With the sun shining bright outside the UAA Allied Health Sciences building on last Thursday, students, staff and community members gathered for an introduction of panelists. Mariko Sarafin represented the Alaska Community Foundation. Jeff Baird came on behalf of The Rasmuson Foundation, while Executive Director Ira Perman arrived from The Atwood Foundation. Somewhat ironically, the University of Alaska Foundation was unable to make it! Hopefully we can meet them later in the semester.

Mariko explained how ACF was a young grantmaking public charity worth about 75 million, with thousands of donors and 390 funds. In comparison, Rasmuson and Atwood Foundations are private foundations, worth 630 million and 32 million respectively. These entities are treated differently by the IRS because they were seeded by endowments from wealthy families, and must make a 5% payout annually. The Rasmuson Family wealth was from banking, while the Atwood Family was in newspapers. The Rasmuson Foundation gives to tribes, nonprofits, and cities, with projects of broad benefit. We learned that “Pick, Click, Give” was their initiative, allowing Alaskans to quickly and easily donate dollars from their PFD online. The Atwood Foundation gives to arts, research and history.

Ira Perman told a story about how he watched a show called “The Millionaire”, where the camera panned to a desk and checkbook, and mysterious person would give one million dollars to another in need. Ira said, “What a cool job!”, inspiring him from a young age to learn about philanthropy.

We all enjoyed the panel and are very grateful to the attendees!