onprofits play a vital role in Alaska’s economy, serving as employers, revenue generators, and providers of essential services. These insights are detailed in The Foraker Group’s latest report, Alaska’s Nonprofit Sector: Generating Economic Impact. This is the seventh such study released by The Foraker Group, a 501(c)(3) organization that strengthens Alaska’s nonprofit and tribal organizations through educational opportunities, shared services, organizational development, public policy, and fiscal sponsorship.

Laurie Wolf, Foraker Group president and CEO, views nonprofits as “the backbone” of Alaska’s economy. Their contributions often go unnoticed, yet their impact is pervasive. “You can’t go through your day in rural or urban Alaska without engaging with a nonprofit. Even when you don’t know it; it’s just part of your everyday life,” Wolf explains.

allas Sprout awoke in the night to a sound he had not immediately recognized. Groggy from the nearly two-day trip, not to mention being responsible for eight travel companions, Dallas brought himself to the window to investigate the source of this disturbance.

Looking out onto a nondescript St. Louis, Missouri, street, he noticed nothing peculiar at all. Just some aggressive drivers honking their horns, angry at some pedestrians who chose to jaywalk as opposed to walking at the designated crosswalk just up the street.

Content with his findings, Dallas returned to bed, smiling as he realized just how far he and his travel companions had come.

chery Umanzor is thinking about uses for seaweed: Food. Biofuels. Animal feed. Biodegradable packaging.

“Seaweeds have a use,” she emphasizes. “There’s a reason why it’s the fastest growing industry in the world. [But] realistically, [the United States] cannot compete with Asia or Latin America” when it comes to exporting seaweed products to the rest of the world.

Since April 2024, Umanzor has led a UAF research team in the study of seaweeds in Southeast. The team is less interested in the use of biomass—the plant material produced by seaweed—than in the potential of extracting rare earth elements (REEs) from them.

lose your eyes. Imagine an attorney. What do you see? More than likely it’s two suited professionals arguing passionately, perhaps dramatically, in a courtroom on behalf of their client.

Turns out that image is far from reality.

“The exact opposite is true,” says Lee Baxter, a civil litigator and shareholder at Schwabe’s Anchorage office. “Most attorneys never go into a courtroom. There are far more non-litigation attorneys in Alaska than there are litigation attorneys.”

ike the water a fish swims in without recognizing it, LLCs are everywhere. Not just the limited liability companies themselves; the letters are part of the background of everyday commerce. The abbreviation appears in business names so often that it becomes invisible.

Similar suffixes suffuse signage, saturating scenery with “Inc.,” “Corp.,” and “Co.” Yet these short forms are descriptive and understandable, whereas “LLC” is opaque and technical, often irrelevant and left unmentioned.

“It is typical to omit ‘LLC’ from a company name in casual conversations, social media, and marketing materials,” says Sarah Gillstrom, a partner at the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine. “However, the full company name should be used, including the LLC designation, in legal documents, banking documents, and tax documents.”

ew development on the North Slope has brought hope that daily throughput of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS)—which has seen a steady decline since its 1988 peak of 2 million barrels per day—will see a marked upswing.

The flow in the pipeline is already increasing. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which operates TAPS, reported in May an average of 478,167 barrels per day moving from the North Slope to Valdez, a significant jump over the 2024 per-day throughput average of 464,784 barrels. Alyeska reports the daily per-barrel throughput average has remained steadily in the 480,000 range since December 2024, peaking at 487,682 barrels per day in January 2025.

What happened in December 2024? The recent upward trend can be attributed largely to ConocoPhillips Alaska, which started adding oil from its Nuna project to the pipeline on December 17, earlier than expected.

orrendous weather, impassable roads, severe temperatures, and lack of infrastructure limit the movement of freight and passengers on the North Slope. For companies that specialize in these logistics, however, the challenge is part of the fun—as is knowing that they’re providing North Slope communities with the goods needed to survive, and supplying companies with materials and equipment to operate year-round.

“We genuinely believe we have one of the most incredible jobs on earth,” explains Don Kious, general manager of UIC Oil & Gas Support. A subsidiary of Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, UIC Oil & Gas Support works alongside UIC subsidiary Bowhead Transport to move people, freight, fuel, and supplies across some of the most unforgiving terrain in North America.

