The social service organization, Love, INC. is changing its name to Helping Alaska. The faith-based non-profit has served needy families with rental assistance and donated items since 1985.
Communications Director, Christopher Donahue says Love I-N-C means “Love in the name of Christ." For 36 years, the local organization has paid association fees to the national organization in Jenison, Michigan.
"It no longer made sense for us to contribute to a national organization," he said. "So, our board of directors tried to strategize how we could peacefully separate from the national organization and really become that hyper-local agency that's centered its mission and focus around Christ in the Tanana Valley."
Donohue says the local organization was contributing three percent per year of its revenue to the national Love, INC. headquarters. They budgeted almost $60,000 in 2022 as fees that were going to be paid to national, before deciding the money was better used locally.
"It's a full-time position. It's a body and a half in our organization. It's food boxes. For many, we're not talking about a small dollar amount here. We're talking about a sizable figure for a nonprofit, our size in Fairbanks, he said."
The new name will be “Helping Alaska,” and will take effect January first. Donohue says nothing changes except the name, and the organization will keep with the same mission of delivering relief funds and items.
Although primarily a Christian organization, Love, INC or Helping Alaska doesn’t use religion as a criterion for customer service. Donohue says the name change will remind people they are serving communities like Tok, Delta, and Nenana as well as the greater Fairbanks North Star Borough.