GrantmakersAlaska

Kawerak Inc

Nome, AK · EIN 92-0047009. Reported 95 grants totalling $27.4M to 32 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

32organizations funded
$154,047median reported grant
$27.4Mgranted, 2021-2024
95%of grantees funded again the next year
20%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 20% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 95% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $154,047. Half of what it reported fell between $93,402 and $218,832; the smallest was $450 and the largest $4,968,481. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
Under $5,000
3 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
4 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
5 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
12 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
53 grants
$250,000 Or More
16 grants

3 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $201,691 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Stebbins Comm AssociationStebbins, AK$5,523,247442024
Native Village of KoyukKoyuk, AK$3,499,548442024
Stmichael Native VillageSaint Michael, AK$2,620,952442024
Native Village of SavoongaSavoonga, AK$1,569,745842024
Brevig Mission Native VillBrevig Mission, AK$1,436,443442024
Alaska Native Heritage Center IncAnchorage, AK$1,347,900112024
King Island Native CommuniNome, AK$1,288,544442024
White Mountain Native VillWhite Mountain, AK$1,056,586442024
Shaktoolik-Native VillageShaktoolik, AK$1,048,255442024
Native Village of WalesWales, AK$935,736442024
Native Village of DiomedeLittle Diomede, AK$891,255442024
Native Village of ElimElim, AK$833,724442024
Native Village of GambellGambell, AK$707,524442024
Native Village of CouncilNome, AK$699,218442024
Mary's Igloo Native VillTeller, AK$689,377442024
Chinik Eskimo CommunityGolovin, AK$611,721442024
Native Village of TellerTeller, AK$565,807442024
Shishmaref Native VillageShishmaref, AK$544,109442024
Quintillion Subsea Operations LLCAnchorage, AK$496,776112024
Bering Straits School DistUnalakleet, AK$405,436442024
Unalakleet Native VillageUnalakleet, AK$397,436442024
Nome Community Center IncNome, AK$61,106222024
Nudlaghi Leadership InstituteAnchorage, AK$39,228112024
Bering Straits FoundationNome, AK$33,539112022
Bering Straits Native CorpNome, AK$33,536112023
Nome Public SchoolsNome, AK$24,793222024
Nome Public SchoolsNome, AK$10,530112022
Alaska Federation of NativesAnchorage, AK$5,000112024
New Venture FundWashington, DC$5,000112024
Unaatuq LLCNome, AK$2,825112024
First Alaskans InstituteAnchorage, AK$2,000112024
City of NomeNome, AK$450112024

21 of 32 (66%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 35 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 4 of 32 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Arts & Culture
1 org
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org
Environment
1 org
Community Improvement
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202120$2,118,142$95,926
202222$3,425,453$158,854
202323$4,113,103$218,832
202430$17.7M$178,042

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

100% of its giving went to organizations in Alaska. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Alaska
$27.4M
District of Columbia
$5K

Down to the city

Stebbins, AK
$5.5M
Koyuk, AK
$3.5M
Saint Michael, AK
$2.6M
Nome, AK
$2.2M
Anchorage, AK
$1.9M
Savoonga, AK
$1.6M

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Norton Sound Economic20 shared recipientsThe Alaska Community Foundation11 shared recipientsRasmuson Foundation9 shared recipientsAlaska Native Tribal Health Consortium5 shared recipientsM J Murdock Charitable Trust4 shared recipientsFirst Alaskans Institute4 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $154,047 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Alaska.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Kawerak Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 27 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 3 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 948, Nome, AK, 99762.

EIN 92-0047009 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.