“In Alaska, we belong to each other.” “We can take good care of each other.” These are the lines in one of my favorite spoken word poems by NaMee. This poem was written in response to the proposed, devastating budget cuts in the early days of Governor Dunleavy’s administration. But the reason for the poem is less important than the response, and the response is so powerful that it is still as true today as the day it was created. The poem not only reminds us about what we collectively love about this place, it reminds us about what it means to live here, to raise our families here, to make a living here. It reminds us that part of that choice is a responsibility to see the people around… Read more »

The place where your child stays safe after school or plays soccer or learns an instrument The place where your niece or nephew adopted their dog, cat, or guinea pig The place where your neighbor gets a bag of groceries to make ends meet every few weeks The place where your sister learns how to sing, dance, and perform The place where someone you love seeks refuge The place where your parents or grandparents seek daily elder care The place you call in an emergency The place where you get well The place you tune in to stay informed, entertained, and up to date The place where your auntie draws hope The place where your community worships, explores, and connects with like-minded people The place you turn to after a… Read more »

As is my way, I am going to be honest. As a sector, we face a pretty difficult set of circumstances that are likely to get worse before they get better – and we are not alone. Hundreds of government agencies with which we partner are being dismantled without a strategic understanding of the impact on human life, our environment, or our economy. Simultaneously, we can see some who are incredibly hopeful about the possibilities of these changes. I am sure some would strongly disagree with both these views – such is the nature of democracy. We can do things that feel and impact people in diametrically different ways. Predominately, however, as I watch and listen every day to the stories of human impact and the depth of the legal… Read more »

Never let a crisis go to waste. Find the opportunity in the chaos. Look for the connections to make things better. Find a new way to see what is happening by joining together. Find our own ground and help others find theirs. These are the things I have been thinking about as we create ways to keep you informed, keep you connected, and keep us moving forward during these incredibly turbulent times. We are leaning all the way in with trusted tools, new data turned to action, lots of communication, and a bunch of tried and true ways to help you feel less isolated. In a few weeks, we present again one of our signature opportunities to draw you together – The Foraker Leadership Summit. This is the largest gathering… Read more »

Closing out an old year and entering a new one is that moment when so many of us take stock of what has just passed and what is yet to come. Looking back at 2024 from Foraker’s perspective, I remember it as a year of big projects, big internal shifts, and many expected and unexpected changes. Some of our projects were planned and some not, and per our usual, we ebbed and flowed with each other and made it work. Does this sound like your workplace? I found that time and again, groups we engaged with in 2024 were experiencing a high degree of change similar to what happened during the pandemic but also very different in that the changes were coming more from inside and not as much from outside… Read more »

This holiday season we are celebrating with the gift of turning data into action. There is a data point for almost every wish on your holiday list but there is always an elusive – if not magical – data point that is just out of reach. Of course, no holiday gift is worth it unless you can use it again and again, right? So, the good news is this data has a nice shelf life and should carry you through your strategic planning, the Halls of Congress, and our state Capitol for a long time. We hope you use these truths to raise your voice and sing a joyous song about the essential work taking place (often in the background of the tinsel and sparkly light kind of things you… Read more »

What’s Next? If you are a West Wing fan, you hear that question when the voice of Martin Sheen as President of the United States takes on one big thing after another. And so, that is what we will also do as this election season draws to a conclusion. For some of you, this election was a high point, and for others, a low point — certainly, it brought a response that resonated deeper than a person or a political party. Regardless, I feel certain that not everyone experienced the election the same, nor will we experience the consequences of the decisions made by the American people the same. During the pandemic, it was an often-used metaphor that “we are swimming in the same ocean, but we are not in the… Read more »

Searching for and claiming our origin story feels like a universal experience across cultures, generations, and experiences. It is the act of knowing where we came from and what makes us who we are today. There are many paths to get to this place including oral traditions, shared stories, formal documentation, scientific evidence, and artistic renderings. Each effort has meaning and offers us some truths to hold on to as we move ahead to what’s next.   Each of us likely has varying personal experiences with searching for and owning our own origin stories which can be thrilling, heartbreaking, insightful, harrowing, surprising, lovely, and perhaps everything in between. Maybe our personal experience makes us either more eager or less willing to search out and document our nonprofit’s origin story. And, as… Read more »

At Foraker, we believe that the nonprofit sector is essential to our democracy. More than just a system of government, the idea of democracy is the notion of free-flowing ideas that often confound us, make us think, and yes, often disagree. Democracy requires attention and conscious conversations. It is, after all, only held together by people with ideas and the rules, ethics, and values that we write and live around it. At times, disagreement is how we know our freedoms are at play. Not conflict for conflict’s sake, but the notion that this ever-evolving system needs respect, connection, and healthy debate. This is the thread that holds us together even as some want to frame it as the thing that pulls us apart. The nonprofit sector is one of those… Read more »

This month we released our Salary and Benefits Report & Dashboard. While we have been producing these reports for nonprofit decision-making since 2003, this year our report is bigger and better than ever thanks to a partnership with the state nonprofit associations in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Certainly, this type of data has been useful in the past but right now the nonprofit workforce is at the nexus of events that likely will result in a lasting shift for current and future employees. We have reported over the years on the challenges nonprofit employees and employers face, which sadly have not changed much because few organizations ever feel like they are fully staffed or financially flexible enough to deploy the team they have in all the ways they think… Read more »