The Foraker Group

You may recall that in 2016 the Obama Administration proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) minimum salary thresholds for exempt positions.  These changes more than doubled the minimum threshold and impacted many of our nonprofits in the state.  At the eleventh hour, the proposed changes were enjoined by the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas days before they went into effect.  It didn’t end there, but the changes were halted. Following new proposed changes and a public comment period earlier this year, the final rule was issued this week for changes that go into effect on January 1, 2020. Is there an increase to the minimum threshold for exempt employees? Yes.  This federal ruling increases the minimum weekly threshold to exempt positions from $455 ($23,660 per year)… Read more »

Are you ready to take what you learned this summer about advocating for your mission and make it part of your organization’s DNA? Join us for Creating Your Successful Advocacy Program: A Step-by-Step Approach on October 29.  Looking for support outside of Anchorage? We are ready to help you build a plan that can guide your work. Give us a call to find out how to schedule an advocacy training in your community. Register today…. Read more »

We are excited to launch a new program at Foraker! We believe one of the critical pieces of nonprofit sustainability is recruiting and retaining the right people to advance mission. For many years, Foraker has offered the services that together make up this new program. Now, we are combining our offerings into a comprehensive approach for a one-of-a-kind service specifically designed for mission success. Leadership Transition will have two components – expanded Succession Planning services for those who are looking ahead at a change in leadership, and Prepare-Search-Thrive – a new approach that guides organizations when they begin the process of changing leaders. Our focus with both components is on critical leader positions regardless of title. We encourage you to share this information with your board and call us with questions…. Read more »

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.“ – Henry Ford We know now that several important items in the state budget survived a second veto by Governor Dunleavy. Still, some critical programs sustained significant cuts. Those include: Public Broadcasting ($2.7 million), Ocean Rangers ($3.4 million), Medicaid ($50 million), Adult Preventative Dental Medicaid ($27 million), Behavioral Health Treatment and Recovery Grants ($6.1 million), Adult Public Assistance ($7.5 million), Nome Youth Detention and Treatment Facility ($2 million), Village Public Safety Officer Program ($3 million), Alaska Marine Highway System ($5 million), rural airport maintenance ($47 thousand), and fund capitalization of the Community Assistance Program ($30 million). And even these numbers don’t tell the whole picture. For example, experts estimate that when considering the loss of matching funds… Read more »

We recently conducted a survey on how Alaska nonprofits are responding to the state fiscal crisis – we heard from many of you that you need support. Here are nine ideas to help guide you. You can use these as a conversation starter with your board and leadership team. You can also call on us. We are ready to guide you. As you go through these, help your board and staff be as strategic as possible to avoid surprises. And remember – don’t just create the plans, live them! Create or update your strategic plan: Not a new tool for sure, but an essential one. If you don’t know who you are and where you are going, every road will take you there, and every crisis will distract you. Create… Read more »

Earlier this week, Governor Dunleavy asked how nonprofits could contribute to solutions for state fiscal issues. In response, Foraker President/CEO Laurie Wolf released this statement: Nonprofits provide essential services and enhance the quality of life for Alaskans. We already are helping to fill the gap between genuine need and what government provides. We contribute as the second largest employer in the state, just behind the oil and gas industry. We bring in philanthropic and federal matching funds, along with volunteer hours that leverage every state dollar for maximum return in helping Alaskans. Our nonprofits have been on the front lines of managing the impacts created by this budget. While continuing to provide our regular services, we have been forced to imagine what Alaska will look like with no social or… Read more »

We need to hear from you about the immediate impacts of the state budget on your organization, the people you serve, and the staff you employ. We know that much of this impact has yet to fully be realized. However, we want to hear from you now to capture your first impressions, your first actions, and your first understanding of the impacts. This information will be used to further our advocacy efforts, to more deeply engage the funding community, and to inform nonprofits across the state on how we are collectively responding to this new reality. Thank you for taking 10 minutes to help advance the sector and the important work you do every day. Click here to start the survey…. Read more »

Nonprofit leaders often joke, in that not funny way, that the work nonprofits do is the best kept of secrets. We tell each other this as if saying it makes it better. It doesn’t. This is not a new revelation, of course. Over the many years, we at Foraker along with you have tried in many ways to rise from obscurity and tell our collective and individual stories. Collectively we have walked the line of making the story just enough about us to be noticed while keeping the emphasis on the work that happens in our communities because we exist. To that end, there have been human interest stories rather than headlines about how we mitigate and sometimes even end human suffering, how we propel the arts into the public… Read more »

Like never before… You are rising up. You are anxious. You are using your voice. You are scared for the people you serve and for the state you love. You are showing up. Your efforts are making a difference. We hear you. We see you. We all understand that we face an unprecedented effort to dismantle Alaska’s safety net – creating so many holes that we don’t know where people will land, dismantling the infrastructure that supports arts and artists like no other state in our union, undermining our children, our students, our elders and our most vulnerable, eroding support for science, education, and our fellow Alaskans who live in rural communities. Never before have all of these attacks happened all at once and with such force. And yet, here… Read more »

Thank you to all the nonprofit leaders who are offering public testimony on the state’s budget. We encourage more of you to do the same. During public testimony you are given just two minutes to make your point. Here are a few tips to make that time count: Start with your “call to action” – what do you want them to do? Share the impact in real-world terms (stories), not just numbers – for every statistic, a story. Offer sources for more information. Talk about the impact in your community, not just about preserving your organization. If you do talk about your organization, make sure to describe how you leverage resources and provide jobs. Lastly, be respectful. Your message will be more powerful if you are gracious in your approach…. Read more »