Corporate Giving
12
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Giving to schools
The BellSouth Foundation has award
ed $2 milhon to 21 schools, universities
and community groups in the southeast
for school reform efforts.
July 1996
Company support for community relations rises
Corporate America views commu
nity relations as a growing and
important part of company activ
ities, according to a survey by
the Boston-based Center for
Corporate Community Relations.
By Sean Bailey
A new survey of corporate profes
sionals indicates that support for
community reiations rose sUghtly in
1995 among U.S. businesses.
The poll, conducted by the Center
for Corporate Community Relations
at Boston Coliege, indicates that cor
porate support for involvement with
communities is continumg to rise.
“It 'seems to us that community
relations seems to have soUdified its
place among corporate America,”
says Steven RochUn, research man
ager at the center.
The center conducted a study of
190 community relations profession
als who attended the center’s profes
sional deveiopment programs in
1995. Most surveyed indicated that
corporate support for community
reiations had increased sUghtly over
the past year. None surveyed indicat
ed that support for community reia
tions had decreased or remained the
same, and none indicated that their
support for community relations was
Sprint to enlist retirees as volunteers
A competitive phone service mar
ket means Sprint needs to pay
attention to business while stay
ing active in the community.
By Sean Bailey
Wake Forest
Faced with rising competition and
deregulation in the phone service
market, Sprint is adjusting how it
works with nonprofits.
AAARKETING
Sprint, the third-largest phone
company in the state, intends to keep
its commitments to education, chil
dren, health and senior citizens. But
it’s iooking for new ways to assist the
many nonprofits that approach it for
assistance in 70 Tar Heel counties.
Jan Dempster, director of corpo
rate communications for Sprint Mid-
Atlantic Telecom, says the company
will enhst the help of a corps of Sprint
retirees to work with local nonprofits.
The retired volunteers will fill a
function normally carried out by
Sprint’s local community relations
managers. Dempster says those
managers now need to concentrate
on Sprint’s business operation.
“We have activated our retirees
and they are going to help us in our
community-based events and let the
community relations managers help
Look for SPRINT, page 13
Pete and Roena
Kulynych donat
ed their
Wilkesboro
home to
Bowman
Gray/Baptist
Hospital
Medical Center.
A neighborly gift
Retired Lowe’s chief
donates home
Bowman Gray/Baptist Hospital
in M^ston-Salem is getting a
Wilkesboro home as an unre
stricted gift.
By Ashley Peay
Wilkesboro
Over the years, Pete Kulynych and
his wife, Roena, have made numerous
gifts to the Bowman Gray/Baptist
Hospital Medical Center in Winston-
Salem.
Now, the couple is giving the med
ical center its home in the Fbrest Hills
nei^borhood of AVilkesboro.
'The couple will continue to live in
the house for up to 10 years, but can
opt to turn it over to the medical cen
ter at any time during that period.
'The ^ is not restricted, and the
medical center may use it for any pur
pose, including selling it for cash.
Kulynych, the foundation director
and retired chairman of the hoard of
Lowe’s Companies, says the gift was
a practical one based on his growing
sense of mortality.
“What prompted me to give the
house is simple,” he says. “I’m 75
years old and don’t want my wife to
be left with the house shoidd I pre
cede her.”
What’s more, he says, he’s in a
high tax bracket, and making a
planned gift of his house was a logical
Look for LOWE'S, page 13
up greatly or up sharply
Over the last 15 years, Rochlin
says, more and more U.S. corpora
tions have taken steps to develop
community relations activities as the
benefit of such activities has become
more apparent. More than 53 percent
of the companies included in the sur
vey say that community relations is
pak of their corporate strategic plan.
“More firms are seeing the (hrect
value-added that community rela
tions can provide flams in their quest
to become an employer of choice,”
says Rochlin.
The increase in community rela
tions support is consistent with a 5
percent increase in corporate giving
for the same period, according to the
most recent figures in Giving USA.
When it comes to measuring the
performance of corporate managers.
Look for SURVEY, page 15
Corporate notebook
By Barbara Solow
Crunching the
numbers
Corporate giving was up overall
last year, but down as a percentage of
company pre-tax income.
Giving by U.S. corporations rose
by 7.5 percent in 1995 to $7.4 bilhon,
according to “Giving USA 1996,” the
annual survey by the American
Association of Fund Raising
Counsel’s Trust for Philanthropy
That amount was 1.2 percent of
pre-tax Income, compared to 1.3 per
cent of company income in 1994.
