The Foraker Group

            We are proud of all of our staff for their dedication to serving Alaska’s nonprofits. Foraker has a wonderful track record of longevity within our team. There are many reasons for this but one is our commitment to creating professional development opportunities including promoting from within when we can. We are thrilled to have that opportunity this year. Please help congratulate Tabitha Titus as our newest Executive Transition Guide, Kimberly Waller as the now Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Kathryn Knowles for taking on the role as Accounting Manager, and Karen Harvey in her new role a Senior Accountant. Congratulations to each of these team members on their promotion – we wouldn’t want to do this work without you…. Read more »

Our collective workforce woes are real, and we are all searching for what we can do to attract and retain a great workforce. Some of the obvious tools for compensation are outside our reach at the moment, but we do have tools in house right now that we can use to engage and understand our workforce more fully. One of those is meaningful evaluation. There is an art and a science to getting helpful feedback, and if you are the executive director or CEO, you likely know better than most how difficult evaluations are to come by, and meaningful ones are a bit like unicorns. That said, it is not just appropriate to expect some form of helpful feedback, but if you are the executive, it is part of the… Read more »

Create Opportunity for your Team to Lead Up It’s time to grow your leadership bench. Are you an executive director ready to empower your team to take on leadership roles?  Lead Up is designed for “mid-level” nonprofit professionals interested in growing their leadership and management skills. Our goal is to prepare the next group of diverse nonprofit executives with the tools to stretch and grow, and in the process – create a stronger constellation of staff members at your organization. Is there someone on your team that may be a good fit? This eight week intensive begins in October. The deadline to apply is September 15. Learn more   Who is Lead Up for? Lead Up is designed for those who are in nonprofit management roles or wanted to lead in an organization but… Read more »

As many are aware, the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on loan forgiveness will impact current and future employees of the nonprofit sector. Many years ago our colleagues at CalNonprofits identified student loan debt as one of the largest contributing factors in attracting and retaining a robust workforce.  They developed tools like The Nonprofit Student Debt Toolkit  and a number of other California specific loan tools.  Alaska’s workforce is no different–  we know that the need to pay loan debt is a deciding factor about one’s ability to participate and stay in the nonprofit workforce.  We encourage you to understand the impact of student loan debt as a contributing factor to attracting and retaining your workforce.  Our partners at the National Council of Nonprofits provided a recap of the Supreme Court’s… Read more »

When you imagine a healthy nonprofit workforce, what attributes are on your list? To me, there is no such thing as perfect, so I hope my top six attributes lean to the healthiest end of the continuum as possible. They apply to any nonprofit regardless of type, budget size, staff composition, location, or mission and include: Fully staffed. Not in the way that barely gets us by, but in a way that truly honors how the work best gets done. By the way, in my 30+ years in the sector, I have rarely seen this – especially when it comes to the administrative functions of our work, which are often the lowest paid and most understaffed even though they make the work – well, work. Livable wage, retirement option, and… Read more »

Do you have an opinion on the state’s proposed changes to Medicaid payment rates for select hospital and long-term care facilities? Then don’t miss this opportunity to speak up, and your voices heard! The State of Alaska Department of Health will be holding a public hearing on its proposed payment rates at 10:00 a.m. on June 23, 2023: http://notice.alaska.gov/211175 Need more information on proposed rates? Learn more here: https://health.alaska.gov/…/RateReview/Rate-Setting.aspx… Read more »

At Foraker, we often talk about nonprofit sector data as BAD or best available data. Unfortunately, most data aren’t even BAD, but instead are anecdotal based on a small survey or a narrow, unrepresentative sample. Even worse, it is data that grabs you with a “click bait” title and results in trying to sell our sector something. I crave representative data and find myself skipping to the end of every report to see how the data was collected and if Alaska was even included in “national research.” Sadly, it often is not. For these reasons, we are committed to working with Partners to gather the very best data we can from a variety of trusted sources to produce Alaska’s Nonprofit Sector: Generating Economic Impact. It is a big lift, so… Read more »

We are grateful for a thoughtful and dedicated community of nonprofit leaders. Thank you for making the 2023 Leadership Summit a place of reflection and learning. Together, we are creating a resilient and reimagined Alaska! How will you take the concepts you learned back to your organization? For starters, you can log back into the conference app for the next 3 months (until August 12) to watch the recorded sessions and download the handouts. We have posted the slides we have available from the speakers. We encourage you to review what you have learned with your team – board, staff, and volunteers. If you took a professional portrait with Photo Emporium, you can find your photos to download here. Here are some additional ways you can continue to connect and integrate what you’ve learned: Executive Directors – join us for the next CEO… Read more »

Are you an Alaska nonprofit or tribal leader? Do you want to enhance your management skills and explore new techniques to effectively lead your organization? The Foraker Certificate in Nonprofit Management features courses developed to apply classroom teachings to your workplace, case studies directly related to issues facing Alaska nonprofits, and a network of fellow professionals to last a lifetime. We are now accepting applications for the fall 2023 cohort. The deadline to apply in June 9…. Read more »

The Alaska Community Foundation will be accepting applications through April 26 for grants from their Strengthening Organizations Fund. Awards will support nonprofit staff and boards of directors to access tools, develop practical skills, and cultivate systems needed to effectively achieve the organization’s mission in the areas of leadership development, organizational development, program development, collaboration and community engagement, and evaluation of effectiveness. Foraker is ready to stand beside you if you choose to engage with us through our capacity-building services for this grant…. Read more »