By Teal Hall, SCF Advisor
Seward Community Foundation was pleased to bring The Foraker Group to Seward on September 23rd for a half-day of free classes for our nonprofit community. Nonprofit leaders, staff, and volunteers gathered at the Alaska SeaLife Center for two, 1 ½ hr long sessions on topics designed to help their organizations learn new strategies for budgeting, recruitment, advertising, and how to create a more diverse and welcoming organization.
Laurie Wolf from The Foraker group taught two in-person classes, Board Recruitment & Retention during session one and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion during session two. The Foraker Group’s Kimberly Waller and Chellie Skoog joined everyone virtually to teach classes on DIY Social Media and Budgeting for Nonprofits. A lunch break broke up the two sessions with sandwiches provided by Subway of Seward.
“The Nonprofit Conference was a great opportunity to network, but moreover, it was encouraging to hear others have faced similar challenges and found solutions,” said Kale Tippit from the Seward Community Health Center. “There was valuable information in each presentation, and narrowing my focus was challenging.”
SCF held a drawing for participants who attended a class in both sessions, with the winner awarding $500 to the local nonprofit of their choice Congratulations to Laura Swihart, who gave the $500 grant to the Octopus/Aquarium Enrichment program at the Alaska SeaLife Center.
“I actually had a mild phobia of Octopus when I started working here at ASLC in May of 2021, but over the duration of my time here I’ve completely fallen in love with the species (Thanks to the MANY aquarists who have stood beside me peeling suckers off my arms as I face my fears)! Octopuses are incredibly intelligent and curious–this mini-grant will go a long way towards ensuring that all of the octopuses that call ASLC home will have access to quality enrichment for years to come.” said Laura Swihart.
Seward Community Foundation would like to thank Laurie Wolf, Kimberly Waller, and Chellie Skoog from The Foraker Group for providing a wonderful afternoon of classes. We’d also like to thank Seward Subway for the delicious sandwich trays And, last but not least, a huge “thank you” to everyone who attended the Nonprofit Conference We received such positive feedback that we plan to host more training events in the future.
We want to hear from you. What topics would you like us to cover for future Nonprofit Conferences? Send an email to seward@alaskacf.org.