OCTOBER 1993
VOLUME I, ISSUE 2 / $5.00
PbilanthropyJoumal
M. V o?:iEiiSi5raii’' I
Early diagnosis
Nonprofits upbeat on Clinton health-care plan
Despite some worries about how
they will be affected by the
process, nonprofit hospitals,
health-care agencies and social-
service organizations in North
Carolina like what they’ve
heard about President Clinton’s
plans to reform the U.S. health
care system.
By Barbara Solow
AND Katherine Noble
\ A / hen it comes to health
I/I/ care, North Carolina
» * nonprofits are enthusi
astic about reform.
Although President Clinton’s
plans to reform the
nation’s health-care sys
tem simply are a proposal,
leaders of Tar Heel hospi
tals, health-care associa
tions and social-service
agencies say they are
eager to be part of the
process
e are going to see more competitors linking
up and working arm in arm.
ALAN TAYLOR
Charlotte-Mecklentmrg Hospital Authority
Universal health-care
coverage for all U.S. citizens
that includes hospital care,
emergency services, hospice
care and family planning.
• State-established
health-care alliances that
could be run by nonprofits. A
National Health Board would
Small nonprofits, how- set spending levels for the
ever, are worried about
how the plan will affect their ability
to provide health coverage for their
employees.
And some nonprofit leaders won
der whether the plan provides
enou^ incentive for state officials to
involve the nonprofit sector in the
dehvery of care.
In a televised speech to the nation
on Sept. 22, Clinton presented the
broad outlines of a plan to bring
down soaring health care costs and
improve delivery of health care ser
vices.
The major elements of the com
plex proposal, which now goes to
Congress for debate, are;
alliances.
• A mandate that employers pay
at least 80 percent of the average
health-care premiums for employees.
Workers would pay the rest and the
government would offer assistance to
low-income people, the unemployed
and small businesses - including
many nonprofits.
Critics have called the plan
unworkable, claiming the only way
the government can meet its goal of
halving health-care spending by 1999
is to cut medical services.
Some Tar Heel hospitals already
are positioning themselves to be
health-care providers under the new
system.
In Charlotte, the parent organiza
tions of Mercy Hospital, Mercy
Hospital South and Carolinas
Medical Center recently announced
they will collaborate to avoid duplica
tion of health-care services.
’While not a formal merger, the
arrangement will be managed by a
Look for HEALTH, page 25
Fighting addiction
Addicts
recover in
self-run
nonprofit
Alcoholics and drug addicts
change the people, places and
things in their lives by living
together in nice houses, nice
neighborhoods and by learning
to be responsible members of
society.
By Katherine Noble
F acing life’s daily chal
lenges can be difficult for
anyone, but for the newly
recovering alcoholic or
drug addict, just getting through the
day sober is challenge enou^.
Especially if the addict is around
other people who are using drugs or
alcohol.
But throughout North Carolina,
hundreds of addicts are staying
sober by living together in nei^bor-
hoods lie Wilmington's Echo Farms
and High Point's Hayworth Circle,
working and paying the rent and the
bills themselves and supporting each
other emotionally as they learn to
live responsible, substance-free lives.
In the past two years, more than
30 Oxford Houses have sprung up
from the mountains to the coast of
North Carolina. In the next year, that
number is expected to triple.
North Carolina is home to many
nonprofit, public and for-profit alco
hol and drug treatment centers.
Look for ADDICTS, page 21
Helping hands
Volunteer Judy Biber rocks a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery at Carolinas Medical Center.
Photo by Robert Miller
Volunteers pump heart and spirit
into North Carolina hospit^s
These days, the typical hospital
volunteer does a lot more than
sell gift-shop items and deliver
flowers. A visit to Carolinas
Medical Center in Charlotte
shows the diverse duties of the
more than 600 volunteers.
By Barbara Solow
ogerline Lee learned a hard
rV lesson during her first few
• » months as a volunteer at
Carolinas Medical Center in
Charlotte.
She had grown especially fond a
child of during her weekly visits to
pediatric patients. But the child died,
making Lee reluctant to return to
Children’s Hospital.
“The first week after that hap
pened, I made up an excuse not to
come,” says Lee, who retired in 1991
after 30 years as an elementary
school teacher. “Then I realized I
had to put this behind me. I came
over to the hospital and saw another
baby in that room with eyes as big as
saucers. I picked her up and that did
it. I was back.”
Striking a balance between car
ing and composure is a daily chal
lenge faced by the hundreds of volun
teers who work at the medical cen
ter, the state’s second-largest after
Duke Medical Center.
Administrators say the more than
600 volunteers who worked at the
center last year created a “continu
um of care” by performing tasks that
could not always be performed by
paid staff members.
Look for VOLUNTEERS page 20
No strings
Hospital
takes gift,
spurns
donor
Julie Courts of Winston-Salem
learned the hard way: If you
want to set conditions on a char
itable gift, you’d better make
that clear to the recipient before
you give the gift.
By Joseph Neff
The relationship between Julia
Courts and Annie Penn Memorial
Hospital had such a romantic begin
ning. During the courtship, the hos
pital dined Courts, sent her roses on
Valentine’s Day, a lily at Easter and
a poinsettia at Christmas.
Several weeks before Christmas
in 1988, Courts donated her life’s
savings to the Reidsville hospital -
unprompted, unsolicited and
unknown to the hospital. The hospi
tal directors were flabbergasted and
grateful when 7,954 shares of RJR
Nabisco stock arrived in their coffers
- worth more than $700,000 at the
time.
The elderly Winston-Salem
woman gave the money in memory of
her grandfather, William James
Courts Sr., a prominent Reidsville
surgeon who served as a
Confederate Army captain and sur
geon. Less than a year and a half
later, the romance soured, and the
Look for GIFT, page 20
Careers 26
Connections 3
Grants and Gifts 19
Ideas 24
In October 18
Job Opportunities 25
Opinion 10
People 19
R.S.V.R 18
Professional Services...25
Technology 3
NONPROFITS
FOUNDATIONS
VOLUNTEERS
\ CORPORATE GIVING
Bottom line
for the arts
Arts organizations are
stealing a chapter from
business, with repackaged
programs, innovative
pricing and recruitment
of sponsors
• Page 4
Giving millions
anonymously
Time, money
for children
Volunteers boost
company morale
Joel Fleishman has left
Charlotte's Jack
Corporate employers
Duke University to head a
Tate has devoted
r- ■
are finding that employ-
New York consulting firm
nearly half a
ees who volunteer feel
that advises anonymous
century to nonprofit
better about themselves
clients about giving away
service and leader-
^
and the companies they
■ millions of dollars.
ship. His passion is
helping children.
work tor.
• Page 6
• Page 8
Jack Tate
• Page 12
J ^FUND RAISING
Smedes York's
public works
Raleigh's former
mayor is one of the
Triangle's leading
civic leaders and phil
anthropists. Family
and community keep
him on the run.
• Page 14