As we first mentioned last month, KNOM’s business office has expanded to a second location. In addition to our Nome office — within the studios where KNOM will always be headquartered — our mission now, also, conducts business and development work in Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage. We’re excited to explain more on this development, and, especially, to introduce the outstanding new staffer at the center of our Anchorage efforts.

Meet Robyn Woyte, pictured above, who began working on KNOM’s behalf in the Anchorage area in late 2015. Robyn’s new tenure with our mission is not her first; she served in a similar role, supporting our business office, in 2005-06, when she and her husband John were living in Nome.

Robyn’s new work with KNOM places her in the role of Development Data Manager, which means she directly receives many of the donations and communications our supporters send each week. By working out of a small Anchorage office — currently located on a Catholic nonprofit campus — our mission is able to receive and respond to mail more quickly and efficiently than is possible in Nome. As we described in our January issue, we began seeing cost savings almost immediately by shifting some of our development work in this way; in fact, not only has the new Anchorage branch proved efficient, but it is also quickly becoming a logistical support hub for our Nome operations.

Just why is there such a difference between Nome and Anchorage? It has a lot to do with the unavoidable logistical challenges of living and running a Catholic nonprofit in the Alaskan Bush. Because there are no roads to Nome from the urban hubs of Alaska, all mail must be shipped by air, and because of limitations in staffing and in resources at our local post office, mail delays of days or even weeks — alongside higher shipping costs — are commonplace.

By giving KNOM a liaison in Anchorage, we’re striving to best suit both the rural Alaskan listeners we serve and the many Lower 48 supporters who make that service possible. Now, as always, our focus is on how to stretch every dollar we receive.

Have any questions about our new Anchorage branch? Call Lynette at 907-443-5221, or email business@knom.org.