By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Still recovering from the financial difficulties brought on by the pandemic, the Sitka Fine Arts Camp has established an endowment and now seeks donations to ensure the camp’s long-term sustainability.
In the past, the camp’s fiscal position has been unstable, SFAC executive director Roger Schmidt told the Sitka Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. The camp pulled through 2020 only with the help of its savings.
“Our financial situation has been very precarious. The organization wasn’t able to start saving money, put money into reserves until about ten years ago. If we had not set money aside in our reserves we probably would not be here today – that’s what carried us over through the pandemic,” Schmidt reported.
Totaling about $1 million and founded in 2020, the endowment will function as a permanent fund and the interest can be used to run camp programs.
“It’s important to have strong financial reserves. The endowment does this,” Schmidt said. He noted that in its first year, the fund accrued tens of thousands of dollars in interest.
The Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s SJ Campus is pictured today. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
That money will help run the camp at roughly half-capacity this summer, with coronavirus precautions in place.
“This year it generated $40,000 in interest. The idea of the endowment is to give us long term resilience to recover from unexpected things or take advantage of opportunities. With the pandemic, one of the things we were looking at are new costs to hold the camp during the pandemic,” Schmidt told the Sentinel in a later interview. “The money this year is going toward the types of supplies and work we need to do to responsibly hold camp this summer.”
The initial funding came from the sunsetting of the Skaggs Foundation, run by SFAC board president Sam Skaggs, Schmidt said.
“It worked because Sam Skaggs – our board president – and our board said we had to get an endowment going. And he has a foundation, the Skaggs Foundation, which has a history of philanthropy in Alaska… (Skaggs) sunsetted the foundation and transferred the money into a new foundation for our organization,” Schmidt said.
Last year, SFAC experienced a $1 million shortfall amid pandemic closures, out of a typical annual budget of between $2 million and $2.5 million.
In a current fundraising push, Northrim Bank has agreed to donate up to $5,000 in matched funds when others donate to the endowment.
“The main thing is that Northrim is donating up to $5,000 in matching funds, and so we are hoping that will inspire other people to give toward the endowment. To donate they just go to our website, fineartscamp.org,” Schmidt said.
Speaking for Northrim, Loren Olsen stressed the importance of the camp in Sitka.
“They have a significant financial impact on our local economy. There is a multiplier effect of dollars, a dollar multiplies anywhere from three to nine times in a local community. And so great organizations like the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, whether it’s the students, the parents, restaurants, shopping, they’re an anchor in our community and an anchor in our economy,” Olsen said.
Schmidt hopes the endowment would protect the Fine Arts Camp well into the future. He hopes for the fund to eventually reach $5 million.
“People know how to contribute and the other thing that’s important to us is people understanding that we are an organization started in 1972, and it’s time for us with this long history to be able to continue to preserve the legacy of our organization against a future – like this year – that is never certain. And an endowment does that, it preserves the investment that so many people have made,” he said.
