The Foraker Group

Chief Shake’s House, Wrangell, Alaska – Sept. 5, 2012 Today I am in the green and beautiful southeast Alaska community of Wrangell. A few years ago I spent many days here working with the community to help them complete a new conference center and museum, the Nolan Center. Now another group, representatives of its first inhabitants (the tribe), are nearing completion of another dream, the renovation of their most important structures, Chief Shake’s House. And while this is cause for celebration the same group is also closing in on the starting date for another big project, a carving shed, where a new generation of carvers, like the ones who used to live on this island and create magnificent totems, are identified, developed and nurtured. The smidgen of insight today is… Read more »

Alaska Native Heritage Center – August 28 Today I am on the 16th annual Rasmuson Foundation grant maker tour. Since 1996 the foundation has invited the most significant foundations in America to learn about Alaska. They visit nonprofits in Anchorage and Sitka, but also get to see life in the YK Delta and the North Slope. This year funders from Murdock Trust, Cargill, Rockefeller Brothers, Knight, Robert Wood Johnson, Moore, Ferguson and a guest from consultant TCC Group spent a week in Alaska. The smidgen of insight today is the amount of money provided by the Rasmuson Foundation is magnified by the capital of goodwill they create through such efforts. Dennis… Read more »

Outcomes – Impact – Output – Measures – PROOF??? Funders ask for measurable results. Some nonprofits even want to evaluate impact for themselves, seeking to improve what they do. Regardless of motivation, many nonprofits, even those that have taken the steps to evaluate their work, struggle with evaluation. Even nonprofits with capacity can have this challenge. For example, the United Way of Anchorage has been dedicated to this goal since Michele Brown took over as CEO. They have truly moved the dial and its service partners’ ability to articulate and measure results. My opinion is they are farther along than most United Ways. They have established buy-in for their process not only from many of our local funders but also their nonprofit partners. But truth be told, they probably wish… Read more »

Alliance for Nonprofit Management Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan – August 10, 2012 Today is day two of the Alliance conference. I was recently asked to serve on the Alliance board whose mission is to improve the capacity of professionals involved in building the capacity of the nonprofit sector. There have been good sessions with some ideas I will bring home for Foraker. As important, I have been able to re-connect with Terry Horton, former Foraker staff member who now serves as a consultant with the Johnson Center at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids. Today’s smidgen of insight is that all organizations are struggling with their business model and with evaluation. The Alliance is comprised of many of the most respected thought leaders in the sector, yet they, too,… Read more »

The New York Times has featured the Southcentral Foundation in a story on advances in health care reform. According to the article, at a recent conference in Anchorage foundation officials “described techniques that could be adopted by almost any health care organization willing to transform its culture.” The story outlines efficiencies that have been instituted while improving patient care. Read the full story here…. Read more »

August 7, 2012 — Salt Lake City, Utah. Today I was in Salt Lake, actually woke up in Park City to work with the Utah Hospital Association. Two Alaskans – Ed Lamb, former CEO at Alaska Regional and now running a health system in Utah, and Rod Betit, former CEO of the Alaska Hospital and Nursing Home Association, now the interim exec at the Utah association – asked for a little “Forakering” for the board here. The smidgen of insight is that all nonprofit sub-sectors are preparing for change and that’s a good thing because change is imminent. The challenge is that it is hard to predict what to do with all things so uncertain. It reminded me to remind you that our efforts to help the sector know that… Read more »

Jaclyn Sallee, Koahnic Broadcast Corporation President and CEO and member of the Foraker Operations Board, was honored with an award for Media Excellence at the Eighth Annual Native Media Summit on July 13 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The award was given by Native Public Media, an organization with the mission to promote healthy, engaged, and independent Native Communities through media access, control and ownership. Loris Taylor, President and CEO of Native Public Media, said that “Sallee has blazed the way for satellite distribution of Native programming in an environment where Native media continues to struggle in its efforts to reach Native audiences that remain largely unserved and underserved.” Sallee has developed many award-winning programs including Earthsongs, “Native Word of the Day,” “Stories of our People,” National Native News, and… Read more »

Since the beginning, Foraker’s benefit program has focused on wellness. As part of this effort, our program provides health coaching. We are pleased to see that other Alaska nonprofits are supporting wellness for their employees and community. Check out this recent report on NPR — click here…. Read more »

Catalyst for Nonprofit Excellence is a unique opportunity designed specifically for nonprofit leaders. It is a partnership between The Foraker Group and Context International, with support from BP. The program is designed for leaders in the sector who are ready for an opportunity to explore their path, energize, envision their next steps, and enhance the best each has to offer the world and the sector. We hope to create a cohort with representatives from all parts of the state and all segments of the nonprofit sector. In addition to executive directors and funding officers, are looking for board volunteers with a commitment to the sector. Our graduates from last year tell us it was a “powerful experience” that helped them clarify their leadership style and the way they engage in… Read more »

Portland, OR – August 3, 2012 Last week Andrew Cutting, Mike Walsh, Laurie Wolf, and I met with the cohort from Murdock Charitable Trust’s Capacity Builders Initiative in “Portlandia!” The weather was beautiful so it was hard for us to stay inside and work, but we did. We spent the first day with Jared Raynor from TCC Group on evaluation, today on common interests. This initiative has been ongoing for six years. When we started we did not know each other and our work seemed very different. Today we are a team committed to improving our collective impact. Today’s smidgen of insight is that evaluation is hard, even with desire and funding. But it is important. That leads to our August newsletter article on measuring our impact. If you want… Read more »