Trust Funding

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority administers the Alaska Mental Health Trust, a perpetual trust with a combination of cash and non-cash assets, including about one million acres of land.  These assets are invested on behalf of Trust beneficiaries, who include people with mental illness, developmental disabilities, chronic alcoholism, and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. The Trust is overseen by a seven-member Board of Trustees who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature. 

Each year the Trustees make recommendations to the governor and the Legislature regarding expenditure of Trust income and other state funds to help pay for Alaska's Comprehensive Integrated Mental Health Program. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and The Trust jointly develop a Comprehensive Integrated Mental Health Plan to provide policy direction for programs and services that comprise the Program.  

Trust Assets

The Trust employs the expertise of several organizations to manage its assets.  The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and the Alaska Department of Revenue Treasury Division manage The Trust's cash assets.  The Trust Land Office within the Alaska Department of Natural Resources manages the land and other non-cash assets.  Revenue-generating uses of Trust land include land leasing and sales; commercial timber sales; mineral exploration and production; coal, oil and gas exploration and development; and sand, gravel and rock sales.  

Funding Sources

The total amount available each year for Trustees to spend on behalf of beneficiaries is a combination of:

• Fund payout (currently 4.25 percent of the total cash asset value of the Trust fund),
• Spendable income from land and non-cash assets,
• Interest income from cash investments, and
• Any lapsed or unspent funds from the previous fiscal year.

This funding system ensures that The Trust has a predictable and relatively constant cash flow from year to year.

 Trust Spending

The majority of The Trust's annual operating and capital budgets is spent in two areas:

• Trust Focus Areas -- these expenditures are based on recommendations from The Trust's five focus area workgroups.
• Programs initiated by The Trust's advisory boards through the annual Request for Recommendation (RFR) process.

These expenditures are part of the Mental Health Budget Bill and must be approved by the Legislature.

A small portion of The Trust's annual budget is available for authority grants, which are grants administered directly by The Trust.  These grants are available for partnerships, small projects and mini-grant programs that assist beneficiaries with behavioral health conditions, developmental disabilities, and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia. Authority grants are awarded at the discretion of the Board of Trustees or Trust staff and are available to non-profit organizations, service providers, tribal entities, governmental agencies and other groups that serve Trust beneficiaries. By regulation, individuals are not eligible to receive grants from The Trust; however, service providers may apply on behalf of clients for some of the mini-grant funding.  See Grant Opportunities to learn more about the various grants, who is eligible and the procedures for applying.