Newspapers / Philanthropy Journal of North … / Jan. 1, 1995, edition 1 / Page 10
Part of Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
10 • Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina Opinion January 1995 Investing in the future A lesson in taking risks to make change happen / h committing $3.6 million to prepare youngsters from Durham’s most impov erished neighborhoods for college, the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust is set ting an example for funders and organizations working to make our communities better places to live and work. The example actually is two-fold: First, in funding an initiative designed by the Urban Enterprise Corps at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Kenan Trust is backing the idea that kids who grow up in poverty can succeed if they and their families are given the encouragement and the support systems that are second nature to children raised in more affluent cir cumstances. Equally important is the process that the Kenan Trust has used in launching this initiative. While it is known mainly for its support of higher education - particularly UNC-CH - the Trust also has taken on other tough problems facing America and the Third World. Its dollars, for example, are helping to strengthen family literacy in the U.S. and to cultivate free enterprise in Eastern Europe and East Asia. Unlike many funders, the Kenan Trust does not accept unsolicited grant applications. Rather, it identifies issues it wants to address, EDITORIAL then invites organizations and individuals to submit grant proposals. The Trust does make smaller grants but, as a mat ter of policy, its leaders prefer to make larger grants to have the maximum impact on the issues they choose to pursue. A number of other funders - including the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation and the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust - are pursu ing similar strategies in order to play a more catalytic role in initiating social change. The Kenan Trust created the Urban Enterprise Corps as part of a larger effort to improve life and work in severely distressed communities. The Corps, under the leadership of Jim Johnson, its director, has done what it was asked to do - find a creative solution to inner-city poverty. In short, a funder saw a problem, created an entrepreneurial entity to tackle it and now is investing in a project spawned by that enti ty- In showing faith in Durham youngsters who have had few breaks in life - and in showing faith in the power of social entrepreneurs to find solutions to our most serious problems - tbe Kenan Trust has offered organized philan thropy a lesson in taking risks to make change happen. A hidden crisis Access to care is key in North Carolina "n jredical missionaries are championed /|yy by the national media for going to J. Kx. Haiti to help resolve their doctor shortages. Haiti has one doctor for every 10,000 people. In North Carolina, we also have extreme family physician shortages. I am a resident of CasweU County, a rural area where there are four primary care physicians for a 20,000-plus population. In Nash County, a part-time physi cian is the only source of care for about 3,400 migrant farmworkers. In some counties, certain communities bear the brunt of the crisis. Southeast Cumberland County, for example, has one half-time primary care physician for 20,000 residents. For the 4,872 indigent people in Cleveland County, one primary care physician provides care to the general population only 10 percent of his time. East Kinston in Lenoir County has no primary care doctor for its 19,589 people. They are now working to form a community-based practice. Some counties such as Clay, Dare and Tyrrell have small popu lation pockets spread throughout the counties with only one primary care provider. They are located in Sen. George B. Daniel, D- Caswell County, is co-chairman of the Rural and Medically Underserved Areas Advisory Committee of the North Carolina Health Planning Commission, a group charged with submitting a plan for healthcare reform to the 1995 session of the General Assembly. ncredibly, North Carolina - which supports four of the nation's top medical schools - still has areas where people have less access to health providers than people in Third World nations. OPINION regions in which all the surrounding counties have similar physician shortfalls. This makes access to hedth care for these people very difficult. According to the North Carolina Office of Rural Health and Resources Development, aU or part of the state’s 100 counties are designat ed as “medically underserved.’’ This nationally- recognized department is an effective player in a diligent effort to improve the plight of the rural and underserved populations in this state. Obviously, the job is far from over. Access to primary care - that initial care that helps citizens stay healthy and prevents a health crisis as long as possible - is a problem throughout the southeastern United States. Incredibly, North Carolina - which supports four of the nation’s top medcal schools - still has areas where people have less access to health providers than people in many Third World nations. Part of the problem is that North Carolina ranks 33rd in the county in per capita income, and there are nearly 1 million people in the state without health insurance. To compound the concern is the shortage of primary care Look for DANIEL, page 11 Raising money Duke Medical Center hires development chief Ending a seven-month national search, Duke Medical Center has hired a vice chan cellor for development and alumni affairs. Joseph Beyel (pronounced BEEL), 44, joins Duke this month from the University of Michigan Medical Center, where he has been director of development since 1985. At Michigan, he helped to raise more than $160 million for faculty development and research. The Philanthropy Journal spoke with Beyel, a 20-year veteran of fundrais ing, about his plans at Duke. JOURNAL: How will your job at Duke differ from that at Michigan? BEYEL: It’s pretty close to being the same - very similar responsibilities. 