This Giving Tuesday - Support Rising Hearts!
It’s a long read, but hopefully you’ll learn more about what we do that we enjoy so much! This #GivingTuesday, please consider donating to Rising Hearts! Support the heart work, the growth and expansion of this organization. Rising Hearts was founded in 2016, inspired by the Native Youth from Standing Rock who ran to DC to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline and the fight to protect what is sacred. The heart work is rooted in grassroots efforts, cultivating community, increase awareness, and all proceeds are distributed to all programming and compensating the voices we work with. We are a team of 2 - Jordan Marie Brings Three White Horses Whetstone, founder and organizer, a part time Programs Coordinator. The programs and opportunities to give back to relatives and communities remains the most important objective and will always remain the center.
END OF YEAR GOAL: We hope to raise another $10,000 to put towards compensation for our Programs Coordinator position, travel / lodging stipends, and gear for our community. OR reach our $100k goal for the You Are Loved grant, which brings financial support to families of missing and murdered loved ones, survivors and advocacy organizations by 12/31/24. See below!
2024 Recap Highlights - What have we been part of:
+ 7 Wander Project x Rising Hearts charity runners
+ 7 Rising Hearts charity runners at various races / personal runs
+ 2 Boston Marathon Indigenous runners, 2 Indigenous runners in the 5k
+ ‘24 GU Energy Labs x Rising Hearts Western States Endurance Run 100 Athlete Advocate - hosted a film screening and 2 panels (Representation on the Trails and Kinship Building)
+ Right To Run: Alex short film in post production
+ Elite Heart: Callie - public premier December 2024
+ March 4th Annual Running On Native Lands virtual/in person run/walk
+ April 2nd Annual Earth Day 5k
+ May 6th Annual Running For Justice run/walk for May 5th National Day of Awareness and Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Peoples
+ 9 Athlete Advocates receiving support to run at their selected races!
+ 6 community partners have received donated shoes and gear from our partner, On Running
+ 13 workshop/film screenings of Know To Run: Yatika (the film has been selected and screening in 10 film festivals)
+ Running With Purpose book is underway with fellow RWP Athlete Advocates Susie Stephen and graphics artist, Nicol Hodges!
+ 17 panel discussion opportunities for Rising Hearts
+ 2024 The Running Event in Austin, TX - participated in the Running Industry Diversity Coalition’s Deep Dive with GU Energy Labs and help our own panel (and most popularly requested now), Kinship Building with amazing voices!
+ 13 grants submitted - 2 awarded
+ Continued kinship with On Running as Right To Run long term grantee
+ 2024 NYC Marathon and partnership with NYRR - 4 Indigenous runners ran, and spoke on NYRR Team For Climate Panel, and co-hosted Meet + Greet with On and Urban Indigenous Collective
2025 Wishlist List:
+ We hope to hire another employee for our programs
+ Submit 15 applications and hope we get 5!
+ Looking for sponsorships of our events / runners - please reach out for partnerships / sponsorships!
+ Fund the founder’s position for at least part-time work since the amount of work has increased
+ Create 1 more film - fully funded
+ Create commercial / storytelling opportunities with brands featuring community!
+ Increase representation of Indigenous runners and our Running With Purpose Athlete Advocates at more races and events to be part of
+ Send 4 Athletes to the Boston Marathon
+ Send 4 Athletes to the NYC Marathon
+ 2025 The Running Event in San Antonio, TX - we are seeking sponsorships to send 15 of our athlete advocates to join, RH booth, and host our Kinship Building workshop/panel
+ Host a local running retreat for our Running With Purpose Athlete Advocates in the Fall ‘25
+ Organize our virtual/in person run/walk/movement events!
+ 15 Charity Bib runners for Rising Hearts with our partner, The Wander Project (see below for more information on how to become one!)
