“This is the time to infuse government resources into nonprofit organizations to maintain critical public services.”
- Economic Report by Alaska’s Foraker Group, January 2018
If you think the Haines Borough won’t zero out grants to non-profits, you haven’t been watching lately.
Non-profit funding, the amount of money the government sets aside for competitive grants to citizen groups like the Haines Dolphins Swim Club and Becky’s Place women’s shelter, peaked in 2013 at $154,000. It’s been sliding since.
On Tuesday, the assembly appropriated just $20,000 to the “community chest,” an amount that is equal to just one tenth of one percent of next year’s $18.8 million borough budget and $17,000 less than what the borough contributed last year.
As your assembly representative, I made a motion to keep nonprofit funding at last year’s amount of $37,000, but other assembly members – for reasons that were vaguely articulated and are not clear – weren’t biting.
When I ran for borough office in 2016, maintaining support for nonprofits was one of my main goals. Nonprofits do a lot of heavy lifting in our community for a fraction of the cost that government or private sector could do the same work. The Haines Volunteer Fire Department is a nonprofit. So are the Southeast Alaska State Fair and KHNS.
Nonprofits are the people who help keep salmon alive in local streams (Takshanuk Watershed Council) and teach your tykes how to think and get along with others (Chilkat Valley Preschool.)
Nonprofits do a lot of work for a little bit of money because they’re comprised of an entire group of people who are dedicated, if not personally committed to, a single cause. They do what the government and private sector can’t or won’t do, without overtime or union wages.
In 2016, a Haines Chamber of Commerce study of 16 local nonprofits conducted by then-executive director Debra Schnabel found that the organizations employed “64 people, paying out $1.81 million in payroll and benefits. In grants, membership fees, and other revenue streams, they bring in $3.5 million. They also boast nearly 500 volunteers,” according to a Chilkat Valley News story on Schnabel’s study.
The CVN story continued:
“I was pleasantly surprised to see the volume of engagement,” Schnabel said. “(The) $1.8 million in salary is pretty significant, even if many of the positions are part-time. People are able to augment or cobble together a living by working with nonprofits.
“Schnabel also clarified that “in-kind donations,” which many nonprofits accept in the form of labor or supplies, is not included in the revenue. “It’s really the amount of money that is circulating in the economy.
“Nonprofits included in the report were: Haines Assisted Living, Lynn Canal Human Resources, Lynn Canal Broadcasting, Southeast Alaska State Fair, Takshanuk Watershed Council, Alaska Arts Confluence, American Bald Eagle Foundation, Senior Citizens Center, St. Lucy’s Senior Living, Haines Animal Rescue Kennel, Haines Chamber of Commerce, Haines Friends of Recycling, Chilkat Valley Preschool, Lynn Canal Conservation, Hospice of Haines and the Haines Dolphins Swim Club.
“Schnabel said she didn’t include nonprofits that are regionally or nationally based (like Southeast Alaska Independent Living or Big Brothers Big Sisters), though local arms of those organizations also employ a considerable number of people locally.
“(Schnabel) said she started working with local nonprofits more than a year ago after the assembly repeatedly cut its annual contribution to the groups. “The climate was an attitude that nonprofits didn’t have the stature to be considered for funding,” Schnabel said.
“That climate persists today, with several assembly members threatening to cut some or all of the “community chest” funds dedicated for nonprofits during the current budget cycle.
“Schnabel said she hopes the chamber’s document will at least give the group some concrete numbers to work with when discussing the issue.
“I’m at least hoping to reduce the amount of time the assembly engages the public and nonprofits arguing about what’s important and what isn’t. These are facts. They can make their own assessment about whether it will have impact or not,” she said.
According to Alaska’s Foraker Group, nonprofits are also good business, strengthening industry and communities. Foraker reports that nonprofits represent 17 percent of all employment in Alaska, and up to 40 percent in rural areas. They generate $3.89 billion in income for Alaskans while receiving less than 20 percent of all federal assistance to Alaska.
To understand how nonprofits fit into a special spot in our community, let’s use the example of Haines Animal Rescue Kennel.
The City of Haines for nearly 100 years kept a dogcatcher on staff for rounding up loose mutts. The service was bad, caught animals were maltreated, and the dogcatcher seemed always at war with dog owners. Catching dogs fell to the last-hired public works employee, who moved up the chain to another job as soon as they could.
In 2001, a group of residents concerned about pets and domestic animals formed HARK, which has since taken over animal control services and improving the lot of local animals at less than the cost of a public works employee. Was the private sector going to take on animal control? No the job was too big for what little could be charged. The job also was too big for a single government worker to do well for less than an exorbitant amount.
HARK is a model for how government services might be continued in our in our current era of deep and sustained cuts from the state and federal governments. As Foraker pointed out in its 2018 report, governments like the borough need to be nurturing our nonprofits, encouraging and partnering with them to fill gaps that are opening.
Reducing non-profit funding is not a step in the wrong direction. It’s a leap backwards.
It’s not inconceivable that one day the Haines Borough Public Library will be operated by Friends of the Library, using an appropriation from the borough. Under a similar arrangement, we might ask Takshanuk Watershed Council to operate our water and sewer plants. Haines Friends of Recycling, with enough support from the borough, might one day manage the town’s solid waste stream.
In a new era of maintaining our local government without giant servings of oil revenues, nonprofits offer hope for new ways of doing things, not a drag on us. If you agree, please contact your assembly members immediately. Tuesday’s decision is completely reversible.
In the meantime, if you’d like to better understand the impact of nonprofits in Alaska, follow the below link.
http://www.forakergroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ForakerEconomicReport.pdf
To read the Chilkat Valley News story on the Chamber of Commerce’s 2016 study of impacts to our town from nonprofits, go to: