Our Mission

OraFoundation for stronger communities

ORA's goal is to build stronger communities through charitable grant-making activities that target the needs of individuals, organizations and neighborhoods within each of the 22 impacted communities. The Foundation will engage in a variety of grant-making vehicles, including grants from unrestricted funds, donor advised funds, designated funds, area of interest funds, and supporting organizations.

Award Education Program

The ORA Board recognizes the patterns common to individuals who receive large windfall gains from inheritance, lawsuit or lottery winnings -- the tendency to spend it all within three to five years of receipt, often leaving us in worse shape than before. As the first of three distinct phases charted by the Board for the Foundation's development, ORA has embarked on an ambitious public education program for plaintiffs in the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill case. The purpose of the program is to enhance understanding of the financial decisions that each household will face upon receipt of any award proceeds -- decisions that will impact the individual, their families, and their communities forever.

The education program consists of workshops and forums: presenters cover the status of the case, tax considerations for potential awards, financial planning, estate planning and charitable giving, along with a community-wide discussion about how individuals and organizations can become involved in and benefit from ORA Foundation involvement.

Workshops are conducted by ORA Foundation Board members, volunteers and ORA's professional partners -- who are financial advisors, CPA's, and attorneys involved with the case. In fact, many of the Board members, presenters and professional advisors are plaintiffs themselves.

Since 2001, ORA Foundation has conducted programs in all of the four regions impacted by the spill, and nearly all of the 22 impacted coastal communities - with one or more visits to Cordova, Port Graham, Seldovia, Nanwalek, Kodiak, Ouzinki, Old Harbor, Chignik, Perryville, Larsen Bay, Karluk, Valdez, Anchorage, Nikolaesvk and Kenai. Hundreds of plaintiffs have benefited from the efforts.