approximately $103,745 in monthly expenses, which gives us approximately 32 months of runway, assuming all current liabilities. 

Our goals for 2025

Overarching goal

To establish, build, and grow Native American owned business on tribal lands that will diversify economies, build financial stability, and fill identified market gaps in Western Agency communities.

Here’s the link to our 3-year strategic objectives (2025-2027)

How we’re continuing to build financial stability with entrepreneurs in 2025

  • deploying $1.8M of our NSBCI programming with the Navajo Nation.

  • recruiting an operations & coordination team member who can streamline workflows for our NSBCI lending

  • Bringing our Kinship Lending financial education curriculum to the public by offering weekly loan-readiness / financial education workshops led by Change Labs staff.

How we are working to diversify economies in 2025

  • Hosting the grand opening of our Shiprock E-ship Hub in July 2025 to expand access to our resources and tools

  • Raising $1,500,000 to expand our campus in Tuba City in Winter 2025

  • Finalizing a focus for Change Labs policy & advocacy work by mapping documented business challenges to what creates the most impact for Navajo businesses with what is feasible for Change Labs to tackle.

  • Identify the ways that entrepreneurs have developed “workaround solutions” to common business challenges.

How we are working to fill market gaps in 2025

  • Researching the physical and financial capital needs of Native entrepreneurs in our region to explore how Change Labs can fill gaps and keep businesses on the reservation.

  • Exploring partnerships with tribal enterprises to serve Native businesses in need of strategic support to secure contracts

  • Studying what makes strategic sense for Change Labs to continue redeploying any funds we secure from our NSBCI deployment.

Spring Board Meeting Agenda

Discussions:

► Feedback on Loan Policies & Procedures to guide Kinship Microloan and NSBCI loan deployment.

► Review of final 3-year strategic objectives and planned activities for 2025.

► Possible discussion on shifting NSBCI deployment.

► Discussion on Board development. What are the missing capacity on our Board?

Possible voting:

► Vote to finalize loan policies & procedures