'The attraction in taking the job at Duke is to be a senior member of the medical center leadership team, which is slightly different than what we have here [in Michigan]. We don’t have the same structure as at Duke. At Duke, I’ll be in more of a leadership position. JOURNAL: What do you consider to be Duke’s medical center’s greatest needs in terms of development? BEYEL: Major gift fundraising. They beheve, and I’ve seen, that there’s a need to put an emphasis on large Individual gifts. That will probably be the short-term goal. Duke has been extraordinarily successful with corporation donations, but not with individual giving. It needs to be focused on. JOURNAL: How do you plan to increase individual giving? BEYEL: Two or three things. First, direct focus on the discovery of prospects through generating infor- JOSEPH BEYEL mation through faculty. Next, while Duke has a tremendously posi tive representation in its basket - it may be sim ilar to Michigan in this area - we need to shine some light on the extraordinary research and accomphshments of the medical center. That’s what I’ve done here at Michigan. We were able to develop some publications and take some faculty and medical leaders to showcase our talent. I personally believe that if people know us, they will be willing to contribute their phil anthropic dollars. The third thing is flexibility, an ability to move quickly to get things done, be responsive. I think they do that [at Duke], but I think this vice chancellor position is one they’ve been searching for a while. I think putting things in motion will help facilitate fundraising. JOURNAL: What are the biggest pitfalls to watch out for? BEYEL: Setting goals that are unrealistic. 1 worry about space as a philanthropic objective. Huge numbers for space. The trend in endow ments that I’ve seen is the investment in people rather than place. We need to combine the ^o in terms of the faculty and research stars need ing a place in which to do their work. But we need to package a proposal with the flexibility of resources to invest in people and place. To give you an example, we presented an individ ual with an $8.5 million proposal - $2.5 million Look for Q & A, page 11 Of North Carolina The PMlahihnm’y Journal of North Carolina is a monthly paWication of The News and Observer L Foundation, a 501(c) (3) private foundation hinded byTheNewsandObsei-ver ^ * Publishing Co., Raleigh N.C. © The News and Observer Foundation. All rights reserved. EDITOR AND PUBLISHER TODD COHEN — (919) MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENTDlRECim MARGIIEBITE LEBLANC — (919) 829-8991 ASSISTANT EDITOR BARBARA SOLOW — (919) 8298921 STAFF WBmRS SUSAN GRAY— (919) 829-8917 EALENA CALLENDER — (919) 836-2882 * SUBSCRIPTIONS SIDNEY CRUZE — (919) 836-2876 k INTERN KATE FOSTER - (919) 836-2S77 DESIGN MARGARET BAXTER — (919) 829-8988 A new season Political change challenges nonprofits ^phe value of change is a bedrock princi- I pie for many people in the nonprofit / sector. Yet a host of nonprofit leaders, many of them social and fiscal liberals, have taken to wringing their hands in the face of the radical shift in American social poUey expected to result from the election victories in November by conservative Repubhcans. The tear of some nonprofits is that Repubhcans, flexing their new clout after years of being 50-pound weaklings in the halls of gov ernment, will usher in a mean season for philan thropy. Nonprofit leaders point to their experiences under the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. In the name of voluntarism and private-sector solutions to social problems, Reagan and Bush aimed to limit spending of pubhc dollars and asked the nonprofit sector to ABOUT CHANGE do more with less. While fears about lack of funding are legiti mate, simply demonizing Republicans is no solu tion. Rather than bemoaning the change that America faces, nonprofit leaders of aU pohtical stripes should take heart at the power shift in the U.S. This imminent change creates a huge opportunity - in fact it speeds the opportunity - for nonprofits to fill the increasingly important role they can play as Americans wrestle with our most serious social problems. Management guru Peter Drucker, in a recent article in The Atlantic Monthly, says our social problems will be solved not by government or business but by nonprofits, which he says make up the “social sector.” Indeed, nonprofits, volunteers and private funders serve as the core of our communities. And as our communities fi^t to overcome com plicated and entrenched social ills, the doers of good deeds in the nonprofit sector are playing a more prominent and influential role. Regardless of the ideological interpretations one makes in reading the tea leaves of the November elections, it is clear that Americans are fed up. We’re fed up with racism, ted up with crime, fed up with poverty, hunger, bad schools and expensive or Inaccessible health care. We’re also ted up with people in high places - in government, in business and in the media - who seem to believe their power makes them better than the rest of us, even thou^ it’s our votes, our taxes and our consumption that Look for CHANGE, page 11
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 1, 1995, edition 1
10
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75