Okay, well, good afternoon and welcome.
My name is Bill Acasky.
I'm a State Senator representing East Anchorage,
and I am honored to be here today
to introduce our Gretchen Guess,
who is our featured speaker for this lunch and learn.
Gretchn is the president and CEO
of the Rasmussen Foundation.
I know many of you have heard of that organization.
It is a foundation focused on improving Alaskan lives
through grants, community collaboration,
and encouraging charitable giving.
Prior to the foundation, Gretchen served in leadership roles for non-profit health care providers and she has served
in the House of Representatives here in Alaska and also the Senate. In fact, she's my predecessor in
the State Senate, Gretchen is thrilled to have her here today to provide us with the history of the
foundation and to give us an update on their current work and please help me in welcoming former State
Thank you senator.
As Bill said my name is Gretchen Guess.
I'm the daughter of Carolyn and Jean Guess and the president and CEO of the Rasmussen Foundation.
Before I start today I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you especially the staff for all the work that you do.
It's important work you're doing down here in Juneau.
All of this that are former legislators know that the real work happens with the staff.
So I hope you enjoy lunch today, and thank you for everything that you do.
As Bill mentioned.
The Rasmussen Foundation is a philanthropic organization
focused on Alaska.
Today, I'm going to talk a little bit about who we are,
how we operate, and what we fund.
The goal of today's talk is that you understand the foundation
a bit more, especially understand our program.
So as you work with constituents in your community,
you can help them reach out to us on things
that would be successful projects for the Foundation.
So our vision and mission, basically, we're all about Alaska.
We're Alaskans and we are all around Alaska,
we will consider funding anything that will benefit Alascans.
Our mission is to invest and connect and convene.
And we really focus on that, all the adage,
that Elmer used to say, and
we all know that it's about Alasking's helping each other.
And that's really the tradition of Alaska
Our values are new, and we've been shifting how we show up in the community.
And the essence of our values is that we're community-led, that
we don't have the ideas or the answers communities do,
Alaskans do.
So we work to celebrate the work of
our non-profits, our tribes,
our governments and walk beside them and behind them.
So at the foundation, we now don't talk about a founder.
We talk About Founders.
We just celebrated our 70th anniversary last year
as a foundation.
Jenny, as you see here,
Rasmussen started the Foundation in 1955.
Jenny immigrated from Sweden
and ended up in Yakutat as an visionary.
EA Rasmussen.
Immigrated from Sweden, ended up in Yakutat.
They married and were missionaries in yakutats
when the local bank was having issues.
And the community asked EA to run the bank.
And that led to the family pivoting from missionary work
to banking and to starting the National Bank of Alaska.
The first, we always like to put this little trivia,
the first grant was for a motion picture projector
at $125.
And Jenny actually gave the rest of the money
for that grant.
We have now, as some of you know,
I think you've known the most recent version.
of the foundation.
When Elmer sold the National Bank of Alaska to Wells Fargo,
he put almost all those proceeds over $400 million
into the Foundation.
And his son, Ed, who was the president of The Bank
of At the Time, took over as chair
and really shepherded the foundations
through these last 25-plus years to what the
foundation is today.
So I'm going to talk a little bit, I want to deviate a
little about us and talk about philanthropy in general,
because I've been getting more of the question of
the last year of, well, can't philanthropie pay for that,
with the federal cuts.
So, wanted to talked a bit about what philanthropies is
and isn't.
Philanthropy really is private dollars with a public
We are governed by a board and donor intent, so for us at the foundation, the donor
intent is really Elmer's and Jenny's intent which is that we give back to the state that
gave them so much that they focus on Alaskans. Also, Elmore is the first chair of the permanent
We also are a partner for public investment, not a replacement.
We will never have, we'll talk about this later.
We'll be able to invest about $25 million
into Alaska a year that will
never substitute for federal and state dollars,
but it will partner with state dollar.
So often we will get grants.
Thank you, Kelly.
Often we we get grant.
that maybe someone got a grant at the state level,
at a federal level and they need additional dollars.
That's a great way to use philanthropy.
The other example I have is we've been working very closely
with the Commissioner of Health
on the Rural Transformation Fund.
We held a convening for her to talk to people
within the health community.
And that fund, as we know,
there's lot of things that won't fund.
And so next week, we have a meeting with other philanthropic organizations, with a commissioner,
about how can philanthropy fill some of those gaps.
So philanthropies is much more of a gap filler than anything else.
We can take risks that no one else can
take and we can provide partnership, convening thought partnership.
