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!

A "Stately" Presentation

Alaska attorney Cliff Groh (far left) and his colleague (second from left), a professor of Economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage, visited our class on October 5 to give us an overview of how the economy of our state works. Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has been practicing law for over two decades. He currently serves as the President of the Alaska Common Ground, a forum dedicated to the discussion of public policy issues of the state. Cliff's presentation, aptly named "The State of the State," engages students in a classroom setting. Student ambassador Mark Phang (That's me in the middle!) and classmate AJ David (far right) simulate legislative activities that affect Alaska's funds to various sectors, including non-profit organizations. We learned that balancing the budget up north is no easy task!

Camera shy?

AJ David, a student most courageous, shows no fear as he volunteers to be the first person in our class to be interviewed by us..... on video! However, this should come as a surprise to no one - he has aspirations of becoming a TV show host! Go AJ! Way to make a great "first impression!"

Lights... Camera... Action! We student ambassadors now get a taste of our own medicine as we put ourselves in the spotlight and discuss our learning goals.

Last week, we were lucky enough to get to talk to the President of The Foraker Group Laurie Wolf! The Foraker Group is a 501(c)3 non-profit that basically supports all other non-profits. They provide consulting, classes, backroom services, fundraising expertise, sustainability, grant writing help, you name it. The previous CEO, Dennis McMillian, taught a community service class here at the university with his book, "Focus on Sustainability" which is well worth a read!

Laurie brought materials with her, including a pie chart showing total U.S. dollars given in 2015, to the tune of $373.25 billion. Individuals gave 71% of that amount, while corporations gave 5% (mostly in-kind donations of drugs, technology, samples, and plain ole stuff.) It was insightful!

Her emphasis of a healthy donor culture was invaluable. We discussed how the ideal division of labor should be 30% research of your donor base, 30% relationship building, 10% making requests, and 30% recognition/reporting. In Laurie's experience, Alaskan non-profits are spending WAY too much of their time making requests!

We will get around to introducing the class better, but in the photo below, left to right: Dr. Judy, Caitlin, Laurie Wolf, Mark, and AJ.

Hello from Alaska, AKA the coolest state (pun intended!) My name is Caitlin, and I am one of two student ambassadors for our Learning By Giving class. I am happy to pictorially introduce Mark Phang, student ambassador extraordinaire. We are happy to share what goes down in UAA town!

We are a small class of 5 students with a wonderful teacher, Dr. Judith Owens-Manley. We will be sure to introduce her in another post, as well as the other students and our activites!