APPLICATIONS FOR KINDLING CONVERSATION STIPENDS ARE CURRENTLY PAUSED.
Are you ready to get people in your community talking?
Kindling Conversation Stipends are built to help you do just that. We provide themed toolkits, host support, and $250 of funding to Alaskans interested in hosting short, thoughtful community conversations tailored to connect people across difference and foster inclusive conversational spaces throughout the state.
Each toolkit has a focused conversation guide, a springboard to launch discussion, community agreements for the shared space, and participant surveys so that you’ll have everything you need to host. Explore funding conditions and our toolkits below, and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
If you are interested in applying, please review the full application process and guidelines below.
How It Works
We pay you to host your own community conversation using the tools we provide and walk you through the process.
Step 1. Apply for a Kindling Conversation stipend.
Step 2. Gather 5 or more people and have at least an hour long conversation using the tools provided. Scroll down to see the funding conditions.
Step 3. Share a participant survey and brief reflection.
Step 4. Get $250
Read about Kindling Conversation's impact here.
Funding
All of our toolkits are free to use with attribution, but in order to receive funding, you need to apply. Individuals, tax-exempt organizations, and schools in Alaska are eligible to receive a $250 stipend to help defray the cost of hosting a conversation. Applications must be submitted at least 1 week prior to a scheduled event and recipients must host their community conversation within 3 months of receiving notification of funding.
Funding Conditions
- The community conversation must be at least an hour long and have at least five participants (not including the host).
- The host must credit the Alaska Humanities Forum in event promotion and during the event itself.
- The host must submit a short final report within 3 weeks of the completion of the conversation. This final report must include attendance information, evaluation surveys completed by conversation participants, and a brief (<500 words) reflection by the facilitator. Photographs are encouraged but not required.
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Our Toolkit Topics
Below is our current list of Kindling Conversation toolkits. Each displays a guiding question, a conversation guide, and a springboard as resources for you to dive into. Don't see the topic you're passionate about? Send us a suggestion! While we can only fund community conversations that utilize the Forum toolkits listed here, we're adding new topics all the time.
Continuous: A Conversation on Gender and Culture
Guiding Question: How does culture shape our understanding of gender?
Death and Culture: Inheriting Richness
Guiding question: how does culture bring joy into how we move through experiencing death and grief?
Forging Our Family
Guiding Question: How do we make our family, and who belongs in it?
Homeless in the Great Land
Guiding Question: What do we expect from ourselves and our government when it comes to homelessness?
Languages Barriers and Bridges
Guiding Question: How does language connect us? How does language divide us?
How Are You Creative?
Developed in partnership with the Alaska State Council on the Arts. Guiding question: how are you creative?
Journalism and Community
Guiding Question: What's possible when community and media connect?
Salmonberries and Saag Aloo: Carrying Our Heritage
Guiding Question: How do we choose what heritage we carry with us?
We Are Of: A Conversation on Race, Land, and Culture
Guiding Questions: How do our race and culture shape our relationship to the land? How does that shape the decisions we make about it?
CXG2 presents Beyond Self: Engagement and Accountability in Community
Developed by CXG alumni. Guiding question: where and how do you engage with your community? What does community mean to you?
CXG2 presents Alternate Realities: a conversation about class and race.
Developed by CXG alumni. Guiding question: how do race and class shape our sense of identity and community?
Stories That Shape Us
Guiding Question: What stories from my past do I keep with me, and how do my cultures and heritage play into that?
Leadership in Alaska Series: Changing Times
Guiding Question: In times of rapid change, what guides us?
Leadership in Alaska Series: Sense of Place
Guiding Question: How does where we're from influence how we lead?
Leadership in Alaska Series: Trailblazing
Guiding Question: When are we called to act without permission?
Leadership in Alaska Series: Legacy
Guiding Question: What do we owe future generations?
Leadership in Alaska Series: Mentorship
Guiding Question: How does our culture influence the way we teach and learn?
Leadership in Alaska Series: Flexibility
Guiding Question: Do we ever live up to our own expectations?
Leadership in Alaska series: Community
Guiding question: what responsibility do we have to contribute to our community?
You may also be interested in...
Learning how to facilitate community conversations in our Facilitation Workshops.
Alaska Humanities Forum
The Alaska Humanities Forum is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that designs and facilitates experiences to bridge distance and difference – programming that shares and preserves the stories of people and places across our vast state, and explores what it means to be Alaskan.
Gather Round: The AKHF Blog
- Work with Us: Introducing Forum Workshop & Planning Services!
July 2, 2025 • Polly Carr
- Meandering with purpose: A conversation with Director of Cross-Cultural Programs Julie Rowland
June 25, 2025 • Amanda Dale
- "A unique opportunity and a rollercoaster experience": Teacher Lira Rubio looks back on her first year in Alaska
June 18, 2025 • Lira Rubio