So those are kind of the roles of philanthropie in general.
So back to the Rasmussen Foundation we have always since its beginning had community members on our board
So we had six community
members and six family members that are on
our Board and they all have
Art come from and have lived experiences throughout Alaska
So, we always like to put this up if anyone knows Marilyn Romano. She's not really from Anchorage
She just happens to live there now
And she's from Fairbanks. So. We always tease her about that
In 2024, we invested a little bit over 22 million dollars in in Alaska, a
little over 340 grants. You'll see on on this map lots of different places in
Alaska but there are places
in within our communities and within
our states that we don't get as many
applications as other places.
So one of the things we've been working on
in the last three years since I joined
is really being more accessible and more open.
We actually keep track of how many new organizations
we give funding to.
So what I need honestly,
is the staffers help, right, when you're out you are talking to constituents and you
are like, oh, you know what have you talked to Rasmussen and just kind of guiding them
to our website.
You now can book a time online with a program officer and talk about an idea and we can
talk through that with you.
First and foremost, we invest in Alaskans and Alaska organizations.
We collaborate with funders to invest
in Alaska, so we do a lot of work.
We actually have a mini tour in two weeks with
fundors around housing.
So we're both internally within Alaska with
funder and also those outside of Alaska who want to
invest Alaska but sometimes Alaska is a little intimidating,
both our governance structure and just the state.
So facilitating that.
We facilitate conversations and connections or high touch, which I'll talk about in a moment.
And we work internally now to really continually improve, so we serve Alaska.
So what does it mean to be high-touched?
To me, it means being an Alaskan, and it
means doing good constituent work, honestly.
We, as I said, you can easily schedule meetings with us online.
We read every application.
We return every phone call and email.
And we're out in the community listening.
Last year, we were in 44 communities, kind of in total.
Myself and the board four times a year
go and we are in community and have an open community reception.
We rotate those through the state.
This year you see what our schedule is.
I also host regional listening sessions,
we're going to pivot to really regional convenings because that's what they've
become where nonprofits and communities can just all come together from a region
and talk about what's top of mind. You know maybe it's something that they need
but a lot of times what happening is people are talking to and cross pollinating
what is going on in their communities and what other communities are doing.
We also this year just started a webinar series for people to learn more about our programs being able to ask.
We did the legacy program last week.
We are working on, we have a child care fund and then the individual artists in sabbatical coming up.
So trying to work on ways again to get knowledge out so people understand our program.
Also, if you want to join in any of those virtual regional convenings because you wanna
be maybe in the one that's within your district, best thing is to sign up for the newsletter.
But reach out to us and we can make sure that you're on those calls.
our grant making. We do what we say is core grant-making and strategic grant
making, there should be some flyers outside. All of this is on our website
as well. Our core-grant making is really what
we do day to day, year in and year out. It's what Alaska can always count on.
And so I'm going to share some examples because I think examples are really
helpful in what when we think about our core
So the first one is our tier ones these
are our buy, build, fix, and create grants.
These are small grants with a huge impact.
At one point, Kathy Rasmussen said
we bought all the copiers in the state.
Right now, it feels like we buy a lot of vans
and do a lotta technology upgrades.
This example is trails.
The Juneau Mountain Bike Alliance here
added new trails at the Under Thunder Bike Park here.
grants we decide on these generally monthly they don't need a lot of times
with the only funder they're just those small grants and make a big big impact
I know most of you in this room when there is a capital budget you understand
these grants because there's little things that are needed in in communities
Our next grant type is a community support grant.
These are up to $250,000.
They're for major purchases, building projects,
and also programmatic support.
This example is from Fairbanks.
the renovation and the addition of square footage
at the Council of Aging for the increased senior population.
That's in Fairbanks and in all of our communities.
Community support grants, we are rarely the only funder.
So there should be other funders that are in that funding stack,
whether it's other philanthropy, folks, nonprofits have saved money,
state or federal grants.
can come in and gap fill on significant projects.
Legacy is everything that are 250,000 and up.
These should be projects that our legacy for the organization.
So they're going to be larger grants.
This example is one that the board just passed in December.
In Kodiak, the tribe is creating a 4,000 square foot
mariculture facility for economic development
and kelp processing there.
So it's great to be part of this project.
Again, those can be capital projects or programmatic projects.
And they do need to have other funders with them.
Let me grab some water.
One of the fun things and one of my favorite programs that we have are program related investments
These are low interest or when interest rates are no no interest loans
For things that wouldn't generally pencil out
so this
This example is from Ski Talk in the Matsu.
