February 1994
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Connections
Across the racial divide
Nonprofit leaders look to remedy poor race relations
Representatives of North Carolina
nonprofits and foundations
were not surprised by the
results of a survey releas^ last
month showing blacks and
whites are growing apart. While
some community leaders see a
need to confront race relations
head on, others say efforts to
eliminate racism should be
incorporated into work on
issues such as housing, health
care and welfare reform.
By Barbara Solow
A survey commissioned by
/ \ the Z. Smith Reynolds
/ y Foundation of Winston-
Salem has raised some disturbing
questions for leaders of grassroots
and organized philanthropy.
The survey, based on focus group
interviews and a telephone poll,
showed that while a majority of
North Carolinians agree that racial
prejudice is a serious problem, fear
and mistrust between blacks and
whites are growing.
Following release of the survey
last month, the Philanthropy
Journal interviewed more than two
dozen leaders of Tar Heel nonprofits
and foundations to gauge their reac
tions and tap their ideas tor ways to
bridge the racial divide.
For many people working in edu
cation, health care, reUgion, the arts,
foundations and social change orga
nizations, the significance of the Z.
Smith Reynolds report lies not in
what it shows but in what it reaf
firms.
“I think it verbalizes a lot of the
conclusions people have drawn on
their own,” says Elizabeth Fentress,
executive director of the North
Carolina Community Foundation. “It
should serve to coalesce people and
put the people of North Carolina on
notice that we do have a problem.”
John Hood, vice president of the
John Locke Foundation in Raleigh,
hopes the report will encourage polit
ick leaders to review past anti-dis
crimination strategies such as bus
ing and affirmative action - strate
gies that he heUeves have failed.
“One positive aspect of this study
is that it moves us in the direction of
talking about the impUcations of poU-
cy,” Hood says. “We ought to be judg
ing pohcies by what they accomplish.
If we don’t see specific results, we
should change our pohcies.”
Others see the report as a wake-
up call for the nonprofit sector.
“The voluntary organizations
where people live their pubhc lives
are hi^y segregated, hut they also
have a deep and abiding commitment
to social justice,” says Gayle
Dorman, executive director of the
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
in Winston-Salem. “In my view, the
issues raised in this report are some
of the critical issues of our time. And
Look for REPORT, page?
WANTING TO IMPROVE
Here is the percentage of survey respondents who said they
were interested in getting involved to improve race relations.
53%
35%
6%1
26%
24%
14%
21%
WHITE
BLACK
Source:
Z. Smith
Reynolds
Foundation
Survey of Racial
Attitudes
in North Carolina
5%
4%
XU
2%
Very
Interested
Somewhat
Interested
Slightly
Interested
Not At All
Interested
Depend^
Not Sure
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Statement of values
Hopkins
offers
nonprofit
principles
A just-released international
statement of principles for the
nonprofit sector promises to be
both a road map lor the fledg
ling sector in emerging democ
racies and developing coun
tries, and a thought-provoking
document in the U.S.
By Katherine Noble
“r“ he nonprofit sector now has
I a statement of principles to
I guide its growth and change
in the U.S. and abroad.
Recently released by The Johns
Hopkins Institute for Pohcy Studies,
the “International Statement of
Look for HOPKINS, page 22
Philanthropy
Journal
of North Carolina
A Publication Of
The News and Observer
Foundation
215 S. McDoweU St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
(919) 829-8988
VoL. 1 No. 6
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Philanthropy '94
Statewide philanthropy conference planned
The News and Observer Foundation
and the Philanthropy Journal of
North Carolina will hold a major
conference in October on Tar
Heel philanthropy. Nannerl 0.
Keohane, president of Duke
University, will be the keynote
speaker.
Stewardship will be the theme of
a major conference on philanthropy
this fall.
Nannerl 0. Keohane, president of
Duke University, will deliver the
keynote address for the conference,
to be held at a North Carolina loca
tion to be announced soon.
Sponsored by
The News and
Observer Foun
dation in Raleigh and the Phil
anthropy Journal of North Caro
lina, “Philanthropy ‘94” will be
designed mainly for board and staff
members of nonprofits and founda
tions throughout the state. It also will
address issues involving partner
ships with the public and for-profit
sectors.
The conference will feature
speakers, workshops and panels
devoted to issues of leadership and
accountability.
