Blog

Latest news, alerts, and events.

Feb 3, 2025
Posted Under: Advocacy Federal Impacts

The Trump Administration has promised many changes to the federal government, the first of which has been dozens of executive orders covering a wide range of issues that include nonprofits and tribes in their scope. The implications of the executive orders vary greatly, from immediately taking effect to being challenged in court. Staying abreast of executive orders, directives, new laws, and their related actions is crucial for ensuring you are aware of potential hurdles to your work. That’s why we’ve created a new web page to share up-to-date information and resources. Check it out here

Jan 29, 2025
Posted Under: Advocacy Federal Impacts

The Office of Management and Budget memo outlining a freeze in funding for federal grants and loans is rescinded, but the administration still plans a full review of funding.

This is a positive step for nonprofits, municipalities, the state, and tribes that face severe impacts from the federal funding cuts that were outlined in the original OMB memo. The rescission was issued today in large part because of the swift advocacy and efforts of the National Council of Nonprofits, and people in Alaska and across the nation. While this is good news that eases immediate concerns, it’s likely to be temporary. The administration is still committed to funding cuts, which will have significant consequences for Alaska.

Thank you to the more than 150 organizations that took our initial survey asking about the impact funding cuts will have on their work. We have been able to immediately use the results in our conversations with policymakers. In those conversations, we also learned specific information they need to fully understand the implications of a funding freeze for Alaska. This information is our best tool for managing the risk of future actions and for supporting our continued advocacy. With that in mind, we will have a new survey for you to complete in the coming days.

We invite you to join us tomorrow for our Advocacy in Action call at 10:00 am to discuss the latest news on federal funding, executive orders, and more.

We will continue to update our blog as we better understand this evolving issue. In the meantime, you can track current and future Executive Orders here.

Recap:

On January 27, the Trump Administration announced the immediate freeze of federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance funds related to the executive orders it has issued in the past week.

On January 28, the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN)  filed the motion for a Temporary Restraining Order. You can read more hereA federal judge blocked a freeze on federal aid programs, saying more time is needed to assess the impact of that freeze. 

 

Jan 22, 2025
Posted Under: Advocacy

Protecting the work of nonprofits around the country, and especially here in Alaska, is an important part of our work. In that effort, we work closely with our trusted partner, the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN), which tracks federal policy that impacts charitable nonprofits. You likely have many questions regarding the Executive Orders (EOs) already issued by the new administration and those to come. The NCN team is tracking the EOs and their potential impact on nonprofits and sharing their insights in daily information updates. We encourage you to bookmark this page and check it often and to join us on our Advocacy in Action calls for nonpartisan conversations about the issues facing nonprofits. When we feel there is an imminent threat to the sector, we will let you know and suggest action you may take.

Jan 9, 2025
Posted Under: Human Resources

Starting January 1, 2025, Alaska’s minimum wage will rise from $11.73 to $11.91, reflecting an annual adjustment linked to inflation from a ballot initiative passed in 2014. On July 1, 2025, a further increase will raise the minimum wage to $13 per hour, following the approval of Ballot Measure 1 in 2024. Under this same measure, the minimum wage will continue to rise, reaching $14 per hour in 2026 and $15 per hour in 2027.

Additionally, beginning July 1, 2025, employers who do not already have a paid time off policy that meets the elements of the ballot measure will be required to provide paid sick leave. If an employer has 15 or more employees, each employee can accrue up to 56 hours of paid sick leave per year. If the employer has fewer than 15 employees, each employee can accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year.

Join us on February 7 for a special briefing to learn how your organization can prepare.

Jan 9, 2025
Posted Under: President's letter

Closing out an old year and entering a new one is that moment when so many of us take stock of what has just passed and what is yet to come. Looking back at 2024 from Foraker’s perspective, I remember it as a year of big projects, big internal shifts, and many expected and unexpected changes. Some of our projects were planned and some not, and per our usual, we ebbed and flowed with each other and made it work. Does this sound like your workplace? I found that time and again, groups we engaged with in 2024 were experiencing a high degree of change similar to what happened during the pandemic but also very different in that the changes were coming more from inside and not as much from outside the organization. Regardless of the source, the level of pandemic uncertainty and stress is still with us, and my hope for 2025 is that it resolves even a little.

For us, there were also other essential ingredients to our big work including the need for external partnerships, the coalescing of our internal team, and a commitment to learning our way forward to an agreed destination but with less understanding of exactly how we would reach each goal. Once again, this showed us that our tolerance for ambiguity and our curiosity serve us well. I wonder what ingredients were part of your experience?

The projects would have been one thing but to do them all amid team change both coming and going was an added layer of complexity. 2024 saw the largest growth in Foraker staff since our finance team formally joined us in 2010. We are still deeply in this mix of human change and job redistribution, and it will likely take the better part of 2025 before we see a complete team as we have envisioned it. (You can read more about our Foraker team changes below.) Not unlike many other nonprofits (maybe you, too), saying goodbye and hello as a team was a relatively unused muscle for us before the pandemic, but now it seems we have “a Foraker way,” and I am thankful for that. Have you developed “a way” to manage employee shifting in your organization? The workforce shortage and changes don’t appear to be ebbing for 2025, so maybe now is the time?

