Usibelli Foundation

The Usibelli Foundation is a small, family- and corporate-affiliated place-based funder created in 1991 by Usibelli Coal Mine, Alaska's only operating coal mine, headquartered in Fairbanks. It is run entirely by trustees -- Chairman/President Joseph E. Usibelli Jr., alongside long-tenured Fairbanks civic and business figures including Marc Langland, Richard Wien, Karl Hanneman, Glen Weaver, Alan Krause, and Mitchel Usibelli -- with $0 in officer compensation reported across every available Form 990, confirming there is no paid grants staff and no multi-stage review bureaucracy. There is a single online application (hosted on Jotform), reviewed quarterly by the Allocations Committee, rather than an LOI-to-full-proposal progression or site-visit pipeline typical of larger institutional funders. Decisions follow roughly a month after each quarterly review window.

The foundation strongly favors renewal over discovery: of the 144 tracked grants across the two most recent filing years, the large majority of the top 50 recipients (34 of 50) received two separate grants rather than one, and staples such as the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, UA Museum of the North, and Alaska Resource Education recur year after year. First-time applicants should understand they are entering a competitive field of roughly 100-plus organizations funded annually, most of them long-standing Interior Alaska nonprofits, and that a first ask is more likely to succeed as a modest, clearly scoped program request than as an attempt to displace an existing relationship.

Geographic and mission fit matter more than polish: 142 of 144 tracked grants (99%) went to Alaska-based recipients, concentrated in Fairbanks/North Pole, the Denali Borough (Healy, Cantwell, Anderson), and Nenana, with only two grants reaching national organizations headquartered in California. Applicants outside the Interior -- even though Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley appear on the foundation's own eligibility list -- are underrepresented in actual funding and should expect a harder path. The foundation explicitly says it prioritizes work with widespread community benefit, demonstrated operating credibility, and volunteer support from Usibelli Coal Mine employees and their families, so applicants with any existing tie to mine employees, retirees, or their families should surface that connection directly in the program summary.

The Usibelli Foundation's grantmaking is disciplined and small-dollar: the most recent Form 990 sample shows a typical single grant ranging from $200 to $11,500, with a median of $1,000 and an average of $1,573 across 77 grants. Looking at the fuller two-year grantee dataset (144 grants, $300,125 total, average $2,084 including repeat recipients), the pattern holds -- this is a high-volume, broad-based funder rather than one writing a handful of large checks. Total annual grants paid have grown modestly and steadily: $111,960 (2011), $120,021 (2019), $120,015 (2021), $150,055 (2022), and $150,070 (2023), a roughly 34% increase over twelve years that roughly tracks the foundation's asset growth from $2.13M to $3.15M over the same span (reaching an estimated $4.4M by 2025 per third-party aggregators). Total giving (which includes some non-grant charitable disbursements) ran slightly ahead of grants paid in 2023 at $155,567.

By program area, health and social services is the single largest category by count, accounting for 19 of the top 50 recipients (38%) -- food banks, mental health organizations (NAMI, Railbelt Mental Health), senior services, and the American Red Cross of the Tanana Valley all appear, typically in the $2,000-$4,000 range per grant. Education and civic/operating-support grants tie for second at 10 recipients each (20%), but education carries the largest individual dollar amounts: Denali Preschool and Learning Center ($16,765 across two grants), Denali Borough School District ($16,000), and Alaska Resource Education ($13,829) are among the foundation's biggest cumulative relationships. Youth-serving organizations account for 6 of the top 50 (12%, e.g., Healy Hockey Association at $12,540, Kids in Motion at $10,808), and arts/culture organizations the remaining 5 (10%, e.g., Fairbanks Concert Association, Ice Alaska). Revenue is driven overwhelmingly by net investment income ($234,017 of $388,179 total revenue in 2023) plus an annual contribution from Usibelli Coal Mine ($149,596 in 2023, $100,000-$200,000 in most other years) -- confirming the foundation operates as a steadily replenished corporate-family vehicle rather than a depleting endowment.

