Our History

The Christensen Fund was founded in 1957 by Allen D. and Carmen M. Christensen as a family foundation focused on collecting art from around the world. Since its founding, The Christensen Fund has worked hand in hand with land-connected communities across the globe, honoring their right to shape their own futures. The foundation has evolved from a family foundation to a private foundation.

From left to right: Diane, Allen and Carmen Christensen in Hawaii in the 1960s

Indigenous Peoples hold tenure over 25 percent of the Earth’s land surface and play a vital role in defending and protecting 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

However, Indigenous Peoples are so much more than the guardians and protectors of our shared natural environment. They are inherently worthy of the same rights and protections that all people deserve. This is why The Christensen Fund evolved its approach over the years to focus on rights- and place-based equitable grantmaking that almost exclusively supports Indigenous-led and Indigenous-serving organizations working on the ground.

Indigenous Peoples hold tenure over 25 percent of the Earth’s land surface and play a vital role in defending and protecting 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity.

However, Indigenous Peoples are so much more than the guardians and protectors of our shared natural environment. They are inherently worthy of the same rights and protections that all people deserve. This is why The Christensen Fund evolved its approach over the years to focus on rights- and place-based equitable grantmaking that almost exclusively supports Indigenous-led and Indigenous-serving organizations working on the ground.

Appointing Carla F. Fredericks as CEO in 2021 deepened The Christensen Fund’s grantmaking strategy to protect, advance, and strengthen Indigenous Peoples’ efforts to secure and exercise their rights to their land, territories, resources, and sovereign systems of governance, and to determine their own economic, social, and cultural development. As one of the first Native American CEOs of a mid-sized private foundation, Carla is an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota, who has spent her career strengthening Indigenous self determination by advocating for a rights-based approach to funding Indigenous organizations and causes, and building bridges across financial and legal institutions. Today, The Christensen Fund lives out its commitment to supporting the rights and self determination of Indigenous Peoples by rooting its strategy in advancing the promise of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the global standard that both asserts and recognizes Indigenous worldviews and values and establishes a universal framework for the recognition of their rights.