About Koniag Education Foundation

The Koniag Education Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, funds and supports the education and future of our people, their communities, and economy. Since its inception, KEF has awarded more than $7.5 million in merit-based scholarships and grants to the Alutiiq people.

The specific needs KEF addresses are:

• Educational encouragement and financial support for the Alutiiq people, varying in degree based on their rural and urban locations and the associated lack of economic and educational opportunities.
• Recruitment of students to post-secondary education, along with increasing student retention rates and decreasing drop-out rates once students begin school through mentorships, internships, and student networking.
• Facilitation of opportunities for remote village students, some of whom lack educational support.
• Without outreach and support from KEF, many of our students would be unable to afford college and perhaps be unaware of the opportunities available to them beyond their villages and communities.

KEF’s funding provides real opportunities for individuals to pursue education and secure employment, ultimately leading to improved living and working conditions for themselves and their families. An increase in income generated within a family contributes to the community’s economic growth and enables scholarship recipients to provide opportunities for others in their community through contributions and volunteer activities. Therefore, our support of recipients leverages opportunities for many others.

KEF currently operates at maximum efficiency, run by a Board of Directors with diverse business and marketing experience, all of whom are Alaska Native Shareholders from our region. Staffing and technological needs are currently being met. Because KEF has an established endowment and operates on a tight budget, its financials are stable and sustainable, with an overhead-to-direct service ratio of 16 to 1. Meaning that 84 cents of every dollar donated to KEF can be applied directly to scholarships and services provided to students. The calculation of time spent directly on student benefits is conservative, as it does not include fundraisers. It is comprised entirely of time spent with students, funding students, or working to support them. KEF demonstrates these time differences through the attached breakout of our budget and through our audited financial statements.

KEF can successfully meet the needs of the Alutiiq people and their region because we support our students through more than just financial means. It is admirable to donate funds to programs that work to grow education and employment and contribute to society, but without mentorship for the student recipients, many well-intentioned foundations do not reach their goals. Without our outreach, Alaska Native drop-out rates remain high; with KEF’s support, our students succeed. KEF student dropout rates average 9.5% as opposed to the Alaska Native Statewide dropout rate average for those years of 35.15% (according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development).

Donor support is an important part of the education and employment cycle to build strong communities and economies and reduce social ills such as alcoholism, domestic violence, depression, suicide, unemployment, and poverty. Donors to KEF are not asked to support overhead expenses or pay out scholarships for KEF, they are asked to partner with KEF to help develop programs for students who need preparation and motivation to continue their education. The growth of the endowment is also essential, as it enables KEF to offer larger, more meaningful scholarship amounts to an exponentially increasing number of students.

It is essential that KEF plan for future growth as the number of Koniag Shareholders and Descendants increases and the costs of post-secondary education continue to rise. As industries that rely on natural resources, such as fishing, logging, and farming, become less lucrative, a post-secondary education becomes a necessity for competing in the job market. The management of KEF is committed to investing in the future of the Alutiiq people and the communities in which they reside by establishing a future-oriented Koniag Education Foundation.

KEF is focused on these objectives through the development of student recruitment/retention; travel and marketing to urban and rural areas to disseminate educational information and opportunities to students, parents, and whole communities; and fundraising and investment activities designed to sustain and grow KEF so that we may offer more financial and support services to our people. We recognize that if we stop short of fully supporting our students through networking, mentorship, internship opportunities, and encouragement, we are not giving them the best chance at success. Our students are successful because we support them in more ways than just financially.