Following the loss of critical federal funding earlier this year, the Alaska Community Foundation announced Monday that it has awarded $2.9 million in grants to public media stations across the state. KBBI AM 890 in Homer and KDLL 91.9 FM in Kenai were listed as grant recipients.
ACF “grows philanthropy to strengthen Alaska’s communities,” managing more than 2,600 funds and partnering with tribes, nonprofits and local leaders to support “community-driven” solutions statewide. Since 1995, the foundation has distributed more than $260 million in grants to Alaskan communities.
The public media grants were awarded through ACF’s Voices Across Alaska Fund, described in a Nov. 10 press release as a “rapid-response initiative” created to sustain public broadcasting after the loss of federal funding. Launched in July, the fund received more than $3.8 million from 143 donors in just three months, including “major” gifts from the Rasmuson Foundation and three national foundations, not named in the release. Grants were distributed to stations by ACF throughout the fall.
In the release, ACF CEO and President Alex McKay said that the Voices Across Alaska Fund was created “so every Alaskan can have access to information that keeps them safe and connected, no matter where they live.”
“Public media is the heart of how that happens,” he said.
According to the release, KBBI was granted $38,560.75. KDLL received $34,844.25. Grant amounts were determined using each station’s 2024 Community Service Grant allocation from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in order to maintain a “fair and transparent framework” to distribute funds to the 31 stations that were awarded grants.
KBBI General Manager Josh Krohn wrote via email Monday that the Homer station recently received a check for approximately $23,000 from the ACF fund, and were informed last week that a second check is also on its way. Krohn said he hadn’t yet been informed of the amount for the second grant disbursement.
“It’s supposed to total around 25% of what our Community Service Grant from CPB would have been, but I think it will be a bit less than that,” he wrote.
This grant funding puts KBBI above their budgeted income for the year, Krohn said.
“Because of that, we’re using a portion of it to hire back one part-time on-air host to help us cover weekends and other various shifts,” he wrote.
KDLL did not respond to requests for comment before press time.
According to the release, while the Voices Across Alaska Fund “filled an urgent gap,” ACF will continue to work with partners to build “lasting philanthropic support” for local journalism and communication infrastructure. ACF will also work to ensure remaining funding is “woven effectively” with additional support available to public media — including $9 million in funding from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, roughly half of which 14 Alaska stations are eligible for, and the Public Media Company Bridge Fund, which is working on strategies for how to support stations nationwide that were the most dependent on the CPB.
Learn more about the Voices Across Alaska Fund and ACF by visiting alaskacf.org.
