Ventures

We’re starting a change reaction.

Where bold ideas meet the tools and resources they need to get off the ground. Ventures vary from project to project but are united in their commitment to strengthening Alaskan communities, the environment and the economy, together. Below are featured examples of our current ventures.

Global Leadership in Climate and Clean Energy

Alaska is one of the great overlooked philanthropic opportunities in climate action today. With its extraordinary renewable energy potential, abundant carbon stores, and vast intact landscapes, few places on Earth are better equipped to power and accelerate the climate transition. Working with a wide range of business, agency, tribal, utility, NGO and community interests, Alaska Venture Fund is driving this transformation by developing a clear pathway to realize Alaska’s clean energy potential, mobilizing resources and expertise to support this shift, and aligning stakeholders around a vision of Alaska as a leader in climate and clean energy. (Image: naql/Flickr)

Igiugig Sustainable Future

The Village of Igiugig is a small, self-sufficient, rural community in the Bristol Bay region of southwestern Alaska. Igiugig Village Council strives to create a prosperous future for the community by fulfilling its goals of sustainable social and economic development while carefully stewarding the lands and waters that support a subsistence way of life. The Igiugig Sustainable Future Project is a comprehensive approach to achieving these goals, covering land management and protection priorities, policy recommendations, and sustainable economic investments. The trailblazing work of Igiugig’s citizens allows it to serve as a peer leader and learning laboratory for other communities in Alaska and beyond. Learn more here.

New Energy Alaska

At Alaska Venture Fund, we believe Alaska is on the cusp of a new era of energy growth, fueled by our massive renewable resources. New Energy Alaska is a statewide campaign calling on Alaska leaders to seize the once-in-a-generation opportunity created by current federal incentives. Central to the campaign is a vision of a thriving clean energy economy that harnesses Alaska’s exceptional renewable energy resources. Learn more and add your voice here.

Tongass Initiative

Alaska Venture Fund seeks to ensure the Tongass National Forest is managed as a global climate solution. Spanning 17 million acres, the Tongass is the ancestral home of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples and a biodiversity hotspot with vast old-growth forests, abundant salmon habitat, and unique populations of wildlife. It holds 40% of the carbon stored in all U.S. national forests, earning its title as the “Lungs of North America.” As the U.S. Forest Service develops a new Tongass forest plan, AVF is working with local partners to ensure this plan protects irrecoverable carbon, supports Indigenous stewardship, conserves biodiversity, and fosters sustainable recreation and tourism.

Alaska Wildfire Resilience

The Fire Adapted Alaska program strengthens community, climate, and ecosystem resilience in the face of increasing wildfires in Alaska’s carbon-rich boreal and tundra ecosystems. The program focuses on four key areas: building community resilience, shaping wildfire policy, advancing workforce development, and driving innovation in wildfire science and research. By adopting a deeply collaborative approach, the program has established an Alaska-specific wildfire coalition, bringing together government agencies, community and tribal leaders, and other stakeholders from the wildfire sector.

Jilkáat Aani K_a Héeni (Chilkat River Watershed) Fund

Jilkáat Aani K_a Héeni (Chilkat River Watershed) Fund supports Indigenous-led stewardship of lands and waters in Southeast Alaska’s Jilkáat (Chilkat) valley led by the Jilkáat Kwaan and community allies. We are protecting the Chilkat River Watershed and promoting sustainable futures for our home communities through civic engagement, advocacy, community education, and conservation. To learn more, click here.

Alaska Native Birthworkers Community

The Alaska Native Birthworkers Community is a grassroots group of volunteer Alaska Native reproductive justice advocates, full circle birth helpers (doulas), childbirth educators, breastfeeding counselors, healers, caregivers, public health researchers, scholars, parents, aunties, and a midwife organizing to reclaim Indigenous birth practices and support families from preconception through postpartum with culturally-matched care. Visit our website.

Aywaa Storyhouse

Indigenous oratory, dialogue, and artistic expression have transformative power and are the soul of Alaska Native sovereignty. The Aywaa Storyhouse project reclaims and amplifies Narrative Sovereignty by and for Alaska Native Peoples through the arts.

Recoverable Grants for Rural Energy Upgrades (Revolving Loan Pilot Project)

Despite Alaska’s abundant renewable energy sources, transitioning off diesel-powered systems is complex and costly for remote communities. Grant programs meant to help often include requirements that make funding unattainable. Alaska Venture Fund is piloting a program to provide recoverable grants – zero-interest cash advances – to help bridge the gap for communities that receive reimbursable state and federal grants.

Iliamna Sustainable Communities Initiative

The goal of the Iliamna Sustainable Communities Initiative is to ensure the next 100 years of the Iliamna Lake region in Bristol Bay is marked by cultural, economic and ecological prosperity and resilience. The initiative seeks to focus philanthropic and public funding on supporting and building opportunity within these communities.

Bristol Bay Defense Fund

The Bristol Bay Defense Fund is a coalition of business, tribal, nonprofit, and community organizations dedicated to protecting Bristol Bay and its people forever. We work to ensure that the people of the region have access to the expertise and resources required to secure full protections for Bristol Bay and that their voices are heard by decision-makers in Alaska and Washington, DC.

Image of fishing boat in Bristol Bay Alaska

Indigenous Peoples Ecosystem Stewardship Exchange Program

Indigenous people around the world are successfully creating area-based stewardship initiatives that provide social, ecological, and economic benefits to people and ecosystems while formally recognizing Indigenous values and sovereignty. The Indigenous Peoples Ecosystem Stewardship Virtual Exchange Program convened Alaska Native leaders to learn from these initiatives and generate ideas for what is possible in Alaska. This program was developed to help realize sovereignty, stewardship, healing and prosperity for Alaska Native peoples and their lands and waters on their terms. To read the report, click click here.

Seacoast Trust

AVF is supporting the efforts of Spruce Root to establish and develop the Seacoast Trust – a perpetual funding source for the Sustainable Southeast Partnership. The Sustainable Southeast Partnership promotes the collective well-being and economic prosperity of Alaska Native tribes stewarding one of the world’s most ecologically important places — the coastal temperate rainforest of Southeast Alaska.

Opportunities Fund for Alaskan Arctic Marine Stewardship

The Opportunities Fund for Alaskan Arctic Marine Stewardship supports existing and emergent opportunities that further marine stewardship and protection and sustainable fisheries in Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska (Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas). The fund provides a responsive mechanism for identifying and funding opportunities in the region, increasing the capacity of leadership in coastal communities for co-management of marine resources, and facilitating opportunities for collaboration and collective impact among local Alaska Native leadership, scientists, and policymakers.