+ 20 charity runners for Rising Hearts for any race of their choosing / dedicating their race to Rising Hearts as a fundraiser with our RH Charity runner GiveLively link that any runner / athlete can use to raise funds for by creating own account - Each runner will receive a Rising Hearts singlet, GUdies, and if needed, free pair of shoes!
Mission: Rising Hearts, an Indigenous led organization, elevating community voices through meaningful kinship, movement, advocacy and storytelling.
Much of the heart work we prioritize is cultivating kinship with brands, companies and groups, while creating meaningful collaborations with the Rising Hearts athletes, community partners and broader movement community.
Our Programs:
Running On Native Lands Initiative
Running With Purpose Athlete Advocates
Rising Hearts Stories | Filmmaking
Virtual Movement Events | Race Organizing
You Are Loved Community Grant Initiative
Workshop / Panels and DEI Consultations
Learn more about our programs we have and what we consult on and collaborate on. We’ve received a few small grants to support our work for which allows us to compensate our teachers and voices we amplify through our programming and supporting our Athlete Advocates.
Our biggest joy - is raising over $385k since June 2020 through our virtual runs to donate back to community and our costs to host them! Many thanks to the community who signs up and donates to help be part of this grassroots effort.
Please scroll through to see the impact we’ve made and the communities we are honored to be part of in doing this work. It’s connected us to incredible humans that we are grateful to know and learn from.
Donate via link www.risinghearts.org/donate to donate and support! Wopila tanka, many thanks!
- Rising Hearts
RISING HEARTS MERCH
Many have asked - we now have Rising Hearts singlets, RH Crops, You Are Loved shirts for our You Are Loved Campaign, and Running on Native Lands Hoodies! More to come for 2025!
OUR PROGRAMS
The Running on Native Lands Initiative helps support the running and outdoor industry bringing land acknowledgements and land blessings to their events and work they do through DEI consultations to improve their commitments and add more, help connect race directors and brands / companies, with local Indigenous voices and group in the community to help show that Indigenous Peoples are still here, regardless if the community is rural or urban, reservation or not.
Our work helps to increase Indigenous visibility in the running community through Indigenous participation in their races and events. Through this process over the last couple of years, this has led to brand visibility, brand sponsorships and ambassadorships, grant support, travel/lodging support and more.
Our mission through this initiative is to foster better, more meaningful and reciprocal kinships, call for accountability, and help support Indigenous communities/groups where races/events are being organized on, all while growing a deeper connection with the lands and with community.
We currently have 12 partners who have joined this effort! And with more funding support, we can take on more partnerships with being able to compensate 2 staff (1 PTE paid, 1 FTE unpaid).
3 Year Kinship with GU Energy Labs:
Our kinship with GU Energy Labs will come to an end this year, but will still have support from GU moving forward, the next GU Gives Recipient will be the Running Industry Diversity Coalition and we can’t wait for it!
Entering Year 4 at Western States:
Through our kinship with GU Energy Labs, we are excited to have entries to gift to an Indigenous runner to participate in this prestigious and exclusive event. It’s the oldest 100 miler in the world, ad while it has it’s own elite status, it is an exclusive, expensive, inaccessible, and in affordable event for so many who may want to do this run that traverses the Wasiw + Nisenan Lands. Since 2022, we have co-sponsored Yatika Starr Fields, Callie Vinson, and Alexandria Staten at the WS100. 3 films made by Rising Hearts to spotlight amazing humans, but also show the impact community groups can make, big or small, at events like this. Later this month, we will be sharing an application to find our next Indigenous runner to participate in the 2025 Western States Endurance Run 100! Stay tuned!
Running With Purpose Collective was founded in June 2021! It was created to bring like minded runners and movement leaders whose intersection of movement and advocacy brought us together. This Collective is here to continue uplifting the intersection of running/movement and advocacy. Supporting 34 athlete advocates from across the lands. All focused on racial, social, climate justice and kinship. We are hoping to help transform the running and outdoor industry and community to be more supportive, inclusive, accessible, respectful, safe and diverse. With our connections across the industry, we hope to share the heart work each person is doing but also, our extended community friends and organizations!
