Information Insights

Interior Economic Impact

jonell-907 — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:15:53 +0000

Measuring the Economic Impact of Interior Alaska Native Organizations

The Client

Doyon, Limited, Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), and the Fairbanks Native Association have had a years-long, consistent effort to carefully monitor the economic impact of Alaska Native organizations in Alaska’s Interior. In 2017, Information Insights was contracted for our fourth round of economic impact analysis as part of this effort. The additional project sponsors included the Interior Regional Housing Authority and Denakkanaaga, Inc.

Services Provided:
Research & Analysis, Public Engagement
Scale: FNSB, Rest of Interior, Municipality of Anchorage, Rest of Alaska
Client: Doyon, Limited, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Fairbanks Native Association
Client type:
Interior Tribal Governments, Village Corporations, Regional Alaska Native Corporations

Project Date: October 2017 – November 2018
Project Lead: Jana Pierce

The Challenge

While the results of this study are worthwhile and fascinating, it’s also a significant and continued investment. Why are these organizations continuing to monitor the economic impact of Alaska Native communities in their region? What does this information tell them, and how is it useful?

Showing the economic weight of Interior Alaska Native organizations, alongside the Oil and Gas Industry, Seafood Industry, Mining Industry, Visitor Industry, to name just a few, is profoundly important to the project sponsors, the shareholders and Tribal governments they serve, and – more broadly – Alaska as a whole. It tells an often untold and unconsidered part of the story of what Interior Alaska Native Organizations do in their community at large and in the state. Namely, this study clearly demonstrates the infusion of jobs that primarily go to Alaskan residents and dollars that are primarily invested here in our community.

Our Approach

Throughout this project, Information Insights and project sponsors engaged in a massive data collection effort. The project was designed to create a holistic understanding of the critical economic role Alaska Native organizations play in Fairbanks, Interior Alaska, and the state as a whole. Of course, we included data on existing workforce,overall spending, and dollars from payroll and construction, etc. But economic impact goes much deeper than that. The study aimed to capture the indirect impact of a dollar circulating through the economy as it is spent and re-spent, creating widening ripples of job creation and investment in the community. This phenomenon, and the data that supports it, is key to fully understanding and illustrating the economic might of these organizations.

How did we do it? Working with project sponsors, we created a data set of expenditure and employment data from Interior Tribal Governments, Village Corporations, and regional Alaska Native Corporations statewide. We did this by sending surveys to 73 Alaska Native organizations in Interior Alaska, including 40 Tribal Governments, 26 village corporations, and 7 regional entities. We also surveyed the other 11 Alaska Native Regional Corporations (Regional ANCs) established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) to find out about their business operations, dividends and charitable contributions in the Interior region.

Data was compiled and analyzed by our partner, Choice Econ, using the nationally recognized input-output model developed by the Minnesota IMPLAN Group

The Results

Results were detailed in an internal report and highlighted in a brief using infographics to succinctly tell the story of Interior Alaska Native organizations’ economic impact.

The brief is succinct by design. It reflects an enormous amount of input and data, but is intended to be easily understood and utilized. Here is the overview of the data that informed the high-level take homes:

Major economic footprint takeaways include:

Statewide, Interior Alaska Native organizations have a total economic impact over $1 billion per year and directly employ 7,815 Alaskans.
In the Interior, Interior Alaska Native organizations
- have a total economic impact of $600 million per year and employ 5,200 Alaskans.
- drive a significant portion of the Interior economy, creating 1 in 9 jobs in the region. Outside the Fairbanks North Star Borough, they generate more than 1 in 3 rural jobs in the region.
In Fairbanks:
- For every 100 jobs with Interior Alaska Native organizations in Fairbanks, another 70 jobs are created in the Borough.
- For every $100 in employee wages, another $50 in wages is generated in the economy.
- For every dollar Alaska Native organizations spend on goods and services in Fairbanks, another 80 cents in economic activity is generated.