Usibelli sits at the small end of Alaska's philanthropic landscape by both assets and annual giving -- roughly two orders of magnitude smaller than Rasmuson Foundation, the state's dominant funder, and well below the Alaska Community Foundation's aggregate scale. Its niche is hyper-local: unlike Rasmuson or ACF, which fund statewide and often require competitive, staff-reviewed proposals, Usibelli's single-page quarterly form and $1,000 median grant make it one of the more accessible funders for small Interior Alaska nonprofits that would not be competitive for a six-figure Rasmuson grant. Organizations building a diversified Alaska funding base often pair a modest, easy-to-secure Usibelli grant with a larger, more competitive ask to Rasmuson or ACF rather than treating Usibelli as a primary revenue source.

Public news coverage of the Usibelli Foundation is thin -- consistent with an all-volunteer trustee board and no communications staff -- but a few data points stand out from 2025-2026 aggregator and website data. The foundation's asset base is reported to have grown to roughly $4.4M by the 2025 tax year, up from $3.15M in the 2023 Form 990, and it began or expanded an employee-matching-gifts component, matching $19,640 in Usibelli Coal Mine employee charitable contributions during 2025. Cumulative lifetime giving since the 1991 founding is now cited above $3.5M by third-party grant databases.

On governance, the available Form 990 filings show an executive director transition within the observed period -- Lisa Cassino appears as executive director in earlier filings, with Lisa Herbert appearing in that role in a more recent filing -- though no public announcement was found describing the change. The trustee roster (Joseph E. Usibelli Jr. as Chairman/President, with Marc Langland, Richard Wien, Karl Hanneman, Glen Weaver, and Mitchel Usibelli as trustees) otherwise appears stable across years.

The most actionable recent item for applicants is a scheduling change: usibellifoundation.org's own 2026 Allocations Committee dates are February 11, May 6, August 5, and November 11, which do not match the Nov 30 / Feb 28 / May 31 / Aug 31 cycle still shown on several third-party grant-database listings (GrantExec, Instrumentl). Applicants should treat the foundation's own website as authoritative and confirm the current quarter's deadline directly before submitting, since a mismatched date could mean missing a review cycle entirely.

Apply through the single online Jotform application at form.jotform.com/usibelli/usibelli-foundation-grant-request -- there is no separate LOI stage, but the form itself functions as a first screen, since it will not be considered complete unless every required (asterisked) field is filled, including legal name, tax ID, 501(c)(3) determination letter, current board roster, program budget, and a named program with a specific date and summary. Submit at least three business days ahead of the quarterly Allocations Committee meeting, and confirm the exact date on usibellifoundation.org rather than relying on third-party grant databases, since the foundation's 2026 dates (Feb 11, May 6, Aug 5, Nov 11) diverge from older cycles still posted elsewhere. Expect a decision roughly a month after each review window.

Size the ask to the funder's actual scale: the median grant is $1,000, the average is $1,573, and even the foundation's largest recurring relationships top out around $16,000-$17,000 cumulative across two grants per cycle pair -- a single request in the $500-$5,000 range is realistic; a $25,000+ ask is likely to be declined outright as out of scale. Request funding before the program occurs; the foundation does not reimburse past expenses, so timing the application to precede the activity is essential.

Because 99% of tracked grants go to Alaska organizations concentrated in Fairbanks/North Pole, the Denali Borough (Healy, Cantwell, Anderson), and Nenana, applicants based outside Interior Alaska should expect a steeper climb even though Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley are formally eligible. Emphasize any tie to Usibelli Coal Mine employees, retirees, or their families -- the foundation explicitly names volunteer support from company employees and families as a factor it weighs. A common mistake is submitting a vague general-operating request; the form structure pushes toward a specific, named program with a date and budget, so even organizations seeking core support should frame the ask as a discrete initiative. Given the foundation's strong tendency to re-fund the same roster of nonprofits, first-time applicants improve their odds by making an introductory contact (foundation@usibelli.com or (907) 452-2625) before their first formal submission, rather than applying cold.