We, along with the Matt Sioux Health Foundation and some other funders funded snow making equipment for this Ski talk hill.
And what that did was leveled out their revenue.
because they can be open more, they have more predictable schedule, but also giving them a PRI,
they now have the commercial experience that they take to a bank when they want to do the next chair
A bank wouldn't take right now on a fairly new organization.
We can take that.
They can show that they've repaid a loan and then have a better chance at getting a commercial
loan in the future.
Rounding out our core grant making is two programs we've had for 20 years, they're amazing.
The sabbatical program is for non-profit and tribal administrators, non profit leaders
and Tribal administrators.
It is what it says it is.
We fund 90 to 100 days, about 120 days s aboutacle.
We not only fund the sabbatical for these leaders, but we support the organization through 4-acre
and the Tribal Administrators Association beforehand on the planning during the
szabbatical and on re-entry. It's a do-no-harm model. We have studied this program once and
it shows that leaders will stay in the sector seven more years if they actually get rest and recovery.
One of the fun things I'd like to say about this program is one of
the issues we're having is everyone has your cell number right now.
So GCI was very kind and they actually donate new phones.
So when the leader goes on sabbatical, they kind of turn in their phone and
we give them a phone,
they can give the number to whoever has it.
So those are fun and the only reporting requirement back is that they send us pictures from.
from what they did so and that's going to open this April so if you know of a leader in your
community or a tribal administrator who's like I could never do that that is probably the perfect
person and normally we have to tap them on the shoulder multiple times and say it's gonna be okay
but please encourage people that you now within your within you communities it is also really
for the people that then run the organization for three months.
So there's a lot of benefit within this program.
The individual artist's awards.
are just fabulous.
We, this year, we will have the Fellowship Awards.
So the one change we did make is we do Project Awards one year
and Fellowship awards the next year
because we can give more out every other year.
So, the fellowship awards are for mid-career artists.
The Project awards for any.
any stage of artist. These are nationally juried awards. They're not decided in
Alaska. The artists can put them on their resumes, right, because it's not, oh, my
local community likes me.
They also get feedback from the jury about their art.
Also, every year, we do a Distinguished Artists Award,
which is a Lifetime Achievement Award.
That is, a panel of Alaskan artists
that isn't decided by Rasmussen,
but we convene a Panel every Year.
People put in nominations.
Last year we had 60 nominations for the award.
And Jerry Lactonin and Luke Dick Carver from Kodiak
was the winner.
And they look at both the art,
community in that award. And so those, I think in March, both of those will open up.
So if you know folks, again, a lot of folks need taps on the shoulder. So that's what
we do, what we call our bread and butter. It's, the staff is doing today and we, we
do all the time. We also do strategic grant making and that allows us to invest in systematic
so I'll provide you some examples of that. Most of you are aware of our work in homelessness
and housing if you're aware especially in the Anchorage area but statewide. Since 2018 we've
At least two FTEs of time in this space to work on this issue statewide.
The board just decided to expand this initiative another five years and put another $5 million
into it.
So we'll be investing $10 million over the next five
years in the homelessness and housing space.
Really focus on probably the housing side in
the five
youth homelessness, 16 to 24 year old issues along with working with
communities that are still creating those systems and so again if your
community is one of those please reach out to us if we haven't been in your
Some of the other strategic grant making we've done and are doing the Alaska long trail
We've been involved in in a long time of supporting them and giving them capacity building dollars
To move forward the Arctic leadership program. We're an early
Investor in that program at the University
We have dipped our toe into child care this year,
mainly on how do we expand after school
and make camps accessible.
So we just did a pilot this last fall,
giving a provider, an anchorage and a provide
or a Kodiak three years of working capital
to be able to get after-school programs up and running,
because that was the barrier,
was just your revenue doesn't meet your costs.
right away. So we're kind of in that space. And then last year we did a one-time emergency
funding to public media, the Western relief effort and food security.
with the Coalition for Housing and Homelessness there.
This grant went out in 2022,
but they had the ribbon cutting just last month.
It was a $420,000 grant to create 12 small homes
to get unhoused people into housing
to then take the next step into transitional housing.
So, every community is coming at homelessness in a different way and our job is to meet
them where they're at and try to provide resources that will be helpful.
What might work in Sitka may or may not work, and Juneau.
We've been a big funder and you know, forget me not.
They're doing a wonderful job here, but we're really into community.
What are the community decisions and the communities solutions?
So, what's our process?
We created this little map.
It was meant to be a trail for those of you that know Senator Van Emhoff, but it ended
up looking a little bit like a ski slope.
