Latest news, alerts, and events.
Latest news, alerts, and events.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (omnibus spending and COVID relief bill) is now available online. Foraker has been working closely with the National Council of Nonprofits to understand how organizations will be impacted by the legislation. The National Council has issued a preliminary analysis, which you’ll find here. We appreciate their very prompt action to bring the sector this information.
The legislation runs 5,593 pages and spends more than $2.3 trillion. The National Council chart provides page numbers for deeper analysis on issues important to nonprofits. As Foraker and the National Council continue to review the legislation, we’ll fine-tune this analysis and post it on our website.
A few important highlights for nonprofits include:
Read more about additional coverage that includes many nonprofits here. In addition to the provisions outlined in the National Council analysis, the bill funds the federal government through the end of September 2021 and provides many major protections and relief measures including:
There’s also money for childcare, nutrition, rental assistance, a one-month extension of the CDC eviction moratorium, and a continuation of student loan forbearance.
Please share with us what you are learning about the impacts of COVID relief funding on your organization. We are ready to work with you.
As nonprofit leaders, it’s essential that we have the tools to make informed decisions. One of those tools is our Salary and Benefits Report – which gives us context and a comparative benchmark for compensation in Alaska’s nonprofit sector.
The 2020 Salary and Benefits Report features:
We are hosting a free webinar tomorrow, December 16, at 9:00 am to share more information and give you tips on how to use the report.
The Executive Summary is provided free of charge. If your organization did not participate in the survey, you can purchase the report on our website. For those that did participate, you can email us at info@forakergroup.org or call us to receive a discount. The report is available at the following rates:
Our Financial Shared Services clients that participated are eligible to purchase the survey for $170.
Thank you, again, to those who took part in our survey and to Mutual of America for their sponsorship.
Urge our congressional delegation today to enact essential relief for charitable nonprofits before leaving Washington for the holidays.
Congress is actively negotiating the next COVID-19 relief package. Senator Lisa Murkowski is a leader in the bipartisan effort to bring immediate relief to millions of Americans, local governments, businesses, and nonprofits. Communities in all parts of Alaska are relying on nonprofits more than ever as COVID-19 cases rise in our state and across the nation.
Join us TODAY. Let Senator Murkowski know you support her willingness to include nonprofits in the next relief bill.
And join the national call to action — #Relief4Charities — to ensure every legislator knows the national nonprofit priorities.
Holiday lights for Diwali, Hanukkah, Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa – that is what I savor on an evening ramble through my neighborhood during these dark days of winter. They’re in the trees, windows, and roofs – inside and outside. Their sparkle lights my way both literally and in my heart. This year – the year that is so very different, the year that is like living in a snow globe that is forever in dizzying motion – I have noticed a few things about these lights.
First, there are more of them, a lot more. Second, they were out way earlier than I can remember from years before now. Third, while they still bring me great kid-like joy, they also have me wondering more about how the people who put them out are doing. I wonder if they are recovering, or if their family is sick. I wonder if they have lost or kept their job. I wonder if they are lonely or hungry. I wonder if someone or some nonprofit is helping them right now. And I wonder if they know that the lights they hung are helping me, too. In all my curiosity, I realize more and more that I just don’t know the answers, and I never will. But I also am finding some comfort, just as I did back in March, that the act of knowing is not what this time and space is all about. I am reminded daily, instead, that ambiguity wins in 2020 and our collective journey through this time is all about staying present, curious, and compassionate.
I have been reflecting a lot while on my walks under the lights that our job is also about learning our way forward. Going back is not an option as we cannot unsee what COVID has laid bare for us. It has deeply exposed systemic disparity, communication rifts, underfunded and underappreciated public health science, political strife, and it has deepened the divide between the haves and the have nots. It has done all of this and so much more. But amidst the sorrow has been a dramatic and subtle shift in the way we work that is proving to be better. We have learned to trust our adaptations and lean more into courageous and honest conversations about equity and the value of more collaboration and less silo approaches to our missions. We have asked better financial resiliency questions when faced with unimaginable choices. Yes, we have learned to go forward. So let’s keep going.
If I could string a set of lights to display our collective learning these past ten months and have those lights lead us – not just to the end of this year but through the challenges that lay ahead as we face 2021 with little assurance that federal or state relief is coming, or worse – I would hold up the incredible bright examples of our nonprofits and the way they have responded to this public health crisis – this oh so very human and so very personal crisis.
There would be lights:
Each of you is a brilliant light, all the stronger as you shine together across Alaska – in every community, in every home, in every way. We simply could not deliver our missions without you. You are our brightest lights in this season and the next, and with you we will find our way forward.
From our Foraker family to yours, may you keep each other safe through this season.
Laurie
Rasmuson Foundation has reopened their small grant program, known as Tier 1, to fund emergency needs of nonprofits, local governments and tribal organizations. Complete applications must be in hand by Nov. 30, so don’t delay. Awards of up to $10,000 for either operational or capital needs will be made in December.
Interested organizations should click here to learn more and apply.