Foundations
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Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Funding for children
The DeWitt-Wallace-Reader’s Digest
Fund has launched a $6.5 million
grant program to improve day care
in the United States.
February 1994
Preventive measures
to track
kids’ shots
A $106,000 grant from the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation will
support a new statewide reg
istry of immunization records for
pre-school children. Program
organizers say competition for
the “All Kids Count” grant
money was fierce.
By Barbara Solow
A new statewide registry of
/\ immunization records for
/ I children should he up and
running hy early summer.
Organizers hope the registry,
funded by a grant from the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation, will
improve the health of pre-school-aged
children in North Carolina.
“Right now, up to 40 percent of
children under age two in North
Carolina are not age-appropriately
immunized,” says Annette Byrd, who
heads the Immunization Branch of
the state Department of Environmen
tal Health which will administer the
registry. “Our goal is to help
providers stop missing opportunities
to immunize children before they get
to school.”
Physicians would be able to tap
into the registry through their locd
health departments, Bryd says.
Reminders could then be sent to par
ents of children who have not yet
received shots for diseases such as
measles and poMo.
The inununization project is a col
laborative effort by 10 North Carolina
counties representing 20 percent of
the state’s popidation.
Last year, those counties received
a $150,000 planning grant from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation —
one of 23 projects funded as part of
the foundation’s nationwide “All Kids
Count” program.
The North Carolina registry was
not among thel2 projects chosen for a
full $500,000 implementation grant
but it did receive an additional
$106,221 from the New Jersey-based
foundation this year.
Among the barriers identified at
the time of measles outbreaks in the
1980s was the lack of local and
statewide immunization registries for
physicians.
Counties participating in the hew
North Carolina registry are Durham,
Granville, Guilford, Hoke, Person,
Robeson, Scotland, Vance and
Warren, Byrd says. The vaccine unit
at Duke University Medical Center
also is part of the project.
Eventually, participants hope sim
ilar registries will be set up in other
Tar Heel counties.
Dipping into assets
N.C. foundations resigned to payout rule
As interest rates decline, founda
tions find their investments
may not cover their federal
obiigation to pay out 5 percent
of their assets each year. Some
foundations may have to dip
into assets to comply vdth the
payout rule. But they hesitate to
seek changes in the rule, fear
ing a backlash from Congress.
By Todd Cohen
/ n 1969, Congress cracked
down on the nonprofit sector.
Lawmakers held hearings to
investigate possible abuses, and
those hearings culminated in laws
designed to more tightly monitor and
regulate the sector.
One of those laws has come to be
a thorn in the side of some founda
tions. It requires that a private foun
dation each year pay grants totaling
five percent of the
market value of
the foundation’s
assets.
When interest rates are high,
foundations have found they can
more than cover that requirement
through investments. But when inter
est rates fall, as they have been
recently, some foundations worry
they mi^t have to dip into assets to
cover the payout rule.
Because of the recent slide in
interest rates, for example, the $114
million-asset Cannon Foundation in
Concord has reduced the amount of
income it expects its investment
managers to produce.
“If you have a balanced portfolio,
it’s difficult to get a five percent
yield,” says Dan Gray, the founda
tion’s executive director.
The income target, which was as
high as 6.5 percent in recent years,
has been reduced to 4.5 percent.
REGULATION
And Gray ex
pects that the
gains of recent
years that helped boost assets, now
will be used simply to meet the pay
out rule.
The payout rule also represents
an added hurdle for some trusts.
While state law permits a trust to dip
into assets if that’s the only way to
meet the payout rule, some trust offi
cials say that doing so may contra
dict the intent of the original donor.
“This five percent rule is really at
odds maybe with the grantor-donor’s
wishes, and requires you to start eat
ing your seed corn,” says Art Kiser,
senior vice president and group
executive for Wachovia Bank, which
is trustee lor numerous N.C. trusts,
including the Kate B. Reynolds
Charitable Trust in Winston-Salem.
Kiser says Kate B. Reynolds
probably will have to dip into assets
in three to four years.
Despite the impact of declining
interest rates, Kiser and other foun
dation officials believe that lobbying
Congress to lower the payout
requirement - or simply to tie it to an
index that fluctuates with interest
rates - could backfire.
“Were we to request them to con
sider lowering the payout or tie it to
a benchmark rate, their inclination
might be to raise it because total
returns earned by foundations have
been double-digit for several years,”
Kiser says.
Bob Hull, director of the South
eastern Council on Foundations, has
heard similar worries from other
trustees.
“This is not an issue that the
foundation community wants to
raise,” he says. “Unless we get into
what appears later to be a long-term
period with very low returns [on
investments], I don’t think any of us
would wisely open that discussion.”
A regional player
Janirve Foundation makes mark in mountains
Despite a low-key approach to
publicity, the Janirve Foun
dation in Asheville is making a
name for itself among regional
grant-seekers. Since it became
active in 1984, the foundation
has concentrated on funding
higher education, social ser
vices and arts programs in the
Carolinas and Florida.
By Barbara Solow
/ n the relatively short time it
has been active in North
Carolina philanthropy, the
Janirve Foundation has be
come known as a key resource for
grant-seekers in the western part of
the state.