But we want to really be transparent about how we make decisions and who makes decisions.
So each one of those on the left, and again, this is all on our website, you can kind of
see how it goes through.
of this is really to show that decisions don't start
with me and they don t start with the board.
There are no side doors to our core grant making.
Anyone can apply for a grant.
We want people to apply
for our grant if you're going to benefit,
if the organization's in Alaska and is going
to be able to fit Alaskans and has a project,
we want to hear about it.
And the best thing to do is to contact a program officer,
talk about the idea or not and just put in an application.
So there are now kind of rules that's really transparent.
So, how to apply all of the QR codes and the information.
The biggest thing is just this is Gary who is our director of comms and has put together
an awesome website.
Everything is on the website
Again, I'm really proud of us for figuring out how to do bookings.com, so anyone can
go on and you can just pick a time to talk to a program officer and someone will jump
on the call and talk with you when you're constituents.
All of our emails are on our website, mine is, and everyone else's.
So please reach out at the end of the day, if you want a good last slide and I'll do
my thank yous.
This is the team. We're 30 Alaskans.
We are kind of from all over, even though our headquarters is in Anchorage.
We have experience all of the state.
So please reach out to us.
And if you see a place, because you all do see things that honestly no one else sees,
especially you staffers, where we could do better, please let us know because we want to do that.
With that, I will take any questions that anyone has.
Senator?
Well,
I really appreciate this presentation.
But I'm curious about raspous inter-work within the philanthropic community to leverage contributions from individuals like ourselves and from other entities.
I know that the rasmus ability was very integral in the start of ACF before your group.
So can you talk a little about the ecosystem?
that Rass was able to create for the better way
of the last year of film from the beginning?
I appreciate that question.
I don't know if we created it.
I think the community's created
it and we went along for The Ride.
But we do support the affiliates
and the affiliate program at the Community Foundation.
I thank the local community foundations
are just a gem of our state.
And if your community doesn't have one.
I would, that's an idea to come back because it really is the people in community giving
what they can and also deciding and being part of projects.
And so we provide incentives and some of the support that is needed for those.
We also, you know, one thing that isn't well known is when Elmer passed the Murdoch Foundation,
and gave their condolences and said,
we can't do anything to help with your loss,
but we know you just became a big foundation.
Would you like to come down and learn from us
and what we do?
And so four people went down
and they opened up everything.
that they do and they've been a real good strategic partner
since we are now doing that with many other foundations.
New foundations are coming on the scene,
the Set Up Foundation, Dean Widener has now
is zipping his toe in, so we're trying to really hard.
It's funny because it's a lot of the people
that grew up with Ed.
So before Ed passed, he kind of...
he hammered all of his friends and said,
you need to do this too.
Don't give you money to the Rasmussen Foundation
because people have wanted to.
We're like, no, you do your own thing.
So we try to be a resource in that.
We also really,
We will look at in applications and promote if your board has the ability to give,
have they given what are you doing in community to raise money and to have support,
what do you do in the community, to collaborate.
So I think we can do that in a lot of different ways within philanthropy.
And of course, we were one of many funders, but I give 4-acre the credit for getting pick,
on the books and so both 4-acre and ACF do fabulous, fabulous work so thank you
for that question. You can add things too if you would like to Senator. Any other
questions? Did you have one? Yeah. So thank
you. I'm from Sitka where it's such an integral part of the community. This
foundation is and I am curious for these huge projects that
Do those all originate from community applications,
or is there some kind of research foundation does
to a community's extent of new?
It's a great question.
Yeah, we had a lot of Sitka on our December docket.
They all generate from the community now.
So if we do strategic grants,
we may.
research or go to a sector and kind of like we did in child care and research
with the sector, and say hey we want to do something, what do you think would be
helpful for us to, but those big grants, we're just in a lot of
We love the Sitka Fine Arts camp and just trying to help folks understand what would
be a successful project with us and then what can we do to
help them to be successful with other founders, their foundations when it's a
large project. But no, all the stuff you see in Sitkka from us came from
Sitke. You have a very active community. Yeah, with a lot of really creative
solutions. There's lots of good stuff coming from Sitko.
Any other questions?
With that, Senator, thank you so much for having me.
Again, I'll be around a little bit if folks
want to answer questions.
And my email is really easy.
It's gguess at rasmasson.org, and I check it.
So please reach out at any time.
And thank you all for attending.
Thank you to Gretchen for coming,
and thank to the Rasmussen Foundation
for all of you defer the state.
Thank to you, all.