The Citizen Potawatomi Nation provides assistance to communities throughout Oklahoma in a number of areas, including emergency response for natural disasters, general labor for businesses, charitable organizations and communities in need.
“When it comes to helping our fellow communities, we are always happy to help when someone asks us for help. We think our reputation precedes us. People know that the Potawatomi are always willing to lend a hand,” said Citizen Potawatomi Nation Vice-Chairman Linda Capps. “Our staff provides business, charitable and municipal entities with support, not only during emergency situations, but all year round.”
More than 175 charitable and civic organizations received more than $5 million in contributions from CPN since 2005. Those contributions included monetary and in-kind donations. More than 65 percent of CPN’s employees also regularly contribute time and money to local charitable organizations.
“We don’t just give money to these organizations. We provide the space, materials and labor to keep several communities and events going year after year,” added Capps. “We’ve helped with everything from delivering water to communities to providing tables and chairs for events and assisting with natural disaster recovery in our area.”
In addition to charitable and labor contributions, CPN also helps provide emergency management for communities in need. Since the year 2000, CPN has helped with more than 33 federally declared disasters and had secured $1.7 million funding for emergency preparedness and response for the community.
Charitable contributions and in-kind support is funded by Citizen Potawatomi Nation tax collections. 100 percent of every sales tax dollar collected by CPN is spent on government services such as roads, services for citizens, healthcare, education, emergency response and job creation.