(Native Women Lead Photo)

Vanessa Roanhorse Creates Change Through Character-Based Lending Program and Community-Led Projects

Vanessa Roanhorse is an inclusive problem-solver committed to liberating all peoples and delivering impactful mechanisms for social, environmental and economic change. She launched Roanhorse Consulting, an Indigenous women-led think tank, in 2016 to work with unheralded populations on their self-determination by forging communities of practice, strengthening Indigenous evaluation methods, creating equity through entrepreneurship, and encouraging economic empowerment from within.

Roanhorse Consulting co-designs wealth- and power-building efforts that directly invest in leaders, support meaningful data collection informed by Indigenous research approaches, and help build community-led projects that enforce values that put people at the center. Roanhorse is a 2020 Conscious Company Media World-Changing Women in Sustainable Business awardee and a 2020 Boston Impact Initiative Fund-Building Cohort fellow.

She is a retired member of the ABQ Living Cities leadership table and a Startup Champions Network member. She sits on the boards of Native Community Capital, Zebras Unite and the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers. A citizen of the Navajo Nation, she is one of eight co-founders of Native Women Lead, an organization dedicated to growing Native women into positions of leadership and business.

Vanessa Roanhorse

Here are some highlights from the LIFT Economy interview with Roanhorse:

  • How finance, investment strategies, and business practices are being informed through Roanhorse Consulting and its partners.
  • Her exciting work with Edgar Villaneuva, author of Decolonizing Wealth. (Listen to our past interviews with Villaneuva here and here.)
  • An overview of some of the innovative network of leaders rethinking capital access strategies in North America.
  • An exciting character-based lending program co-designed by Roanhorse and her partners that’s supported with other innovative emerging funds through the Boston Impact Initiative Fund-Building Cohort.
  • Foreshadowing of the coming Next Economy Online Summit that’s by and for the people.

LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm with a mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.


Building Pathways to Capital Through Indigenous Ways of Knowing was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


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(Native Women Lead Photo)

Vanessa Roanhorse Creates Change Through Character-Based Lending Program and Community-Led Projects

Vanessa Roanhorse is an inclusive problem-solver committed to liberating all peoples and delivering impactful mechanisms for social, environmental and economic change. She launched Roanhorse Consulting, an Indigenous women-led think tank, in 2016 to work with unheralded populations on their self-determination by forging communities of practice, strengthening Indigenous evaluation methods, creating equity through entrepreneurship, and encouraging economic empowerment from within.

Roanhorse Consulting co-designs wealth- and power-building efforts that directly invest in leaders, support meaningful data collection informed by Indigenous research approaches, and help build community-led projects that enforce values that put people at the center. Roanhorse is a 2020 Conscious Company Media World-Changing Women in Sustainable Business awardee and a 2020 Boston Impact Initiative Fund-Building Cohort fellow.

She is a retired member of the ABQ Living Cities leadership table and a Startup Champions Network member. She sits on the boards of Native Community Capital, Zebras Unite and the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers. A citizen of the Navajo Nation, she is one of eight co-founders of Native Women Lead, an organization dedicated to growing Native women into positions of leadership and business.

Vanessa Roanhorse

Here are some highlights from the LIFT Economy interview with Roanhorse:

  • How finance, investment strategies, and business practices are being informed through Roanhorse Consulting and its partners.
  • Her exciting work with Edgar Villaneuva, author of Decolonizing Wealth. (Listen to our past interviews with Villaneuva here and here.)
  • An overview of some of the innovative network of leaders rethinking capital access strategies in North America.
  • An exciting character-based lending program co-designed by Roanhorse and her partners that’s supported with other innovative emerging funds through the Boston Impact Initiative Fund-Building Cohort.
  • Foreshadowing of the coming Next Economy Online Summit that’s by and for the people.

LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm with a mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.


Building Pathways to Capital Through Indigenous Ways of Knowing was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.