NOTICE: There was an error in the calculation of this year’s Permanent Fund Dividend charitable contributions. The Department of Revenue says this will affect Pick.Click.Give. totals by less than $100,000.
Details are available in this press release.
ANCHORAGE, AK – October 10, 2011. The Department of Revenue this week released figures showing the lion’s share of charitable cash contributions made from Alaskans’ 2011 Permanent Fund Dividends through Pick. Click. Give. Top recipients include charities focused on hunger, homelessness, and Alaskans in emergency situations.
“Alaskans spoke with their dividend this year,” said Jordan Marshall, special projects manager with Rasmuson Foundation, one of the supporters of Pick. Click. Give. “The greatest number of gifts were directed toward Alaskans who are struggling to make ends meet or who have been touched by some misfortune. Alaskans also clearly care about their pets.”
The list of organizations and the amount they received in the first distribution for 2011 is available at www.PickClickGive.org under “Quick Links” on the home page. A searchable list of organizations that qualified for the 2012 program also is available on the website under “Search 2012 Organizations.”
“We are grateful to everyone who gave,” said Marshall, “and we thank them for their generous donations and support of Pick. Click. Give.”
Close to 19,000 Alaskans gave $1.5 million this year, the third year of the program. That compares to a little over 5,000 people giving $545,000 in 2009, and 9,500 people giving $927,000 last year.
A check and list of donors will be mailed to each organization before the end of this month.
These totals represent the majority of donations made to specific organizations. Another distribution later this year is scheduled to include a small number of contributions made by applicants whose individual dividend amount has not yet been finalized.
Flathead Lake Montana -- October 9, 2011
While this may look like Alaska, today I am at Flathead Lake where the University of Montana conducts research on fisheries and climate change. The Montana Nonprofit Association asked us to assist them in a retreat with one of their most significant members.
I was lucky enough to get to come to this beautiful part of our country, just outside of Kalispell about 65 miles south of the Canadian border.
My smidgen of insight this time is how lucky we are in Alaska to live in an environment that so many people in the Lower 48 wish for. While Montana is truly beautiful and has many wilderness areas, it is still easier for people to invade their remote places than it is in Alaska.
Everyone else seems to want to live in a place as clean and wild as Alaska. Therefore, I think we owe it to others to give our best effort to balancing economic development with conserving the environment we love.
Some say that if it could be done anywhere, it should be done in Alaska.
I hope that is so.
Dennis
This action alert was issued by the National Council of Nonprofits last week. Please consider if your organization should be involved.
We are currently planning our educational program for 2012 and we want to be sure we're offering the classes you want. We've prepared a very brief survey that will help us learn what classes you are interested in and when you would like to take them.
As our thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, we will offer you a free two-hour class for participating in the survey.
Please click here and you will go to the survey, which will take you less than five minutes to complete. Thanks.
Nome -- September 28, 2011
Locals complained that the summer of '11 was not so nice. It was rainy and cold. But Mother Nature must have felt sorry for them since today had to be one of the nicest late September days on record here.
I was in town to facilitate a Funder's Forum for a group of grant writers from Nome and neighboring villages. These sessions are where the Denali Commission, Mental Health Trust, Alaska Housing, HUD, USDA, DCCED, and Rasmuson present their programs and connect with local communities so they will ask for funding for their priority projects.
These sessions have been held for over a decade and have been presented in at least a dozen communities.
They are useful for the communities and also a great way for the funders to spend quality time with each other and discover new ways to collaborate.
Unfortunately we have not done any of these sessions since 2009. But today the group did their presentations like they rehearsed for months. Hopefully, we'll do another one soon.
The smidgen of insight today is that while much of the dialog was the same as in the past. This time the funders were more candid with the group. They delivered the brutal facts that the potential for less, more restricted funding in the future is inevitable, especially from the feds.
The October newsletter is about to launch and we will elaborate on this new economic reality then.
But for now, I will let the Alaska Air attendants shut the door as I hunker down to finish that article.
Wonder where I will be next time?
Dennis
“Community Building for Alaska,” is a two-day workshop facilitated by Louise Van Rhyn, a passionate social entrepreneur from South Africa, on October 24-25th at the APU Campus in Anchorage. This experiential workshop will bring together community leaders, philanthropists, business leaders, and citizens from rural and urban Alaska. Share your knowledge and experience, become engaged, and participate in meaningful community building dialog. Space is limited. Click here for more information or to reserve your seat.
I took a brief sabbatical from the blog because my travels during the summer were more personal, so I had fewer work related insights.
But now that fall is here, the normal hectic pace at Foraker is on steroids and we are all booked solid through the year. We are not complaining, just stating the fact that we are busy. A lot of this work is predictable, but it seems we are doing much more than last year at this time.
Yesterday and today I was in Kodiak. A beautiful place in the rain or shine and this trip we had both. Yesterday was with one of my favorite boards, the Senior Citizens of Kodiak. They are smart, engaged, and partnering as they should with their ED. They are a joy.
Today I met with a network of nonprofits here. They are trying to assist their fellow organizations. One of their big concerns is how to engage in public policy.
They are not alone. In the past months we have met with similar groups in Sitka, Healey, and MatSu and the theme with all has been that many of their elected officials do not understand our sector.
So today's smidgen of insight is that it's time for Foraker and the sector to better understand how to do public policy. So stay tuned for the October newsletter, I'll write more on that topic then.
But for now, it's time to turn off electronics so I can enjoy this sunny flight from Kodiak to Anchorage.
Dennis
The Department of Revenue has released the list of Alaska organizations that will participate in the 2012 Pick. Click. Give. charitable contributions program. Donors can click here to plan for the organizations or causes they want to support during next year’s permanent fund dividend cycle. [Read More... ]
Alaskans who filed for the 2011 Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) between January 1 and March 31 have seven more days to make Pick. Click. Give. charitable contributions. The PFD Division homepage will accept new contributions to over 400 nonprofit causes through August 31.
“The regular PFD filing season saw nearly 20,000 Alaskans pledging over $1.5 million,” said Jordan Marshall, special projects manager with Rasmuson Foundation. “These generous, optional gifts support important causes across the entire state and improve our quality of life.
“If you gave through Pick. Click. Give., thank you!” said Marshall. “If, however, you forgot or ran out of time or you simply want to make a safe and secure charitable contribution today, you can.”
The PFD Division homepage – www.pfd.state.ak.us – prominently features an “Add or Change a Charitable Contribution” link. Instructions for making an additional gift are available at www.PickClickGive.org Look for the “How to Donate” link in the QuickLinks section on the right hand side of the homepage.
2011 marks the third year for Pick. Click. Give., and each year Alaskans have increased the amount of donations they make through the program. Recent research shows that on average over half the donations are coming from people making their first philanthropic gift.