View the final Interior Native Impact 4-page advocacy summary

Valdez Museum Historical Archive

jonell-907 — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 23:20:04 +0000

Community Engagement and Fundraising for The Big Dream

The Client

The Valdez Museum and Historical Archive (VMHA), with support from the City of Valdez, is planning a significant expansion. VMHA will merge their two existing collections into a larger, modernized, centrally located space. This is an ongoing project that will require multiple phases. As VMHA moves the vision forward, all of the effort toward the expansion is on top of everything museum staff do every day to fulfill their mission as a nonprofit museum and historical archive. Outside support at key phases is necessary to design the new museum and support related tasks. Architecture firms Wolf Architecture (Palmer, AK) and Hennebery Eddy (Portland, OR) are leading the expansion design, but brought Information Insights on for the duration of this phase. Information Insights worked with the Museum and City to support VMHA in meaningfully engaging with the community on the museum concept, and provide fundraising support through major donor development and grant writing.

Services Provided:
Facilitation , Research & Analysis , Public Engagement , Strategic & Business Planning , Fundraising Support
Scale: City of Valdez, AK, providing fundraising/planning support, leveraging State of Alaska and national fundraising opportunities
Client:
Valdez Museum and Historical Archive
Client type:
Non-profit and charitable organization

Project Date: October 2020 – October 2021
Project Lead: Alli Harvey
Project Team: Lauren Criss-Carboy, Jamie Hansen

The Challenge

This project took place in early 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic when much was still uncertain. Community engagement was a vital component to the Museum’s work, yet in-person activity was very limited. Information Insights worked closely with VMHA to design and implement a fully remote community engagement process, which included a series of one-on-one Zoom interviews with key thought leaders. Ultimately, this approach served the community and the Museum incredibly well, resulting in deeper connections and a shared understanding of this expansion from one-on-one conversations, as well as a trove of testimonials VMHA could use in communication and fundraising materials to highlight the underlying community support for the project.

Our Approach

Information Insights began the project with targeted strategic planning, working closely with VMHA, the City of Valdez, Wolf Architecture, and Hennebery Eddy to create high-level vision and goals for the expansion. As the stakeholder engagement rolled out, Information Insights worked with VMHA to identify major community stakeholders (including local business owners, long-time Museum supporters, Valdez civic leaders, and many more) who needed to be engaged as part of the process. We then designed a tailored stakeholder outreach strategy and timeline that included community stakeholder interviews, a community survey, and snapshots of community support for the expansion. While developing a compelling story of community support, we also trained Museum staff and board members on fundraising strategies and tactics for gaining strong funders through support of donors, corporations, and foundations.

The Results

Project Management and Support

Overall project management and organized retention of information for VMHA
Strategic planning and visioning to guide the overall process
Stakeholder outreach strategy
Outreach calendar
Support materials (outreach language for emails and calls, graphics, social media)
Communications Support, including website review and high-level talking points

Public Process and Stakeholder Engagement

Facilitation of 20 hours’ worth of one-on-one community Stakeholder Interviews
76 Valdez residents shared thoughts via online community survey

Compilation of high level outcomes and themes from stakeholder and public engagement
Community testimonials used in fundraising and outreach materials

Fundraising Tools

Fundraising calendar
Support materials (written, scripts, outreach language)
Grant writing and editing support
Business Projections for New Museum Facility, underscoring the potential of the new facility to potential funder, community, and business interests

Customized (remote) Fundraising Training for the VMHA Board of Directors
Donor prospect research and organization: 400+ contacts managed, 50 donors identified as key prospects

Information Insights was able, at critical time, to support laying the groundwork for the Valdez Museum and Historical Archive expansion. The client walked away with clarity, training, and the tools and templates to continue outreach and fundraising efforts and have a successful expansion based on their own community’s direction and knowledge. We are glad to have had the opportunity to support an important nonprofit and help jump start VMHA’s process of making expansion a reality.

See a walkthrough of the vision for the new museum design!

Thermalize Juneau

jonell-907 — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 21:59:49 +0000

Supporting Renewable Energy Adoption in Juneau

The Client

Thermalize Juneau was an energy efficiency initiative to reduce the cost of heating houses in Juneau by using renewable energy powered heat pumps and improving building energy efficiency. The program was simple and effective: it combined Juneau-based nonprofit organization Alaska Heat Smart’s home and business energy advising with installation assistance, offering free energy audits, a competitive selection process for heat pump installers and energy efficiency contractors, and discounts on heat pumps and energy efficiency retrofits.