Through multiple partnerships and grant opportunities, we have helped our athletes, runners, run clubs and community organizations with access to races, workshops, retreats, product, shoes, and travel / lodging stipends to support their journey!
3 Athlete Advocates have been featured in our RWP series with ACTIIVST, you can watch via our RH Stories page on the website. Several have had their voices heard on multiple podcast opportunities! For each monthly and mid-month newsletter we put out with Rising Hearts updates, we try to elevate their own local efforts, events, and run reflections that they have been part of. We have helped support them on their London Marathon, Toronto Marathon, DC Half, She Is Beautiful 5k/10k, Cocodona 250, Javelina Jundred, Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon and more with travel support. And several have received financial scholarships for their specific run or event they wanted to participate in through our partnership with On - Right To Run (we are a founding grantee member since June 2022 and still going!).
We heavily advocate for meaningful kinship founded on reciprocity and beyond a one time opportunity or donation, it needs to be sustainable.
Representation absolutely matters! We want to help amplify so many inspiring voices that are putting in the heart work to inspire + make change happen in their community.
We've helped with the impact campaign for Run To Be Visible featuring Dr. Lydia Jennings and co-directed / produced by Rising Hearts founder, Jordan Whetstone, and story produced the running with purpose series with our partner, ACTIIVST, and use the co-directing + producing skills of RH founder, to continue connecting + amplifying.
Narrative Shift, a new production company co-founded by Jordan with her partner Devin and friend, Bonnie, about to publicly launch early 2025, has one project in post production with On and another campaign, Rising Hearts x Yatika Starr Fields race kit featuring his Raspberry Lemonade artwork made by rabbit with a series of social videos and a mini film centered on finding community through running with art bringing people together (available to view now)
Next short film to publicly premiere soon: Elite Heart: Callie.
Click image to watch!
Join the run with us! Get outside. Move your body. Now more than ever, we need community. Find your people. Find your group. Find your run group. Start a run group. Feel joy. Feel safe. Celebrate each other through movement! Feeling joy - that is liberation. We see struggles around the world. And we hope this just gives you a smile, as you reflect on your community, your people, and it can motivate you to get outside and connect. You belong.
Director: Jordan Whetstone | @nativein_la
DP: Devin Whetstone | @devinwhetstone
AC: Andrew DeVier-Scott | @andrewdevierscott
Production Company: Narrative Shift
We've helped raise over $385,000 through our virtual runs from 6/20-12/2024.
Our last one of the year is the On Your Mark, Set Your Intentions 5k! With funds being donated to Touching Land, Black Men Run, Running Industry Diversity Coalition and Rising Hearts.
We've organized 38 runs so far ! With the help of our partner, Elitefeats, we’ve donated to: Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, NIWRC, Sovereign Bodies Institute, Kola Thompson, June Left Hand, IIYC-LA, Wings of America, Urban Indigenous Collective, Seeding Sovereignty, Unity Runners/Run for Breonna, Kul Wicasa Wopasi, Cheyenne River Youth Project, Lakota Youth Development, Running Into Culture, Native Women's Society, Stop Line 3, Wambli Ska, Indian Residential School Survivors Fund, Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, Friends of Puvungna, NDN collective, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, ReNew Earth Running, Daryl Murphy/Miles For Justice, Justice for Chapin Abajo, Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness, The Navajo (Diné) Oasis Project, 2 Hot 4 Hoodies, California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project, Native Wellness Institute, Āina Momona, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, Native Land Digital, and several more in smaller donations.
We’ve held 17 panels this year with our partners or virtually. 25 in person run/walks organized by our athlete advocates, friends, or new friends who reached out wanting to support locally by bringing people together! We are so excited that this is happening and growing.