In the past decade, the Asheville-
based foundation has awarded about
600 grants ranging from $5,000 to
$250,000.
The foundation was set up in the
1950s by Irving Jacob Reuter, a
General Motors executive who had a
summer home in Asheville.
Janirve — named for Reuter and
his wife Jeannett — became active in
1984 with a $25 million contribution
from their estate. Since that time,
assets have doubled to about $50 mil
lion.
While Janirve’s focus in the early
years was on fimding higher educa
tion and religious organizations, the
emphasis in recent years has shifted
to social services.
A grant analysis by Capital
Consortium Inc. in Raleigh shows
—
JANIRVE FOUNDATION
• Headquarters: Asheville
• Founder: Irving J. Reuter
• $55.3 MILLION IN 1 991, UP FROM
$44.1 MILLION IN 1990
• Trustee: First National Bank
OE Palm Beach, Fia.
• Number of grants in 1991: 88
• Average grant: $20,473
•Area of Interest: Social Services, Arts,
Education, Health Care, the Environment,
Communications, Religion
Met R. Poston
Board Chairman
•Deadlines: Proposals Considered On Quarterly Basis By Five-
Member Advisory Committee Whose Original Members Were
Named By Reuter. Grantees Must Wait Two Years From Time Of
Receiving Grants Before Reapplying.
Source: Capital Consortium Inc., Florida Funding Pubucations Inc.
imiiiiw.
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that social service programs received
more than a third of the $1.8 million
awarded by the foundation in 1991.
Among the largest grants given
that year was $250,000 to Park Place
Education, Arts and Science Center
in Asheville. The foundation also
supported hospitals, colleges and
environmental organizations in the
Carolinas and Florida.
In 1992, Janirve’s five-member
advisory committee approved $2.3
million in grants, says board chair
man Met R. Poston.
“We like to see projects that ben
efit a relatively large group of people
as opposed to something very needy
and worthwhile but affecting a rela-
tiveiy small number of people.”
The foundation recentiy was
involved in supporting a program
called Children First, which was
designed to improve services for chil
dren in mostly rural Buncombe
County.
Janirve also provided part of the
$1.7 million in foundation support for
the Lewis Rathbun Wellness Center -
a temporary home for families of
patients being treated in Asheville-
area hospitals. The center is sched
uled to open in AprO.
Despite the foundation’s active
grant-making role, board members
have maintained a iow-key approach
to public relations.
Janirve does not produce an
annual report, and administrators of
some of the programs it has funded
say they were asked not to publicize
the source of their grants.
That may be changing, however.
“My feeling is that we need to
reach out a little more and he a little
bit more forthcoming in the area of
publicity,” Poston says. “We recog
nize that we are by no means among
the largest foundations in the state
but we are a substantial factor, I do
believe, in the western part of the
state.”
Asheville-area community leaders
agree.
“I think they are known for trying
very hard to help the most people
with their resources,” says Adeiaide
Keys, chairman of the board of direc
tors of the new wellness center.
“They look at how far-reaching it is
and how much it will help Western
North Carolina.”
Richard Wood, an attorney who is
legal counsel for the Asheville Area
Chamber of Commerce, sees Janirve
as a significant piayer in the region’s
philanthropy.
“With the exception of the
Community Foundation of Western
North Carolina, they are the only
charitable foundation focused on
western North Carolina,” he says.
“The generosity of Janirve in the
short time they have been here has
meant an awful lot to Buncombe
County and outlying communities.”
For information about the foun
dation’s deadlines or grantmaking
requirements, call (704) 258-1877.
Charlotte foundation
gives scholarships
The Foundation for the
Carolinas in Charlotte is giv
ing $1,000 scholarships to
students whose parents are
employed by construction
companies in Mecklenberg
County. The application
deadline is March 1. For
details, call Lisa Eaves at
(704) 376-9541.
Medical center
receives grant
The Duke Endowment has
awarded two grants totalling
$240,000 to the New
Hanover Regional Medical
Center Foundation to sup
port the Center for
Successful Aging and
Clinical Pastoral Education
program.
Duke Endov/ment
gives )rear-end grant
The Duke Endowment has
given $725,000 to
Davidson College for the
renovation of science build
ings, an ongoing medical
humanities program, schol
arships and a new computer
software system that will link
the campus to one core net
work.
UNC-CH gets funds for nonprofit studies
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem has
given $45,000 to the School of Social Work at UNC-Chapel
Hill to plan a new center tor nonprofit studies and research
that also would provide training and technical assistance to
nonprofit professionals.
The center is the idea of Richard Edwards, the school's dean.
He is assembling an advisory board to help plan the center.
UNC-Chapel Hill now offers a handful of courses for non
profits. Edwards envisions a broad program that cuts across
academic disciplines. Initially, the program would offer a cer
tificate degree.
Correction
In a story on the Burroughs
Wellcome Fund in its
February issue, the Philar^-
fhropy Journal incorrectly
identified Samuel Katz, a
professor of pediatrics at
Duke University and a mem
ber of the Fund's board of
directors.