“We serve as the lifelines of the Arctic,” he adds. “We’re not just transporters; we’re connectors.”

“Our company prides itself on putting the customer first,” says John Jansen, vice president and general manager of Lynden Oilfield Services, part of the Lynden family of companies. “We are innovative in how we operate, and if we see an opportunity to improve our customers’ operations by helping them with something, we’re big on finding solutions.”

or three days in June, the North Slope was cut off. Flooding from the Sagavanirktok River carved a gap into the Dalton Highway at milepost 315. A culvert collapsed, wiping out 80 feet of road. Even as crews worked to fill the 30-foot-deep gully, more flooding 30 miles north damaged an embankment along the highway.

Yet the haul road was only closed from June 14 to June 17, a much shorter shutdown than a flood disaster in 2015 that required re-engineering the riverbank. Governor Mike Dunleavy declared an emergency to bypass environmental rules to expedite repairs and apply for federal repair funds. The response was sudden and swift; it must be, to maintain access along such a vital artery.

The Dalton Highway provides access to the North Slope, where numerous projects are underway including Santos’ Pikka Project, ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Willow project, and a number of other pilot projects expected to enhance the state’s oil production. The efficient, safe, and timely transport of goods and equipment needed for these projects is managed by Alaska businesses by land, air, and sea.

n March the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) and Glenfarne Group announced an agreement for Glenfarne to become the majority owner of Alaska LNG, a project intended to deliver North Slope natural gas to in-state markets and beyond.

Under the agreement, Glenfarne acquired 75 percent of AGDC subsidiary 8 Star Alaska, which is developing Alaska LNG as three subprojects: an 807-mile, 42-inch pipeline; an LNG export terminal in Nikiski; and a North Slope carbon capture plant. Glenfarne stated, “Phase 1 of the project will kick off immediately, prioritizing the development and final investment decision of the pipeline infrastructure needed to deliver North Slope gas to Alaskans as rapidly as possible.”

In May, Glenfarne selected Worley to perform additional engineering work and to prepare a final cost estimate “in sufficient detail to achieve final investment decision for the pipeline,” according to Glenfarne, which also stated at the time that it anticipates a final investment decision in 2025. The most recent cost estimate from June 2020 was $38.7 billion, a $5.5 billion decrease from a 2015 estimate when major North Slope producers were part of the venture. The economics of megaprojects have, since 2020, fluctuated massively.

ust below Anchorage’s Government Hill neighborhood, near the mouth of Knik Arm, sits one of Alaska’s most critical lifelines: the Don Young Port of Alaska. Every week, ships glide into this industrial artery, carrying goods that fuel daily life statewide. From groceries and gasoline to construction materials and jet fuel, vast volumes of Alaska’s inbound cargo pass across its docks.

Without the port, shelves would empty, fuel tanks would run dry, and disaster response plans would falter. As the port’s essential role has grown, so, too, has corrosion worn away at its decades-old infrastructure, which has become outdated and inefficient. This collision of port criticality with aging and obsolescence prompted the Port of Alaska Modernization Project (PAMP).

The US Department of the Air Force started AFWERX in 2017 to serve as an innovation engine in cooperation with the Air Force Research Laboratory. The organization, which encompasses the Ventures, Spark, Prime, and SpaceWERX programs, has awarded more than 10,000 contracts worth $7.2 billion since 2019. In the 2024 fiscal year alone, Air Force Materiel Command awarded 260 Phase III transition contracts totaling $1 billion in value.

viation travel in Alaska is essential for businesses that need to move employees from one location to another for work. While larger aircraft typically operate between cities and smaller regional hubs, smaller aircraft are frequently used for the shorter, more remote routes. As of December 2020, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) counted 396 public-use airports in Alaska. Of those airports, 284 are land-based, with four heliports and 108 seaplane bases. Due to the vast size and limited road infrastructure, Alaska has the highest number of airports per capita in the United States.

But they are not all made alike. Today, the state operates more than seventy runways, many of which are in remote areas. Most of these are gravel airstrips roughly 3,300 feet long. Some are tucked into valleys, others sit on mountainsides, and several require long approaches over water. Given these conditions, ensuring the safety of company personnel is critical. This requires that companies assess their unique aviation exposures and develop plans that enable employees to complete each flight safely and successfully.

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