Nick Tilsen
(he/him) is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, an organizer, social entrepreneur, community builder, and Movement Leader. He is the founder and CEO of the NDN Collective. Tilsen has more than 20 years of experience in movement building, organizing, and equitable community development. He founded NDN Collective to change the conditions in which Indigenous people organize, while building needed philanthropic, social impact investment, capacity, and movement infrastructure geared toward building the collective power of Indigenous Peoples. His work has reached more than 1,500 Indigenous Communities, Tribes, and Nations across North America.
Tilsen has received various fellowships and awards from the Ashoka, Rockefeller, and Bush foundations. In 2022, Tilsen and the NDN Collective were recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Innovation. Tilsen has received a Social Impact Award from Claremont-Lincoln University and holds an honorary doctorate degree from Sinte Gleska University.
