The Foraker Group

It is strange to start a new year with equal desires to take a nap and forge ahead, but that does seem to be the place that 2020 has left many of us. Our bodies and brains, mostly overwhelmed with the totality of what 2020 brought into our daily lives, have left us eager to move on and dig deep for the energy to do so. 2020 was so much of everything to everyone, but differently. It was sorrow and pain as much as it was learning and adapting, and as much as it was loneliness and connection. It was both a collective experience and one that could only be felt very personally. It was universal and it was targeted. Maybe this is true about every year, but the very utterance of the year 2020 to a friend, colleague, or stranger conjures immediate reflection – generally followed by a choice expletive.

As we usher in 2021 with a loud call of hope for a vaccine available to everyone, along with a much-deserved nap to relieve too much stress and navigation, I invite us to muster our energy to move with deep intention….onward.

When I shared with a friend that “my word intention” for 2021 was onward, she nodded in agreement and then described it better than I had done. She said, “onward is the act of digging deep and moving quietly, steadily, and even slowly down the path.” I marinated in this idea as it reminded me of a countless number of long hikes in the mountains with a favorite seven-year-old – fully game to get “there” but also happy to stop and throw rocks in the stream while staying ever mindful of the pocketful of snacks that would power us through to the finish. It also reminded me of pretty much every long race I had ever run with thousands of runners and streets lined with spectators knowing that the training to get to that moment was complete – what was left was the mental exercise needed to make the difference between stepping off the course or seeing it through. You likely have your own visual of what digging deeply, quietly, and steadily conjures up. For me, these reminders leave me ready to face 2021 exhilarated, uplifted, and yes, a little exhausted by all that still lies ahead.

More so, I am reminded from these examples and by what I see you all doing in your nonprofits, that there are bigger reasons to keep moving onward; that the journey itself is more important than the destination. So how we get there – by doing it together – by taking notice of each other – by sharing snacks – by keeping each other steady – that is what matters.

Maybe that was the gift of 2020, that in all of its hardships and all of its requirements to adapt and learn and shift, we got more connected to the journey itself. Maybe 2020 was the year to put everything into perspective. Maybe what “hindsight is 2020” really means is that all of that learning is what reflects on everything else moving forward.

Reflections from 2020 included watching as organizations and leaders threw out old assumptions, shifted into gear on things they thought would take years, which really took only weeks. We heard about plans modified over and over to meet people exactly where they were and in the way they needed it. We watched some groups close and others double down. We watched eyes open and minds open and hoped so deeply that we would collectively never unsee all that we can now see. Our hindsight is that if 2020 was the year we met volatility with vision, uncertainty with understanding, complexity with clarity, and ambiguity with agility, then by those very actions we are in a new place on the trail. Yes, the journey to get us here has been a challenge, but we are here now – and onward we go.

If you need to pause and reset at this point in the journey, I encourage you to do it – rushing fast is rarely the right answer. Resetting can be as simple as reflecting with your team on some generative topics: What did we learn? Where did we grow? Where did we get stuck? What surprised us? And what comforted us? Sure, we can ask these questions of ourselves, but more than that I encourage you to ask them of mission and the people that are making your mission happen. The answers will likely be different from just your own answer. It is in those collective answers that lay all we need to keep moving onward through 2021.

When you and the team are ready, I invite us all to gather our resolved determination, reminders of all that we learned, and a good dose of hope and support, and then turn our gaze to what lies ahead. With our eyes focused on the possibilities of what comes next and our feet firmly planted in the reality that we are not done with the ravages of this pandemic on those we love and those whom we will never meet, we move forward together.

Onward in 2021 will ask of us not just to reflect on ourselves and each other, and not just to move and respond, but it will ask us for our collective voice as a sector. If 2020 was the year you put your head down and just made it through the day, then 2021 is the year to lift up your eyes and realize that we have to collectively stand for our sector’s missions and causes together. We must navigate state and local budget battles and federal changes. Moving onward into 2021 will be tough for everyone but again in radically different ways. Our new skills of working from behind our computers will have to carry over into our advocacy work and our temptations of working alone will have to give way to knowing that only together will we emerge stronger.

Onward in 2021 might be bold and loud and certainly it will be steady and consistent. It will still require adapting our programs, shifting our business models, and caring for one another. But just as much, this year our actions, our choices, and our voices are all needed to move onward together.