It also wUl feature the first pre
sentation of the “North Carolina
STEWARDSHIP
Philanthropist of
the Year” award,
which will go to
an individual or organization.
James Johnson, director of the
Urban Enterprise Institute at the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, will address the confer
ence on the issue of leadership.
The subject of leadership kso wiU
be addressed in sessions that exam
ine selecting, developing and involv
ing board members in an organiza
tion; strategic planning; and
fundraising.
William Rogers, president of
Guilford College in (ireenshoro and
chairman of the board of trustees of
the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foun
dation in Winston-Salem, will ad
dress the conference on the issue of
accountabihty. That subject also will
be examined in panel discussions on
board-staff relations, and working
with the media.
The News and Observer
Foundation and the Philanthropy
Journal plan to make the conference
and presentation of the philanthropy
award an annual event.
The size of this year’s conference
will be limited, with early registra
tion this spring. Full details will be
announced soon.
For information, call Marguerite
LeBlanc at (919) 829-8991.
At the wheel
On information highway, driving is up to you
The challenge for architects of the
information highway is to de
sign a system that lets users do
the steering and not simply be
passengers.
By Kay McFadden
S everal years ago, I visited
an elementary school in one
of Washington’s tougher
neighborhoods. Seated in a tiny chair
at a tiny desk, I heard third-grade
teachers tell of their frustrations
with the existing curriculum and its
static, lecture-based approach.
“Kids these days are far more fid
gety,” said one snowy-haired veter
an. “They grow up in homes with all
kinds of distractions that keep them
hyped up. They can’t sit for hours
with their hands folded while we talk
at them.”
Rather than bend pupils to the
curriculum, those teachers took mat
ters into their own hands and bent
the curriculum to reality. New meth
ods were invented, ad hoc, that invit
ed the students to talk, to stand up,
to move around, as part of their
learning process.
Two discoveries emerged. The
first was that pupils began perform
ing better, partly because a bunch of
kids no longer
were unnaturally
chained to their
desks for adult
sized periods bet
ter suited to a uni
versity.
Second and
more important
was the realization
that the greater
degree of partici
pation gave chil
dren a proprietary
feeling about their
education. The
mode had shifted
from “talked at” to
interactive. Sud
denly, kids cared more.
Since last May, North Carolina
residents have heard a great deal
about the information highway and
its promise: A hi^-speed communi
cations network that can reduce edu
cational inequities by making the
same chemistry class, for instance,
simultaneously available to poor
schools as well as rich ones.
The technological ability to deliv
er such benefits is no longer in
doubt. And while money is a signifi
cant consideration, Gov. Jim Hunt
already has shown education is a
cornerstone priority by twisting
TECHNOLOGY
he technology
that enables long-distance
learning can be a titanic
enhancement toward giving
children and teachers
a similar role in
classroom education.
arms in the
General Assem
bly for its fund
ing.
The danger
ous trip-wire on
the information
highway lies in
what we mean by
“interactive.” If
educators and
government offi
cials merely see
the highway as
another delivery
system — a sort
of high-tech trick
le-down — then
children simply
win experience an electronic form of
passivity.
Even marketers recognize that
won’t work for today’s kids, or
adults. Computer video games are
not to be sneered at, for at least their
creators have recognized that inher
ently powerless boys and girls love
the sense of control they can exer
cise in such games.
The technology that enables long
distance learning can be a titanic
enhancement toward giving children
and teachers a similar role in class
room education. If leading a class
discussion engages an 8-year-old,
imagine the empowerment that can
come from sharing his or her ideas
with peers in another part of the
state, nation or world.
And if knowing that there are
other kids out there like you helps
the self-esteem of a lonely or trou
bled child, then using a computer to
find those others without the open
exposure of a classroom can be mar
velously reassuring to the timid.
For others, interactive technology
can have the same benefits. A com
puter allows a tiny, underfunded
nonprofit to aggressively seek out
sources of money, discover its role in
a community of similar groups, and
organize itself — an important step
toward self-command. Just like the
children in Washington, nonprofits
— and those whom they serve — can
be psychologically transformed from
passivity to activity.
The key to success hes in a philo
sophical, not technical, understand
ing of interactive technology. Barry
Diller, founder of the QVC home
shopping empire, understood con
sumers would relish a chance to
exercise preference at their whim
and not that of some rude sales clerk
in a big store. Again, an example of
proactive behavior’s powerful aUure.
Look for TECHNOLOGY, page 22