Want to help rural Alaskans with their tax needs? Volunteers sought for pro bono
ABA Section of Taxation members Susan Morgenstern (from left), Mandi Matlock and Anna Gooch traveled to the whaling village of Tikigaq and the hunting village of Atqasuk in Alaska last year as part of the Alaska Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Project, a pro bono initiative.
The ABA is looking for volunteers to go to Alaska. The ABA Section of Taxation recently launched its Alaska Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Project, a pro bono initiative that will take six attorneys to prepare tax returns in remote villages in the state.
From Feb. 21 to March 2, the team will be a “traveling tax office,” gaining unique hands-on experience while becoming immersed in Alaska Native culture.
“I like to give back to my community, but I also really thrive on adventure and excitement, and I was absolutely captivated by the idea of being able to travel to places in Alaska that I could not otherwise go and meet people that I would not otherwise meet,” says Mandi Matlock, a member of the Section of Taxation who volunteered in Alaska last year as part of the pilot program with the Alaska Business Development Center. “You can’t understate the experience that a volunteer gets back out of this.”
The Alaska Business Development Center, an Anchorage, Alaska-based nonprofit organization, recruits and trains volunteers to provide tax preparation and education to rural Alaskans. In 2024, these volunteers served more than 8,000 residents in 165 communities across the state.
Matlock and two other Section of Taxation volunteers joined the Alaska Business Development Center’s efforts last winter and traveled to the whaling village of Tikigaq and the hunting village of Atqasuk. Over five days, they prepared nearly 170 tax returns for residents of the two villages.
The Section of Taxation’s volunteers saw local sights, including the whaling captains’ resting places in Tikigaq and the caribou grazing grounds on the tundra in Atqasuk. They became familiar with the primary mode of transportation in Alaska’s rural areas—small four-to-six seat planes that also carry food, water and supplies to village residents.
“It’s a big eye-opener going beyond Anchorage out to those rural communities,” says Michelle Kern, the president of the Alaska Business Development Center. “It will build character and experience and exposure, being immersed in native cultures and the tax situations that we deal with specifically up here.”
Attorneys who have experience with tax return preparation or who have volunteered for the Internal Revenue Service’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program are encouraged to apply, but this is not required. The Alaska Business Development Center provides thorough training, which includes advanced-level VITA certification.
Susan Morgenstern, another Section of Taxation member who traveled to Alaska last year, points out that volunteers can use their certification to help taxpayers even beyond their work in the state’s villages next year.
“What I hope is that people will take this as an opportunity,” Morgenstern says. “There is the novelty of going to Alaska to prepare returns, but then there is the practicality of being able to pay it forward and prepare returns locally. Even if you only do it once a week, once a month.”
As part of the Alaska Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Project, the Section of Taxation and the Alaska Business Development Center will provide an up to $800 reimbursement for airfare to Anchorage, lodging and travel from Anchorage to the villages, a stipend for food and all equipment to prepare returns.
Applications to join the project are due Dec. 6. For more details or to view a recording of a recent information session, visit the Alaska Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Project’s website.