With a 2020 grant award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Inc and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the leading organizations on the grant, started work with partners to build Alaska’s first thermalize campaign.

Services Provided:
Public Engagement , Surveys , Research & Analysis
Scale: City & Borough of Juneau
Client: Thermalize Juneau
Client type:
Non-profit organization

Project Date: July 2020 – present
Project Lead: Jamie Hansen
Project Team: Lauren Criss-Carboy, Kerry Nelson, Lizzi Makovec, Michelle Deckard

The Challenge

In 2018, the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska set an ambitious goal to reach 80 percent renewable energy for the heating and transportation sectors by 2045. To help reach this goal, the local nonprofit Alaska Heat Smart (AHS) formed in 2019. In 2020, Alaska Heat Smart partnered with Alaska organizations – Renewable Juneau, Alaska Energy, Light and Power (AEL&P), the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC, Inc), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Information Insights (II) to pilot the Thermalize Juneau program.

The first Thermalize campaign in Alaska, Thermalize Juneau aimed not only to accelerate heat pump adoption in Juneau, but build a replicable framework to grow and support local clean energy options and jobs for rural communities across the country.

Our Approach

The campaign officially began in December 2020. Information Insights was thrilled and honored to be part of it from the get-go. Working with the Thermalize Juneau team, Information Insights brought our knowledge and lessons learned from comparable Solarize efforts in Alaska, public engagement and communications planning, campaign implementation, and program evaluation expertise.

Specifically, these services included assistance with overall program design, contractor selection, communication/recruitment channels with participants, organizing and hosting virtual events, workshops, and presentations (through Zoom), e-mail and phone communications with Thermalize Juneau program participants to schedule energy audits and collect pertinent data, and writing/sending bi-weekly update emails to Thermalize participants.

The Results

Thermalize Juneau exceeded program goals! This campaign was just the beginning for this longer-term effort, which is still underway.

Results & Recommendations flyer, Thermalize Juneau 2022, designed by Information Insights

Equally exciting was the building out an interactive platform to share our and the Thermalize Juneau team’s experience and learnings with other rural communities. Information Insights designed a guidebook for community leaders and organizers in rural America on the ArcGIS Story Map platform. The end result is an interactive, highly visual resource telling the story of Thermalize Juneau and with detailed advice for communities looking to start their own clean energy campaign.

Information Insights conducted a thorough evaluation of the 2021 Thermalize Juneau campaign. This evaluation was based on a series of targeted surveys, strategies from other energy campaigns, and a review of campaign processes through the collected data. Recommendations were incorporated into Thermalize wrap-up events and are found in the guidebook linked above.

See the final 2021 Thermalize Juneau Community Survey Report

Gustavus Community Connect Grant

jonell-907 — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 21:02:18 +0000

Unlocking Federal Funds for High-Speed Internet in Rural Alaska

The Client

Southeast Conference is the state and federally designated regional economic development organization for Southeast Alaska. The organization serves as the collective voice for advancing the region’s economy, with 180 member organizations representing 1,200 people from 32 regional communities. Southeast Conference has been in operation for more than a half-century and focuses on concerns unique to the region, including transportation, maritime, tourism, timber, seafood, mining, health care, government, and overall quality of life.

Services Provided:
Grant Writing, Organizational Support & Development, Public Engagement
Scale: Community of Gustavus
Client:
Southeast Conference
Client type:
Workforce & Econ Dev. Org

Project Date: November-December 2020
Project Lead: Michelle Deckard
Project Team: Jamie Hansen

The Challenge

As with many communities across Alaska, access to high-speed broadband Internet poses an enormous challenge across the Southeast region. Southeast Conference prioritizes supporting improvements in regional infrastructure that are essential to economic development wherever possible, and broadband falls in this category.

When Byte Networking LLC dba Fibre Alaska, the current broadband provider for the Gustavus community, came to Southeast Conference for technical assistance putting together an US Department of Agriculture Community Connect Grant application, the immediate answer was yes. The Community Connect grant would enable an infrastructure upgrade, allowing Gustavus to have fast and reliable internet speeds. However, first the federal grant application had to be unpacked, properly and completely put together with a compelling narrative and supporting documentation, and submitted. Southeast Conference works with leaders across an enormous region, and helped Fibre Alaska carry the application to fruition.

