The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly is awarding a total of $270,000 to local nonprofits. Although that money is spread out between 23 organizations, it only amounts to 77% of the total amount nonprofits requested in funding this year.
Outside of the Kodiak College, all nonprofits that asked the Borough for money received $20,000 or less. The university was given $78,000, out of its request for $100,000. Two organizations, the Chiniak Library and History Museum, did not receive funding due to their late filing after the June 30 due date. This list does not include every nonprofit on Kodiak Island, only the 25 that formally filed with the borough for funds.
The group of two dozen nonprofits asked for a total of $349,950 from the borough assembly. But the assembly only set aside $270,000 in this year’s fiscal year budget [FY2025] to award to nonprofits. In the nonprofit funding application this year, the Borough stipulated that organizations could only request up to $25,000 if they “offer significant services to vulnerable populations in the community,” and those smaller in size or scope could only request up to $5,000 in funding.
Assembly member Larry Ledoux said he would like to find a way to give more to local nonprofits in the future.
“I will say that we have a crisis in our community with regard to drugs and alcohol, homelessness, and every year these [funding] decrease. It may still be the same as last year but overall they keep going down and the problems keep getting worse. I think we need to have a community discussion on what we could do to support these nonprofits and the work that they do," Ledoux said.
Funding that the borough has given to each nonprofit has fluctuated up and down over the last few years, with some receiving significantly more than others.
For example, during fiscal year 2020 prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brother Francis Shelter received $36,000 from the borough. And the Kodiak Women's Resource and Crisis Center received $47,500. But in recent years the pot of funding the Kodiak Island Borough gave about 25 nonprofits or organizations was $177,248 in FY2024, $170,000 in FY2023, $159,587 in FY2022, $126,750 in FY2021, and $169,500 in FY2020. That does not include the separate funding for the Kodiak College.
During an assembly work session on July 11, many advocates came forward to ask for full funding of $25,000 for the Brother Francis Shelter this fiscal year. Susan Smith, the executive director of the nonprofit, told the assembly that the shelter offers many services to help clients become healthy, self-sufficient members of the community.
“We also offer services to the homeless, the mentally ill, those suffering from substance abuse, Kodiak’s working poor and anyone who finds themselves in an emergency or stranded situation," Smith explained to the assembly. "All of our services are offered for free. The funding we seek from you [the borough] will go directly to our emergency sheltering program to purchase food for evening meals, facility, utilities and insurance."
The local shelter, along with others like the Kodiak Women's Resource and Crisis Center (KWRCC) and the Salvation Army, requested $25,000 but were only awarded $20,000 by the borough assembly. The same goes for KMXT Radio and Senior Citizens of Kodiak.
Rebecca Shields with KWRCC told KMXT in July that her organization needs roughly $60,000 from the Borough but it could not submit that total request this year due to the application’s funding cap.
The final nonprofit funding resolution, that the Borough Assembly accepted unanimously, also includes $15,000 for the Kodiak Area Native Association, $4,000 for Teen Court and most of the organizations, and $1,000 for RurAL CAP’s Head Start Program. The full list of all 23 organizations and their respective funding can be found on the Borough Assembly’s website.
This nonprofit funding is separate from what the Kodiak City Council awarded to 21 organizations during its regular meeting last week on July 25.
