About First Peoples Worldwide
First Peoples Worldwide works from a foundation of Indigenous values to achieve a sustainable future for all.
First Peoples Worldwide is a leader in deploying strategies to move the market towards respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We translate on-the-ground impacts of investment to corporate decision-makers, and increase corporate accountability to Indigenous Peoples at the intersection of business, law, and finance. Our strategies to build the business case for Indigenous Peoples include:
Corporate Engagement
We work directly with Indigenous leadership and organizations to design and deploy targeted corporate campaigns, and facilitating high-level dialogue between Indigenous Peoples and corporations where there is a direct impact on Indigenous lands, territories, resources, and rights.
International Advocacy
We elevate ongoing or emergent human rights violations at an international level, often in parallel with corporate engagement.
Capacity Building
We give trainings and facilitate consultations with Indigenous Peoples, corporations, financial institutions, and investors.
Network Facilitation
We connect partners across sectors and fields for collaboration, information sharing, and growth, and presenting at convenings to integrate Indigenous perspectives and mainstream Indigenous knowledge as a critical factor in decision-making.
Research & Tools
We provide tools, resources, and research for corporations, financial institutions, and investors to better integrate Indigenous Peoples' rights, as enumerated in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, into routine business operations; developing and publishing research and case studies to draw out overarching trends in the field; and providing access and context to facilitate innovative movement forward.
Annual Reports
â–¶ 2023-2024 Annual Report
â–¶ 2022-2023 Annual Report
â–¶ 2021-2022 Annual Report
â–¶&²Ô²ú²õ±è;2020-2021 Annual Report
First Peoples Worldwide was founded in 1997 by Cherokee economist and social entrepreneur Rebecca Adamson as a program of her non-profit First Nations Development Institute. Rebecca had the foresight to mobilize investors and Indigenous Peoples to shift corporate behavior towards robust consideration of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Working with many organizations, companies and communities, she has spent some 50 years harnessing traditional Indigenous knowledge for contemporary application. In 2005, she spun First Peoples Worldwide as a full-fledged organization in its own right.
- Watch Rebecca's TEDMED presentation .
Following Adamson’s retirement in 2017, Carla F. Fredericks (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation) rehoused First Peoples Worldwide at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, in partnership between the University of Colorado Law School and the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the Leeds School of Business. Carla served as Faculty Director until her departure to lead The Christensen Fund.
- Read Carla's Harvard Law Review article and her article .
Under the direction of Kate R. Finn (Osage), who was appointed Executive Director in December 2020, First Peoples Worldwide continues its legacy as an Indigenous-led organization and expands upon the original vision to uphold and further the rights, self-determination, and economic power of Indigenous Peoples.
- Read the Stanford Social Innovation Review article and the paper Harnessing Private Equity for Indigenous Peoples.
First Peoples Worldwide is housed at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, in partnership between the University of Colorado Law School and the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the Leeds School of Business.
