For Immediate Release
Contact: Cassandra Stalzer, 907-334-0520

Anchorage –  (Note: total amount granted was corrected from the previous version) Rasmuson Foundation’s Board of Directors met last week and made $8.1 million in awards to support nonprofit programs and activities around Alaska. The projects receiving funding were (organized by region):

Arctic Slope

Interior

  • Fairbanks Resource Agency will construct eight units of affordable housing for very-low income adults with disabilities with a $395,000 grant;

Kodiak

Mat-Su

Prince William Sound

  • Grand Igloo Foundation, Inc. will use a $200,000 grant to rehabilitate and preserve Igloo No. 19, one of only two original Pioneer Igloos still standing;

Southcentral

  • Abused Women’s Aid in Crisis, Inc., will upgrade its technology and phone system with a $71,750 grant;
  • Alaska Airmen’s Association will receive $300,000 to support the construction of a new headquarters building at Lake Hood;
  • Alaska Children’s Services, Inc., will renovate outdoor recreation areas including a playground and hockey rink/basketball court at their residential treatment facility with support from a $200,000 grant;
  • Alaska Museum of Science and Nature will use a $120,675 grant to upgrade the electrical system in its Anchorage facility;
  • Alaska Pacific University will use a $500,000 1:1 matching grant to renovate Gould Hall, one of campus’s original buildings, to support the outdoor science program;
  • Camp Fire USA – Alaska Council will upgrade technology to improve its online camp and after-school registration processes and other record-keeping with a $125,000 grant;
  • Christian Health Associates will use an $80,000 grant to establish a school based health center program in Begich Middle School;
  • Girl Scouts of Alaska will use a $600,000 outright grant and a $200,000 1:1 matching grant to build a new lodge and infrastructure at the Singing Hills camp near Chugiak;
  • Koahnic Broadcast Corporation will expand its statewide radio service with support from a $480,000 grant over three years;
  • Special Olympics Alaska will expand its athlete training center in Anchorage to feature an indoor track and gymnasium with a $400,000 grant;
  • YWCA of Anchorage will use a $224,265 grant over the next three years to establish a donor development program;

Southeast

  • The City and Borough of Juneau will install a commercial kitchen to serve children and young adults at the Zach Gordon Youth Center with a $50,000 grant;
  • Sitka Sound Science Center will use a $491,000 grant to complete renovations on its main building, once the science building at Sheldon Jackson College, which houses touch and observation tanks, research labs and classrooms;
  • Volunteers of America Alaska will construct 40 units of affordable, multi-family housing in Juneau with support from a $350,000 grant;
  • Whale Project, which seeks to erect a life-sized bronze sculpture of a breaching humpback whale on the Juneau waterfront, will use a $250,000 grant to advance the project;

Statewide

National

  • Army Historical Foundation will use a $500,000 grant to support the “Technology and Tactics” exhibit in the new National Museum of the United States Army, which is expected to break ground in 2015. This grant acknowledges the important roles Alaska and Mary Louise Rasmuson have played in the history of the U.S. Army.

Rasmuson Foundation’s Tier 2 program supports large (more than $25,000) capital projects, projects of strategic importance or innovative nature, or the expansion or start-up of programs that address issues of broad community or statewide significance. The Rasmuson Board of Directors considers Tier 2 grants twice a year at its board meetings. Letters of inquiry are required and accepted year-round.

About the Foundation
Rasmuson Foundation was created in May 1955 by Jenny Rasmuson to honor her late husband “E.A.” Rasmuson. Through grantmaking and initiatives, the Foundation is a catalyst to promote a better life for all Alaskans.

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