Corporate ^s to charity repre
sented 5.1 percent of total giving,
which reached $143.85 bilhon in 1995.
Most corporate doUars went to educa
tion (33.5 percent) and health and
human services (25.3 percent).
The “Giving USA” survey has
become a trusted resource for
researchers, poUcymakers and non
profit leaders. But because the giving
figures are estimates, they are
revised each year as new data comes
in - sometimes by hhUons of doUars.
In fact, the estimates for corpo
rate giving in 1994 were revised
upwards to include giving by growing
U.S. service industries. Originally,
“Giving USA’ had reported only a 1
percent increase in corporate giving
in 1994, but that was revised to show
that companies actuahy gave 10 per
cent more than in 1993.
Copies of this year’s survey are
available for $49.95 plus shipping and
handling. Call (800) 462-2372.
Workshop focuses
on media relations
'The biggest concern corporate
giving officials have about working
with the media is “how do we do it?,”
says PhiUip Fleming, director of com
munity projects for Carolina Power &
Light Co. in Ralei^.
Fleming, a former newspaper and
television reporter, hosted a work
shop on the topic at a recent
Califomia conference sponsored by
the Center for Corporate Community
Relations. This is the second time he
has led media workshops for the
Boston-based center.
At the California gathering, par
ticipants shared experiences in deal
ing with the media and revealed a
number of misconceptions about how
to handle reporters, Fleming says.
“Many people seem to feel that if
they don’t make a comment, the press
is not going to run a story But that’s
far away from the truth. My own
thou^ts are that if you can’t com
ment at one time, be honest with the
press and develop some statement
that you can comment on. If you miss
the first deadline, keep working.”
To reach the center call (617) 552-
4545 or on the World Wide Web, go to:
http:www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/acav
p/cccr/
Dangerous giving
habits
Do corporations often give to
charities that are working against
their business interests?
A new book pubUshed by The
Capital Research Center in
Washington says, “yes.”
In “Patterns of Corporate
Philanthropy: Giving in the Clinton
Era,” authors Austin Fulk and Stuart
Nolan assert that many corporations
are giving to causes that clash with
their company philosophy.
For example, Atlantic Richfield
and Chevron give to the National
Audubon Society, the book says. The
nonprofit group opposes exploration
for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge - an area the two oil
companies would like to develop.
Another example is Exxon’s
$5,000-a-year donation to the
Environmental Law Institute. The
institute helped develop the legal
case against Exxon after the Valdez
oil spill in Alaska.
Despite the small amounts of the
gifts involved, the authors say such
practices work against the philan
thropic goals of many companies.
The Capital Research Center is at
(202) 393-2600.
BRIEFLY
Business groups to address AIDS
The National AIDS Fund is
holding a forum prior to the
opening of this month's
International AIDS
Conference in Vancouver.
The forum is designed to
educate business leaders
about the economic impact
of the AIDS pandemic,
including rising health insur
ance costs, lower employee
productivity and devastation
among global trading part
ners where the virus is
spreading. The Washington-
based National AIDS Fund
recently merged with the
National Leadership
Coalition on AIDS - a group
that had focused on AIDS
prevention in the workplace.
Call (202) 408-4848.
Partnership saves
river data station
A cost-sharing agreement
between Alcoa/Yadkin Inc.
and Carolina Power & Light
Co. in Raleigh has reopened
a water quality research sta
tion on the Yadkin River. The
two companies will pay for
costs of operating the station,
which had beeen closed
because of federal cutbacks.
Allstate invests in
Durham YMCA
Allstate Insurance Co. of
Illinois has invested $9 mil
lion in a proposed new
downtown YMCA community
center in Durham. Allstate
bought bonds from the
YMCA, which is planning to
begin building a new facility -
this month on a three-acre
site donated by the city and
county.
UNC-Charlotte
receives $3 million
Irwin Belk, retired executive of
Belk Stores Group, has
donated $3 million to the
University of North Carolina
at Charlotte for endowed
chairs in health promotion,
kinesiology and biology and
to support athletic scholar
ships. The scholarship fund is
named in honor of Belk's
wife, Carol Grotnes Belk.
Black achievers
fund begins
The Garner Road Family
YMCA in Raleigh has kicked
off its annual Black Achievers
Program campaign with a
goal of $56,000. The pro
gram provides mentoring for
more than 100 black
teenagers, and scholarships
for graduating seniors.