Let’s commit to standing up with each other, encouraging each other, learning with each other, and reminding ourselves that with all of 2020’s hindsight we are better prepared to do the work our communities, people, and planet need us to do.

Onward.

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:

• Charitable Giving Incentives: Reestablishes the $300 above-the-line deduction for 2021 and applies a $600 deduction for couples filing jointly in 2021; imposes a penalty for overstating contributions. The bill also extends for one year the increased limits on deductible charitable contributions for individuals who itemize and for corporations.
• PPP Reforms
  • Forgiveness: Expands forgivable expenses to include the costs of PPE, workplace modifications; short-form approval of loans of $150,000 or less.
  • Second Draw Loans: Charitable nonprofits may qualify for an additional PPP loan (Second Draw) of up to $2 million if they a) employ 300 or fewer employees and b) experience a decline in gross receipts of 25% in one of the four quarters in 2020 compared to the same quarter in 2019. NOTE: Nonprofit “gross receipt” defined using the tax-law definition and not the arbitrary definition seen in earlier drafts.
• Economic Injury Disaster Loan Grants: Provides $20 billion for additional $10,000 grants; repeals deduction of EIDL grants from the amount of loan forgiveness.
• Save Our Stages: $15 billion dedicated to aiding performance venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions.

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:

• A $300 boost in weekly unemployment benefits
• Continuation of expanded unemployment benefits for an additional 11 weeks
• $600 relief checks per adult and child in households earning up to $150,000 a year
• More than $330 billion for small business aid
• Funding for schools, hospitals, and vaccine distribution.

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.

What’s in the report?

The 2020 Salary and Benefits Report features:

• Salary data for 48 positions including executive director, finance director, development director, administrative support, accountants, clinical support, and program staff
• Regional breakdown of data from Southcentral, Interior, and Southeast Alaska
• Data from organizations with budgets ranging from less than $100,000 to over $10 million
• Data from 20 types of nonprofits, including youth development, educational institutions, medical disciplines, arts, culture, and humanities groups
• Benefit data on medical, dental, vision, holidays and leave, retirement plans, life insurance, and more
• Data on gender pay gap challenges and opportunities
• Observations on the impact of COVID-19 on the operations of Alaska nonprofits

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.

How much does it cost?

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:

• Foraker Partners that participated in the survey — $200
• Foraker Partners that did not participate in the survey — $275
• Other nonprofit organizations that participated in the survey — $250
• Other nonprofit organizations that did not participate in the survey — $325

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:

• For our arts and culture missions that are adapting, sharing, and engaging us and each other even when their physical spaces are dark
• For our healthcare providers who are working in unimaginable conditions to save our lives even when it means risking their own
• For our human service providers who are working alongside our most vulnerable Alaskans who only double and triple in their numbers and their needs as this pandemic and economic crisis rages on
• For our education heroes who are teaching us and our children about adaptability and resiliency even as the cracks and gaps of the digital and learning divides widen
• For our environmental champions who encouraged us to take a break and go outside to breathe clean air and drink clean water knowing that Alaska is worth protecting for all of us to live, work, and play
• For our animal caregivers who simultaneously met unexpected loneliness with rescue puppies and kittens we never knew we needed, while also helping those who had to give up their furry friend when they lost their job or their home, and to those who safeguarded our Alaska wildlife in their care so they will be with us on the other side of this time
• For our civic leaders who strategized, activated, engaged, partnered, and raised their collective voices for relief funding and policy that could help us keep going – most will never know the endless hours of their meetings all with one purpose, to serve their community
• For our religious stewards who heeded the call to keep their congregations safe and found new ways to be together – to heal, to pray, to celebrate, to mourn, to find community – and to always be there when we needed you
• For our philanthropic investors who shifted, rallied, and listened – yes, the money mattered but so did your compassion and commitment to Alaska’s missions
• For each of you who Zoomed your way through the day when a friendly hug or a hallway chat is what you really needed
• For each of you who did and are still doing the untenable balance of home school and nonprofit work – each night you collapsed into bed forgetting that you never drank any water or made it to the bathroom for hours because everything just seemed too important to stop and care for yourself
• For you who still found time to connect in a meaningful way to share your time, your talents, and your treasure with others

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