February 8, 2015 | Read Time: 1 minute
Amount donated in 2014: Approximately $48-million
Beneficiary: Juneau Community Foundation
Background: Mr. Corbus owned Alaska Electric Light and Power Company until he sold it to Avista Utilities in 2014.
Bill Corbus, 77, and his wife, Kate, gave stock valued at about $48-million to the Juneau Community Foundation to establish five funds to support local programs and help those in need in the Juneau area. The largest, about $21-million, will create the Juneau Hope Endowment Fund, which will be used to help the homeless, people struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, and abuse victims and to support hospice and suicide-prevention programs. Roughly that same amount will endow a fund to support the expansion and renovation of Juneau’s state capitol complex.
About $2-million will go toward an endowment to support the community foundation’s operating costs, and another $2-million will create an endowment to pay for operations of the city’s public Eaglecrest Ski Area.
Roughly $1-million will establish an endowment to help with fundraising efforts and operations of a new performing-arts center, and $500,000 will create a fund to endow the Gastineau Humane Society.
In addition to the endowments they have created, Mr. and Ms. Corbus have earmarked some of the money for grants, including $460,000 to the Whale Project and $25,000 apiece to the Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research, Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, Juneau Jazz & Classics, Juneau Lyric Opera, the Juneau Raptor Center, Juneau Symphony Foundation, Perseverance Theatre, and the Walter Soboleff Center.