Looking to this year, we are excited to present our latest economic report, Alaska’s Nonprofit Sector: Generating Economic Impact, which we released in December. The report includes new data, and we’ve prepared a toolkit to help you apply it to your work. We are getting ready to release an updated version of The Gender Pay Gap in Alaska’s Nonprofit Sector. This report, too, includes a toolkit for your use. In addition, we will provide resources to help you navigate the real-world implications of Ballot Measure 1 with your employees. And we will keep you briefed as we advance our public policy priorities to strengthen Alaska’s nonprofits, tribes, and the impact we have in every community and with every Alaskan. Stay tuned for these announcements and more.

I hope this is the year you bookmark Alaska Board Match. Our goal is for this resource to be used statewide in both rural and urban Alaska – and we need your help to make it happen. I also hope you are looking at the opportunities in The Alaska Funder’s Directory as you consider your philanthropic leveraging options. And be sure to mark The Foraker Leadership Summit on your calendar. Collaboration and partnership is our theme since we know the only way forward is and will continue to be together.

With our new staffing hires and more consultants being added to the mix in 2025, we are gearing up to be ready and responsive to the needs we have seen and heard from so many of you. We will be focusing more on supporting Tribal Administrators and Tribal Councils in their unique environments, ramping up our efforts to provide more support for a spectrum of HR and belonging requests from compliance to fostering more welcoming spaces. Our goal in all this is not just to help you attract the next workforce but to retain them. To that end, we are working on plans to provide a more robust offering of HR shared services support for small and medium-sized organizations. And we are ramping up our ability to assist you with fundraising support and to meet your financial accounting requests all with an economy of scale and Foraker’s commitment to relationships, quality, and excellence you have grown to trust these last 24 years. The most recent data from our Statewide Capacity Report confirmed that people and money are your biggest challenges, and we want to meet you right where you need assistance to move forward.

I wonder what is on your 2025 list? Will you look inward with your team more or look out and explore possibilities? Will you pick one thing or five to go deeper or wider? Will you focus on collaboration and working better together? While we don’t know exactly what is to come, we do know that change is our constant companion and adaptation is our best tool if we use it from a place of deep connection to who we are and the values that are our DNA. I wish this for you – that deep connection and unwavering commitment to purpose and values, and to use it as a gift to know how to adapt.

In that same way, I like to pick a word to set my course for each year that both reminds me of our core and lights the way forward. Knowing that 2025 will hold more change for us as we continue to deepen our work, expand our team, and grow into possibilities, I am picking the words “steady on” as a singular thought. I am centering this idea to hold our goals, to keep us moving forward, to keep us together, and to plant and plan for the future. May your own word for the year hold you “steady on” as we navigate our way together into the new year.

Meet our team who are ready to meet you in your work

2024 brought both a reorganization of some team members and the addition of new staff, which allowed us to grow strategically and remain resilient and responsive to Alaska’s nonprofits and tribes.

New staff team members:

  • Our human resources offerings will be growing, led by our newest staff member Sara Grondahl. Sara joined our team as Vice President of People and Culture and will assist nonprofits and tribes through HR facilitation and training in addition to leading us in scaling our Human Resources Shared Services.
  • Our fundraising offerings will be growing, led by Emily Groves, Senior Director of Philanthropy. Emily has been a Foraker consultant for the last seven years and recently moved into a staff position. Emily will continue to support organizations in fundraising facilitation and training, in addition to growing our fundraising consultant team.
  • We are excited to deepen and expand our offerings for tribal administrators and tribal councils, led by Tyan Hayes. Tyan has been a Foraker consultant for the last two years and is now our Senior Director of Tribal and Nonprofit Leadership. In addition to running our Executive Leadership Intensive, and serving as a Foraker mentor and coach, Tyan will focus on growing specific areas of support unique to tribal leadership, building on 24 years of Foraker’s work in this area.
  • Leadership Transition remains in high demand. We recently added Joe Keifer to the team as a Leadership Transition Guide. Joe will be supporting organizations as they navigate their transitions.
  • Financial Shared Services is growing to keep up with demand. We recently added Janelle Foss as a Staff Accountant.
  • Jocelyn Schendel is our new Executive Assistant and Board Liaison as we focus on building the strength and capacity of our board team.

The team you know with new roles:

  • Chellie Skoog’s position has shifted to focus more on building a suite of services for leadership development and meeting the growing demand for these services in an ever-shifting workforce. Her title is now Vice President of Leadership Development.
  • Kate Rose will provide oversight for our growing operations in addition to her communication and education roles as our Vice President of Communications and Operations.
  • We have created a new position to support our growth, with Dani DesMarais moving to the role of Operations Manager.

Our team is made up of remarkable people with interesting lives and backgrounds – get to know more about them here. We also added several new consultants in 2024. Read more about these wonderful team members here. We look forward to sharing more updates in 2025 as the staff and consulting team continue to grow.

We are ready to work with you. Happy New Year.

Laurie