KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
Nonprofits in Alaska benefit from Pick Click Give, a program that allows Alaskans to direct all or part of their Permanent Fund Dividend to their cause of choice, but this year there’s been a drop in their overall donations. Some local Kodiak nonprofits have also noticed a decrease, but they’re not sure Governor Walker’s decision to slash the PFD in half is responsible.
The Kodiak Women’s Resource and Crisis Center executive director Rebecca Shields says it’s hard to say for their organization because donations already vary from year to year.
“It is slightly lower than what we had in the past, and I think it could be due to the fact that there was a lot going on with the dividends this year, and that the dividends were lower than they were projected to be, but I wouldn’t say that the difference was so great.”
The Humane Society of Kodiak also noted a decrease. Linda Lance, Humane Society President, says there was a 22 percent decrease from 2015, a year which saw a spike in donations, but an 8 percent drop from 2014.
“But it was a decrease over what we had gotten before, so I don’t know if that’s related to a decrease in what the PFD amount was or if there’s just other stressors going on that we see a decrease.”
Over at the Alutiiq Museum, Executive Director April Laktonen Counceller says the museum is down a couple hundred dollars. She suggests that the amount of donations nonprofits receive through Pick Click Give might not tell the whole story of how much money that organization gets.
“From what I’ve heard it has not made a significant impact in the overall donation amounts that people receive every year because many people do a donation through Pick Click Give and then they don’t feel like they need to do a separate donation or membership because they’ve already donated, so in some ways it’s just changed the format by which people donate.”
A common strand of thought from the various nonprofits is that they’re happy to get any donations at all. However, in a difficult fiscal time when Kodiak groups are receiving fewer funds than ever from local government, community generosity will play an even bigger role in the coming years.