Kinship Building Panel presented by Rising Hearts x On: (Left to Right) Cal Calamia, Zachary Friedley, Carolina Rubio MacRight, Jordan Whetstone, Daryl “Stretch” Murphy, and Sergio Avila.
CHARITY BIB OPTION 1:
We’ve partnered with The Wander Project for our 2nd year (about to enter Year 3) to give you a fun way to support our heart work and for us to support you in amplification of your fundraising efforts! Raising money for a cause has never been easier. For 2024, we had 9 runners through this partnership, with $15,000 raised for Rising Hearts! Every runner’s fundraising minimum ranged from $1,000 to $5,000 (Cocodona 250). All me their goals!
For 2025, we hope to find 15 charity bib runners, so please reach out!
In 2023, we’ve had 5 amazing runners become Charity Bib runners and we hope to bring more for 2024! So far, we have 2 confirmed!
If there is another race you’d like to participate in that’s not on this original list, you can still sign up for a charity bib and select Rising Hearts!
https://www.wanderproject.org/event-partners/
WANT TO RACE FOR RISING HEARTS - SEE LINK BELOW TO SELECT!
Not seeing a race you want to run in this list? Check out all of the Wander Project events and choose the “Your Choice” option. They will reach out to learn more about your charity of choice and once you let them know that you’ll be running for Rising Hearts, they will make sure your funds come to support our mission!”
Athletes who want to support Rising Hearts for a race that is not listed, can sign up for any of the events on The Wander Project calendar: https://www.wanderproject.org/event-partners/ and pick 'Your Choice' for charity and then fill out the form to indicate they want to support Rising Hearts: (FAQ page here: https://www.wanderproject.org/athletes/frequently-asked-questions/)
CHARITY BIB OPTION 2:
Dedicate any race you have signed up for to Rising Hearts. If you want to register for one, we can reimburse your fee! Donation page is through GiveLively where you can create you own account to fundraise. Through this new option, we have 2 current runners dedicating their run / race to Rising Hearts! And we have 5 California International Marathon runners as well!
Suggested fundraising limits:
RH Athletes / Community = $500
Non RH Athletes = minimum $800
Perks: RH Singlet, merch, stickers, fuel, and if shoes are needed, we can help you! Reach out to Rising Hearts at info@rising-hearts.org to learn more and dedicate your run!
The Passion:
Jordan, of Rising Hearts, and professional runner, dedicated her 2019 Boston Marathon to 26 missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Since then, she has been on a mission, running for justice - running with purpose, in bringing more visibility to the movement, the families, their loved ones, the advocates, and the community organizations within the MMIR space. Since 2020, Rising Hearts has helped raise over $200,000 collectively through their virtual wellness campaigns for families of missing and murdered loved ones, advocates, survivors, organizers and community heart working organizations. In our first year doing this, for May 5th National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Peoples for the 2nd Annual Running For Justice event, we raised $77k that we were able to donate towards NIWRC, AKNWRC, Sovereign Bodies Institute, and a handful more of nonprofits, 2 families and 4 advocates. More resources are needed to support the efforts of fundraising, court costs, search and rescue, data, travel for hearings, listening sessions, legal fees, mental health and wellness services, community organized efforts, financial support for cost of living, and more.
The Start Line:
Join Jordan Marie Whetstone (Lakota) of Rising Hearts and Kali Mequinonoag Reis (Seaconke Wampanoag, Cape Verde), are helping to bring more visibility for the families and their loved ones as they hope to raise $100,000 or more for You Are Loved. This will be available for the families, advocates, survivors, and organizations focused on ending this violence and creating a safer future for Indigenous Peoples. They both ran and finished the 2024 NYC Marathon!!!
The You Are Loved Community Grant Program:
This community grant program is a direct services pathway for families, advocates and organizations to submit your request for on a rolling basis. We hope to raise the $100,000 + to get this program started, with a long term goal of sustaining this resource for community and outside agencies to continue to donate to or fundraise for.
