Shareholder Benefits
Employing shareholders is one of NANA's most important goals. NANA Development Corporation has three full-time staff in the Shareholder Development Department dedicated to helping shareholders succeed in their educational and career goals.
The Shareholder Development Department offers many support services, including career counseling, identifying and/or providing funding for higher education/training, assisting college students to find internships or summer jobs, and helping shareholders find gainful employment by working closely with NANA recruiters and hiring managers.
Shareholder Development works directly with NANA business units to help create career development opportunities for shareholders and facilitate internships. Many of NANA’s companies have shareholder development plans that provide for development programs such as college summer internships and longer term internships.
Shareholder Development is helping to prepare our youth for success by visiting schools to talk to students on various topics, including: funding education, making them aware of opportunities available to them, discussing the importance of work ethic, completing high school, staying away from drugs and staying away from legal trouble and how that relates to employment.
NANA also employs four full-time staff to assist shareholders with finding employment.
Job Opportunities
In FY2008, NANA companies and partners employed 1,154 shareholders resulting in over $40 million in wages paid to NANA shareholders. NANA has the reputation among Alaska Native Corporations, as the company that offers significant opportunities for shareholders who work either directly for NANA companies, or for our business partners providing services at Red Dog Mine, on the North Slope and in the Government Contract arena. The success NANA has seen results from agreements between NANA and its partners and subsidiaries stipulating that the subsidiary will develop a shareholder development plan and that NANA shareholders will have hiring priority over other equally qualified candidates. We continue to work to improve our information about shareholder interests.
Scholarships
NANA contributes $1 million annually to the Aqqaluk Trust, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that was created by NANA to development educational programs for NANA shareholders. In FY2007, Aqqaluk Trust distributed $632,230 in scholarships to NANA shareholders.
Additionally, college tuition costs are reimbursed for NANA shareholder employees and some NANA companies provide their own scholarships to support NANA shareholders who are pursuing degrees that are directly related to the industry the company serves.
Internships
NANA’s goal is to become a shareholder-managed corporation. To continue this business philosophy, special programs are in place to help shareholders enhance their job skills, knowledge and abilities. NANA internship programs offer shareholders the opportunity to gain marketable experience that can later be used to grow NANA companies.
Internships provide a bridge from the classroom to the working world, varying in length and the number of hours worked. There are many benefits that come from participating in an internship program. You gain valuable experience in a specific industry by learning on-the-job. You receive supervised on-the-job training, learn new job skills, and are able to network to gain contacts, and most of the time, you are paid for learning.
NANA has been providing internships to shareholders for many years. The programs vary by year and by company
Business and Career Fair
Many of NANA’s businesses and non-NANA companies gather each year in the spring for Career Fairs in Anchorage and Kotzebue. There are typically over 40 booths with participants from NANA’s companies, post-secondary institutions, NANA Region organizations, NANA’s partners and many more.
NANA Village Partnerships
Five of NANA’s companies have partnered with villages in the NANA Region. The Village Partnership is a program designed to build a bridge between village-based shareholders and NANA’s growing operations outside of the state of Alaska. The companies gain and learn about the NANA Region, NANA’s shareholders and gain an understanding of how shareholders live in the Region. Shareholders learn about business culture and business customers, products and services. Information is shared between the village and the company for a better understanding of each with the intent on discovering ways to increase economic improvements in the village and around the world.
Social and Cultural Programs
NANA’s earnings are used, in part, for social and cultural programs of importance to shareholders. Expenditures are made at the direction of the Board, and reflect the guidance of committees focusing on education and cultural programs. Expenditures are also made to support other organizations involved in Alaska Native issues of concern to NANA shareholders and the NANA Region. In FY2008, NANA spent $8,209,665 for social and cultural efforts.
Profits from NANA’s business interests support a variety of programs that benefit NANA shareholders. All of these services meet NANA’s responsibility to help improve the lives of its shareholders and go beyond the typical requirements of an American corporation. Some of the services NANA pays for are:
Camp Sivunnigvik
Through the Aqqaluk Trust, NANA provided $191,231 in FY2008 for costs associated with Camp Sivunnigvik, a traditional summer camp for NANA shareholders. Children and elders come to the camp during the summer months to learn and share the traditional skills of hunting, fishing and gathering that are required for people to live off the land. The camp is also used in the winter for educational and elders programs.
Resource Technicians
In FY2008, NANA spent $695,035 for Resource Technicians, a village-level program which provides general assistance to village residents. The Resource Technicians are liaisons between the village and the organizations that serve them. They are called upon to perform such tasks as helping with job applications and resumes, helping local residents fill out government forms, helping a student research an appropriate training program and even with coordination of local funeral services. This program provides a well-appreciated service that links village residents to the outside world.
Disaster, Medical and Burial Assistance
NANA spent $142,606 in assistance to shareholders and communities when they are challenged by life events like death, floods, family medical emergencies or search and rescue operations.
Language Efforts
In 2005 the Aqqaluk Trust and the Native Village of Kotzebue conducted a survey showing that only 14 percent of the region’s residents understand Iñupiaq fluently, with 92% of fluent speakers over the age of 65. Armed with the knowledge that the Inupiaq language was in jeopardy, the Inuunailiqput Department of the Aqqaluk Trust formed the Inupiaq Language Commission (ILC) to revitalize the language. The ILC, in partnership with Rosetta Stone, developed a coastal dialect Iñupiaq language CD-ROM. The CD–ROM uses the dynamic immersion method with constant interaction and feedback. The software will be instrumental in preserving the Inupiaq Language for future generations.
In FY2008, NANA spent $55,864 for a combination of the Language Commission and Rosetta Stone Language CD Project.
Regional Elders Programs
NANA provides funds for Regional Elders Programs, which include meetings during which Elders discuss issues and provide guidance to NANA and other regional organizations.
Non-Profit Support
Charitable organizations that wish support from NANA are required to show how the service they are providing is of benefit to NANA shareholders. NANA’s funding for non-profit organizations totaled $315,902 in FY2008, supporting such programs as the Boys and Girls Club, State Basketball Tournaments, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, contributions to local tribal governments and to the Alaska Technical Center for shareholder vocational education.
Elders Settlement Trust
NANA shareholders are known for taking care of our people, and especially our Elders who have made their contributions for protecting our culture through hard work and the passing on traditions of the past. Our forefathers believed so strongly in respecting our Elders that they made it part of our Iñupiat Ilitqusiat Values – Respect for Elders.
Anyone who knows our Iñupiat history knows that we have always survived by helping each other; from children being raised by their extended families, to hunters sharing their catch, and to the very existence of NANA. We have thrived in this land for many generations simply because we care and help each other. And, historically, our Elders have always been there for us through encouragement, support and prayer.
On April 26, 2008, NANA shareholders voted to approve an Elders Settlement Trust. The Trust provides a modest yet needed amount of money each year to all the Elders who are shareholders and are age 65 and older.