The Foraker Group

Today The Foraker Governance Board issued the following statement to the Alaska legislature on the importance of a comprehensive fiscal plan that includes a progressive revenue measure. The Foraker Group, as Alaska’s State Nonprofit Association, has strongly and consistently stated, through its 2015, 2016, and 2017 Public Policy Priorities, and through our advocacy and outreach activities with members of the state legislature, that passage of a comprehensive fiscal plan is essential, and that an income tax must be part of such a package. We urge the state legislature to work diligently now to pass an income tax that is part of a comprehensive long-term fiscal plan that promotes strong rural and urban communities, and protects Alaska’s most vulnerable populations, education, and cultural life.  As individual board members we are prepared… Read more »

At our leadership summit earlier this month, we launched a new tool to help you assess the financial health of your organization — it’s our “Indicators of Financial Crisis.” We all know that a stressed organization operating with the best of intentions can still make ill-advised decisions – especially in the financial arena – and the results can be damaging. We also know that sometimes seeing a financial crisis is difficult. Our new tool will help you spot if you’re in crisis or coming close to one. Once you know, you’ll be able to take the steps to recover. After you take the assessment outlined in this tool and if you believe action is needed you have several options. You can tap the expertise on your board or another outside resource. You may… Read more »

Creating a theme for our biennial leadership summits starts with listening to Alaska’s nonprofit boards and staff and inviting Foraker staff to share what they are hearing and feeling when they’re out in your communities. This year, our theme Stable, Resilient, Adaptive: Tools to Take Us Forward was born from this process. We see a landscape of two distinct characteristics: either boards and staff are hunkering down and digging in to grasp stability or they are looking beyond their traditional answers and attempting (and sometimes succeeding) in positioning their mission as resilient by changing the way the work gets done or worse, changing their core premise. To be sure, there is lots of gray in between, but the premise of this conference was that either extreme is not the answer… Read more »

We appreciate the time committed by more than 450 nonprofit professionals who engaged in thoughtful and meaningful conversations this week at our leadership summit. For those of you who were not able to attend, you may review the presentations and handouts from our speakers on our website. Whether or not you were at the summit, we offer this list of ways we can continue to connect. 1. Participate in quarterly advocacy check-ins. Once each quarter, Director of Public Policy Mike Walsh hosts a dialogue on issues affecting the sector. Mark your calendars for June 7 at 9:00 am. for the next session. Remember – the best time to advocate is when your legislators are out of session and in your communities. You can also join our Public Policy Alert list to keep up with important policy issues…. Read more »

More than 660 Alaska nonprofits participated in Pick.Click.Give. this year, and we were very pleased when we learned the results of the 2017 campaign. By the end of the PFD filing period on March 31, 26,128 Alaskans pledged $2,702,450 — an amazing total from many generous donors. Congratulations to all the organizations who worked hard to let Alaskans know about their missions — and to the PCG staff, the Alaska Humanities Forum, and the United Way of Anchorage who supported their effort…. Read more »

Our office will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, April 3-4, for our Leadership Summit. If you have questions about the summit, please call 907-743-1205. For other questions, please leave a message or call us again on Wednesday morning. Thank you…. Read more »

Nonpartisanship – a core principle of charitable nonprofits – is under attack in Washington, DC. Last week we let you know about efforts to repeal the Johnson Amendment, a part of the U.S. tax code that prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from engaging in partisan politics. Foraker has gone on record and notified our congressional delegation that we oppose the repeal. You can read our statement here. We need nonprofits across Alaska to show their support, too, for this important provision that has protected our work from divisive partisanship for more than 50 years. The National Council of Nonprofits has organized a campaign to get organizations around the country to sign the Community Letter in Support of Nonpartisanship. Bills pending in Congress would repeal or significantly weaken the current law’s longstanding… Read more »

In our recent Foraker newsletter, we invited you to share with us your perception of the operating climate for Alaska nonprofits in 2017. This is a time of transition and we want to know how you’re doing and what we can do to help you effectively carry out your mission. What are your greatest challenges? What are your concerns? What changes do you anticipate? How are you planning? We’re interested, too, in learning your thoughts on the economy and the national landscape. First we need to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to fill out our Navigating 2017 survey. The information and perspectives you provide will help us plan how we can best serve you and your organization. This is an anonymous survey. We may use some of the… Read more »

Both the U.S. House and Senate are considering a repeal of provisions in the U.S. tax code that prohibit 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from engaging in partisan politics. The so-called Johnson Amendment has been part of the tax code since the 1950s. Foraker issued a statement today opposing this repeal, saying that: “In very real terms, the current legislation (S. 264 in the Senate and H.R. 781 and H.R. 172 in the House) would politicize the sector, subjecting nonprofits and foundations to demands for campaign contributions (thereby diverting donors’ money away from mission-related work to benefit politicians). Not only would repeal damage public trust in the work of nonprofits, it would threaten the impartiality and independence of our sector and our requirement, as written in statue, to “do good” – both of which are… Read more »

Join us at the 2017 Leadership Summit and learn from the best. Early bird registration ends TODAY! Click here to register. Katie Orenstein,  The OpEd Project Katie writes and speaks frequently about the intersection of media and mythology – that is, what we think is fact or fiction and how that shapes our ideas about politics, culture and history. She has contributed to the op-ed pages of the New York Times, Washington Post and Miami Herald. She has lectured at Stanford and appeared on ABC TV World News, Good Morning America, MSNBC, CNN and NPR. A graduate of Harvard (BA) and Columbia (MA) universities, she is the author of “Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale.” Orenstein has worked around the world and particularly in… Read more »