National Native Scholarship Providers as Research and Data Partners: A Case Study in Advancing Evidence‐Based Support for Indigenous College Student Outcomes

ABSTRACT American Indian and Alaska Native students remain largely invisible in national higher education research datasets, limiting institutions’ ability to design effective recruitment, retention, and completion strategies. In response, the four largest Native scholarship organizations in the United States — the Cobell Scholarship Program, American Indian College Fund, AISES, and Native Forward — formed the National Native Scholarship Providers (NNSP), a collaborative research and data partnership addressing evidence gaps in Indigenous college access, affordability, belonging, and persistence. This article presents a case study of NNSP's interorganizational research collaboration. The consortium's first national mixed‐methods study examined Indigenous college affordability with participation from all four organizations. Subsequent sense of belonging and campus climate research was conducted through partnership among the Cobell Scholarship Program, AISES, and the College Fund, illustrating an adaptive collaboration model responsive to organizational capacity and evolving research priorities. Across studies, NNSP employs nationally representative surveys and Indigenous qualitative methodologies such as sharing circles, guided by Indigenous Data Sovereignty and CARE principles. Findings identify systemic barriers in higher education and institutional practices that foster Indigenous student success. This case study demonstrates how Native‐centered, higher education–adjacent organizations can lead ethical, evidence‐based research agendas that many institutions have been unable to undertake independently, offering a replicable model for addressing Indigenous student invisibility in higher education data.