It’s almost time for Alaskans to file for their permanent fund dividends. And that means they also have the option to give a portion of their pfd to charitable and non-profit organizations through the state’s charitable giving program, Pick. Click. Give. In 2013 there are more organizations than ever to give to.
After four years, Alaska’s charitable giving program, Pick. Click. Give. is still growing. Heather Beaty is the program manager. She says this year they’ve added 56 new organizations.
The program was created by the Alaska State Legislature in 2008 and allows Alaskans filing for their PFD on-line to donate all or part of it to the campuses of the University of Alaska, community foundations, and eligible charitable and educational organizations. After a three-year pilot project, Pick.Click.Give. became a permanent part of the PFD program. The 50 plus new organizations added for 2013 run the gamut, Beaty says. And, they’ve reorganized the web site, breaking down all the organizations into seven cause types.
“The categories have been broken into Youth & Education, Emergency, Humanitarian, Animals, Arts & Culture, Health and Community. And then within each of those cause types there’s subcategories that get more specific. So, for example, under the Humanitarian category you can break it down and just look at organizations that are providing food assistance or services to the elderly,” Beaty said.
Beaty says the search options on the Pick, Click, Give website also allows you to search for organizations in a specific geographic location. 100 percent of Alaskan’s Pick, Click, Give donations goes to the charity of their choice. Last year, more than 23,000 Alaskans pledged more than $2.2 million. Currently about 4 percent of the people who receive a PFD choose to give. The permanent fund dividend filing period opens Jan. 1 and runs through March 31.
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Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
