Latest news, alerts, and events.
Latest news, alerts, and events.
If you’re considering applying for federal funds or have general questions about federal funding resources, we’re offering individual appointments with Zoe Olson, our Federal Funding Navigator.
In these sessions, Zoe can help you navigate technical application questions and connect you with resources for learning about federal grant opportunities and grant writing resources as well as general questions about reporting and compliance.
Us our contact form to inquire about scheduling a 30 minute meeting. Please include a few sentences about your interest in federal grants.
Alaska Board Match is an online match tool created to help nonprofits establish more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming board rooms. This site also assists in pairing Alaskans ready to serve local nonprofits in need of board members. Alaska Board Match is designed to address barriers to access of information, networks, and resources. Unfortunately, there is a historical gap in the demographics of many boards and the populations they serve. There is an increased demand nationwide to identify, recruit, and retain qualified candidates from under-represented groups who are diverse in race, age, gender, and lived experience. Also, a growing number of volunteers want to put their professional and personal skills to use in their communities. You can find the site here.
The Foraker office will be closed on Monday as we reflect and commit again to our own role in creating and sustaining just and welcoming nonprofits that serve our communities.
As I look back on 2022 – frankly, I am amazed. Most of the nonprofits I know and the people who work and volunteer at them were running on much less than a full tank when we started the last year. Some of you crossed into 2022 already running on fumes as you faced the relentless string of truths about our existence. Individually and collectively, we confronted business models in disarray as a result of the pandemic – mission-based programming askew based on overdue state and government grants and contracts – staff that for the first time were leaving in record numbers – board members who were rethinking their roles and commitments – and on and on. You lived these truths every day, so I know you have your own list, too. Knowing all of this is likely still looming large in your mind and organizational ether, I am choosing to be happily amazed and inspired that each of you are still here – that you are all still at it. Seriously, take a moment to breathe in the fact that you did it!
If 2023 is going to be different – and let’s face it, we need it to be different – then what can we do to shine a light on a healthier, happier path? What can we do to let the light guide the way rather than seeing it as another train coming toward us? I am excited about the idea of seeing the positive light ahead, of being the light for others, of creating space for more light. Whichever version of this is right for you and your mission, I encourage you to shine brightly.
A wise person shared the notion with me once that if we try to shine a flashlight on everything, we see very little. But if we focus our light, we can see much more clearly. I love this idea. As a facilitator of many planning processes, I can get behind the idea of becoming clear about where to shine the light to achieve clarity but also to harness energy and enthusiasm for a path forward.
The tools we use to find the light ahead are often planning documents (at least the useful ones). These can be more mission focused like strategic or annual plans, or more like fundraising, communication, or project-based plans. In all cases, the light in these plans comes from articulating the “why” not just the “how” and the “when.” This is a perfect time of year to brush off your plans and feel the energy in them or revisit them to put back the energy. It is in this collective effort that we can share the light as a means to restock, refuel, and regroup with our team for the road ahead.
The past few years have been so isolating and fragmented. The work environment is forever changed for so many both in thoughtful and other ways. I know many are considering how to find sparks of joy with team members, both board and staff. This might be the hardest work we do together in 2023 because there is no one path – no one way – and no expert to tell us the answer. In every workplace we will have to find the way forward and light the way with each other.
At Foraker we are pulling together some bright lights to help you on your journey this year. My hope is that they illuminate the path to make your steps a little easier. My hope is that they also offer a chance for us to see each other more clearly – to come together more often – to find more solutions to issues that sometimes sit in the shadows.
Here are the first ways we hope to light the path in this new year.
May any of these options and so many more allow us to shine the light in 2023 in ways that bring us strength, joy, and gratitude, and help to keep us effective and grounded in our mission work.
With so much gratitude for the light you bring.
Laurie
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