Southeast Conference enlisted Information Insights’ support to break down components and requirements of the grant application, work with Fibre Alaska to compile necessary information and documentation, write the grant application (in partnership with Southeast Conference and Fibre Alaska), and support proper and timely submission.

Our Approach

In grant writing generally, but particularly in Alaska when competing for federal funds, it is essential to gather compelling data that tells the story of the critical need in Alaskan communities. A compelling narrative must be balanced with integrating and highlighting how the project meets the grant application scoring criteria.

This was critical for this project in particular. Gustavus is a unique, remote community in southeast Alaska. The application needed to convey how this place and project was significantly different from other small towns in the Lower 48. Information Insights worked in partnership with Southeast Conference, Fibre Alaska, and community leadership within Gustavus to compile a strong set of data illustrating the local need for broadband, and mapped that against the meticulously unpacked grant requirements to ensure all of the boxes were checked. We drafted clear, concise narratives that both laid out how the project met scoring criteria, and painted a bigger picture for the reader, supported by data.

The Results

The USDA awarded $1,357,868 to Fibre Alaska to fund the construction of the microwave backhaul and the connection of all fiber within Gustavus. This funding will allow Fibre Alaska to offer reliable higher speed broadband service to all the residents within the community, as well as wireless link capacity speeds to other locations outside the community.

Not only is this a success through a huge investment in rural Alaskan infrastructure, but it sets up Fibre Alaska and all partners to apply for future rounds. The applicant and the technical team now have experience in creating and documenting the technical side of the grant proposal, ultimately the hardest part! With this experience they can apply for future rounds or other opportunities in a more efficient and comprehensive way.

This project serves as a major win within the Gustavus community and in Southeast Alaska, but also sets a blueprint for other Alaska communities working to access and unlock federal funding for infrastructure needs.

AMHTA Mini Grants

jonell-907 — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 20:28:23 +0000

Managing and Administering a Statewide Alaska Grants Program

The Client

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (AMHTA) is a state corporation that administers the Alaska Mental Health Trust, a perpetual trust, to improve the lives of beneficiaries. The Trust operates much like a foundation, using its resources to ensure that Alaska has a comprehensive integrated mental health program.

The Trust awards mini grants to beneficiaries, with a limit of one grant per fiscal year, of up to $2,500, depending upon need. These grants are intended to fund items related to a beneficiary’s diagnosis, that there might not be conventional funding opportunities for. Mini grants are awarded to an agency on behalf of a beneficiary. The Trust has three mini grant programs for the state of Alaska, and Information Insights administers two of them: Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

Behavioral Health mini grants are open to individuals with mental illness, chronic alcoholism and/or substance related disorders, and those with a traumatic head injury resulting in permanent brain injury. Development Disability mini grants are open to individuals with developmental disabilities but also youth enrolled in early intervention or infant learning programs. More information about these mini grant programs can be found on the Trust webpage.

Services Provided:
Organizational support
Scale: State of Alaska
Client:
Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (AMHTA)
Client type:
State Corporation

Project Date: July 2008- present
Project Lead: Michelle Deckard
Project Team: Lizzi Makovec, Sonya Seniva

The Challenge

Clear and documented systems, decision making criteria, consistency, transparency, and communication are key to the management and administration of AMHTA’s mini grant programs, for all involved. Information Insights’ role is to ensure all of these pieces are in place and that they work smoothly together to maximize the grants’ impact.

Our Approach

Information Insights’ role is to continuously provide the Trust with clear accounting of how their funds are spent, while simultaneously keeping open dialog with the agencies that apply and receive the grants on behalf of beneficiaries.

Information Insights worked closely with AMHTA to create and implement an overall grants administration system, which is now the operational backbone and is periodically revisited and updated as necessary. Key parts of this system include:

Compilation, review, and summary of grants applications for review by AMHTA,
Facilitation of a small AMHTA committee to evaluate applications on a monthly basis,
A communication protocol for grant applicants,
Clear guidance for grant acceptance and reporting, and
Grant administration, accounting, and due diligence on grantees’ fund expenditure.

