But that's a quibble. Last year about 19,000 Alaskans gave $1.5 million of their Permanent Fund dividends to hundreds of nonprofit groups, ranging from more than $69,000 given to Alaska Public Telecommunications Inc. (public radio and television) to $25 to the University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan campus.
After Jan. 1, PFD filers will have the option of setting aside a portion of the dividend to one or more of 414 nonprofit charities and educational groups that each have invested $250 to pay for the program.
This year the Rasmuson Foundation, program administrator, has set a goal of 24,000 donors giving $2 million. Alaskans will easily reach and surpass that number. That's because when Alaskans see a specific need and something specific they can do to meet it, they give in spades.
That's why this program continues to grow. While the Rasmuson Foundation aims to use social media and be more active in advertising during the PFD filing period in 2012 (Jan. 2-March 31), the virtues of this program include the very private nature of the choices to give or not, and if giving, to whom. Anonymity is an option. And the menu of groups to help spans the state and the spectrum of services.
In 2011, Alaskans gave to groups big and small, statewide and local. But the biggest recipients provided basic services and a clear good in their communities. Food, shelter, counseling, rescue from abuse for both people and animals and public broadcasting covered the top 10 recipients.
Some still question the need for such a program -- after all, any of us who want to share our dividends can do so on our own, without Pick-Click. True, and many do. But the PFD designation is an opportunity to make a relatively painless gift. It's gone before it ever reaches the wallet. With a keystroke, we can make good on long-standing intentions that otherwise slip away. We pledge six to eight months in advance. So it's an easy promise to make, and once made, easy to keep -- even if January's expansive mood contracts by October.
Another 5,000 donors and $500,000 more in giving looks like a bet too safe. Here's a prediction: 25,000 Alaskans will give $2.2 million in 2012. And Alaskans are just warming up.
BOTTOM LINE: Pick. Click. is a good way to Give.
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