We’ve discussed non-profit organizations on the show before, and how important they are for filling in the gaps left in society. Last week Kenai Watershed Forum Executive Director Brandon Bornemann gave an excellent “elevator speech” about non-profits to the Soldotna City Council, which was well worth the listen.
Speaking of non-profits, KDLL is one, and, as you may recall we held a fundraising drive last week, with some modest success. According to the latest figures, the two-and-a-half day fundy raised about $21,000, with donations from 182 people. We thank each and every one of you.
“I think it's important that we just touch base kind of as to what nonprofits provide to our communities and the services they give.
“So with that being said, the breadth and coverage of nonprofits is incredible. When you think about nonprofits, you probably don't think about all the services we provide in the communities and nonprofits are really woven into the fabric of our society and all these different ways.
“I encourage you to think about the last time you interacted with a nonprofit. Maybe you had hospice care in your family, maybe you've attended a chamber meeting, maybe you went to the hospital. These are all nonprofits operating within our community. So the benefits we provide, we are important to your business community, we are a business, we are a corporation.
“There are 38 different types of nonprofits as defined by the IRS. The Kenai Watershed Forum is a 501(c)3. But like I said, there are many, many others and we consider ourselves part of the funding community, the business community. So we take public funds, and we leverage those. We do this really well. And majority of the funds that we receive, we have to match to some extent. So that's part of what we do as a nonprofit.
“We can make profit, we call it revenue, the difference between us and a for-profit businesses that we have to reinvest that revenue back into our mission. We partner with a wide variety of other businesses and government services. Sometimes, you know, even with the state of Alaska budget as it is, nonprofits are stepping up in extraordinary ways throughout our state to fill gaps that the government will not or does not support currently.
“So we also provide community and civic engagement. We are, in live, in the communities we operate in, we exist for those communities, and we ensure quality of life. We need the physical health needs, the mental health needs, and the cultural and artistic needs and environmental needs of our communities just to name a few of the ways we meet those needs.
“So within the state of Alaska, it's this this data here comes from a Foraker Group nonprofit in Anchorage, their January 2008 report. Nonprofits aren't considered their own industry sector but if they were the Foraker Group believes they'd be the second largest industry in Alaska. In terms of economic impact, that's that's fairly significant. When you think about that. They do parse this out into our where we operate environmental health, those types of industries. So we're counted within those industries if you separated us, we've ranked second, which is again, very significant.
“You know, Alaska is unique in so many different ways. But it ranks in the top five nationally in terms of volunteerism, and supporting nonprofits within our communities. The Kenai Peninsula is even more unique within Alaska as we're a rural community, Foraker Group tells us that rural communities are very good at giving, very good at supporting nonprofits.
“So we're starting to see stricter and stricter, a tighter and tighter regulations on who can give us money and what pots of money are available. I think both the federal and state administration's have not been friendly for nonprofit.”