The Results

Information Insights continues to work with AMHTA on providing grants across the state to beneficiaries in need. We have processed a total of 7,836 Behavioral Health and 1,655 Developmental Disabilities grant applications through FY08 to FY2021. The Trust committee has approved, and through Information Insights, disseminated over $9,125,000 for Behavioral Health beneficiaries and $1,596,000 for Developmental Disabilities beneficiaries for those same fiscal years. We continue to work with the Trust refining the process as needed to serve beneficiaries for years to come.

ARCUS

jonell-907 — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 11:56:53 +0000

Facilitating a Three-Day, Virtual Arctic STEM Workshop

The Client

The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) is a not-for-profit organization that serves the Arctic research community, connecting Arctic research and education since 1988. It is the intent of ARCUS to enhance the engagement of Arctic Indigenous communities, organizations, and peoples in research, recognizing that much research occurs within Indigenous communities, on their land, and/or utilizes Indigenous knowledge; that Indigenous Knowledge holds its own methodologies, validation, and evaluation processes; the need for Indigenous community-driven research; and that Indigenous communities are a vital part of the “research community”.

Services Provided:
Facilitation, Virtual Facilitation, Agenda Design, Project Management, Note Taking, Training
Scale: Alaska-wide
Client:
Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS)
Client type:
Non-profit organization

Project Date: January 2020 – April 2021
Project Lead: Alli Harvey

The Challenge

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programming in Alaska’s Arctic varies widely. But one trend is consistent: youth and undergraduates from Alaska Native communities within these programs are broadly underrepresented.

ARCUS hired Information Insights to support them, with guidance of a steering committee (see team below), in exploring how to better engage Alaska Native and Rural undergraduates and youth in STEM programs and create new guidance for program design, implementation, and marketing. Information Insights supported agenda design and facilitated Listen and Learn exploration sessions, and led facilitation of the three-day workshop.

This project started in early 2020 with several in-person Listen and Learn Sessions to engage Alaska Native and Rural youth across Alaska. The intent was to host an in-person workshop, but the April 2020 in-person workshop was canceled due to Covid-19 and ultimately re-imagined and hosted as a fully virtual workshop.

The Team

The entities working on the project included representatives from the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) Arctic STEM Education Working Group, the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS), International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (IARC), and Information Insights. ARCUS was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Our Approach

The virtual workshop Engaging Rural and Alaska Native Undergraduates and Youth in Arctic STEM was held from April 13–15, 2021. The goal of the workshop was to bring together relevant rural and Alaska Native entities and community members to discuss the gaps, challenges, opportunities, and successful practices to increase and support the representation of Rural and Alaska Native undergraduates and youth in STEM education and career pathways. This workshop was guided by two main questions:

What can be done to increase Rural and Alaska Native undergraduate and youth participation in existing Arctic STEM programs?
What can programs do differently or how can programs adapt to support student engagement?

A series of Listen and Learn Sessions were held before the workshop to set foundational themes and draft recommendations to be discussed and refined during the workshop.

Information Insights didn’t facilitate alone. Volunteer facilitators and notetakers from the organizing team stepped up to support facilitation of the many breakout rooms during the sessions. Information Insights provided training on facilitation, including virtual tips and tricks and engaging note taking tools. Information Insights also collated learnings from all sessions into overall top line themes that informed “bringing it all together” on the final day of the workshop, and the final report.

The Results

The main themes emerging from the Listen and Learn Sessions were compiled and shared prior to the April 2021 workshop, alongside draft guidance to help steer conversations and discussion points. The themes and relationships built during the Listen and Learn Sessions also bolstered interest and participation in the workshop, which was robust throughout the full three-days – even after over a year of meeting over Zoom! The final list of seventy-three participants included students, federal agency representatives, educators and education experts, researchers, and community members.

Engagement remained high throughout all three workshop days, with overall excellent and consistent participation in both breakout rooms and full group discussion.

By the end of the workshop, a list of recommendations was created in response to the two main questions posed and unpacked during the workshop (What can be done to increase rural and Alaska Native undergraduate and youth participation in existing Arctic STEM programs?
What can programs do differently or how can programs adapt to support student engagement?). The resounding feedback from participants, both during the workshop and in the follow up survey, was that even though the workshop was the starting point for longer-term work to increase representation in Arctic STEM programs in a meaningful way, the design of the workshop was an excellent and thoughtful start.

View the comprehensive final report.