Diane Kaplan to step down as CEO of Rasmuson Foundation, Alaska’s biggest philanthropic organization

Diane Kaplan, who led the growth of the Rasmuson Foundation into a major Alaska philanthropic organization, will step down early next year after 26 years.

Kaplan said the death in January of the foundation’s chairman, Ed Rasmuson, reminded her that life is finite, the organization said in an announcement on Tuesday.

In an interview on Tuesday, she said she plans to continue doing work in the industry as something of a philanthropic coach, working with individuals who want to find the most enduring and best way to donate their wealth.

“You can never figure out when it’s the right time to leave an organization you’re committed to,” she said. “I start every morning with the same excitement I had 26 years ago, but all things must come to an end. And I’m committed to giving the board time to have a smooth transition.”

Members of the Rasmuson family, which grew National Bank of Alaska into Alaska’s biggest financial institution before it was sold to Wells Fargo, built and financially supported the foundation.

In 1995, Ed Rasmuson tapped Kaplan, who had previously managed the Alaska Public Radio Network, to expand it.

Under her leadership, the organization grew from a small entity with $5 million in assets to a charitable powerhouse that today distributes about $25 million annually to nonprofits, tribes, local governments, artists and others, the foundation’s statement said. The grants have supported swimming pools, libraries, clinics and other facilities and efforts statewide.

Kaplan said she had important guidance from Ed and his father, Elmer, who died in 2000, and left the foundation with most of his $400 million estate.

Today, the Rasmuson Foundation is worth about twice that much money, and is now the largest provider of private grants in Alaska, the foundation’s statement said. It employs a staff of 28 who all share the goal of making Alaska a better place for everyone, Kaplan said.

Kaplan has led the development of major initiatives including the Pick.Click.Give program, letting Alaskans donate part of their Permanent Fund dividend to charities; the Dental Health Aide Therapist Program that works to improve oral health care in rural communities without dentists; and the Homelessness Initiative that brought together other donors in a $40 million effort to address homelessness in Anchorage.

More recently, the foundation helped lead efforts to distribute $47 million in COVID-19 relief funds to nonprofit organizations and hospitals, according to the foundation’s statement.

In one key effort, Kaplan developed a program that brings large, national funders to Alaska to see the state’s challenges firsthand. That has brought in more than $300 million in Outside capital to support projects such as sanitation improvements in remote communities and educational opportunities under the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, the foundation’s statement said.

“Diane has left an indelible mark not just on Rasmuson Foundation, but on philanthropy and the nonprofit community across Alaska,” said Rasmuson Chairman Adam Gibbons, a fourth-generation Rasmuson family member, in the statement. “With her fearless and tireless leadership, we’ve been willing to tackle some of Alaska’s greatest challenges, from oral health care to alcoholism, from abandoned parks to abandoned people.”

The foundation expects to find a new chief executive by the end of the year, the statement said.