Nick Tilsen
President & CEO, NDN Collective
Nick is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, father of four and founder of the
NDN Collective. Nick has over 18 years of experience in working with non-
profits and tribal nations on projects that have a social mission. Prior to NDN, Nick
founded and served as the Executive Director of the Thunder Valley Community
Development Corporation for 12 years. Working in his home community on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to build place-based innovations that have the
ability to inform systems change solutions around climate resiliency, sustainable
housing and equitable community development. Nick created the NDN Collective
to scale these place-based solutions while building needed philanthropic, social
impact investment, capacity and advocacy infrastructure geared towards building
the collective power of Indigenous Peoples. Nick has received numerous
fellowships and awards from Ashoka, Rockefeller Foundation, Bush Foundation
and the Social Im
North America
