Newspapers / Philanthropy Journal of North … / Nov. 1, 1996, edition 1 / Page 23
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November 1996 Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina 23 Funding Continued from page 14 of foundation dollars go to Native American groups, much of that fund ing may be targeted to specific needs - such as poverty, health or education - and not earmarked specifically for Native Americans. Stan Nick, director of the Native American Resource Center and asso ciate professor of American Indian studies at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, says the chal lenges faced by the Native American population are no different from those faced by other populations. “It’s a matter of making your case important to a prospective donor,” he says. “This is the same chaEenge that everyone faces when trying to raise money.” Most of the S3 million dollar bud get that the Lumbee tribe in Lumberton receives is from state block grants. But the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in Winston-Salem recently awarded a $30,000 grant to help people 60 years and older buy medication, says Marilyn Lockler, planner for the Lumbee tribe. “Our funding usually comes from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Resources or the Department of Education,” says Lockler. “It’s so competitive that we have never really pursued foundation grants until so many budget cuts were made.” Ray Cope, executive director for Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, says the grant is in keeping with the foundation’s mission. “The foundation taints the finan cially needy,” he says. “The grants that we support could be for the elderly, they could be for Native Americans or they could be for a com bination of the two. For this reason, it’s impossible to break down the amount of money going from the foundation only to Native Americans.” Donna Chavis, executive director of Native Americans in Philanthropy, a Lumberton-based national nonprof it, says that Native Americans are among the groups that receive the Donna Chavis smallest amounts of private funding. Indeed, Native American groups in 1994 received more than $35 mil lion from U.S. foundations - rep resenting only 0.6 percent of founda tion grants overall, according to The Foundation Center in New York. That was up from $27 million in 1990, which was also only 0.6 percent of U.S. foundation grants. “What we saw was that in the 1980s, the overall percentage of grant dollars that went to special popula tions groups increased,” says Loren Renz, vice president for research at the Foundation Center. “When you break it down between 1990 and 1994 to one small group such as Native Americans, the findings have been pretty steady, which probably means that the sample of funders being tar geted is not expanding or hasn’t since 1990.” North Carolina has the fifth- largest Native American population in the U.S., yet there is not a lot of intersection between Native Americans and private philanthropy says Chavis of Native Americans in Philanthropy. The problem, she says, is cultural. “In more tra^tional communities, a pattern often forms where commu nities stay internal and tend to take care of their own,” she says. “It’s a matter of history and a tendency to stay with the way things have been done in the past.” The “gap” goes both ways, she says, because while Native Americans aren’t asking for private funding, grantmakers don’t seem to be aware of the needs of the groups. Native Americans in Philanthropy is working to help establish commu nication between philanthropic and poor communities by answering questions that funders or grantseek- ers have and by offering nationwide training sessions, says Chavis. The nonprofit received a $60,400 grant in May from the WK. Kellogg Foundation in Michigan. The money is being used to help develop a cul turally responsive fundraising cur riculum in collaboration with the fundraising school at the Indiana University Center for Philanthropy, says Chavis. In July, 31 people from tribal col leges from throughout the U.S. attended a training session at Indiana University at which they learned about fundraising - and about how to train fellow tribe mem bers back home to be fundraisers. Chavis says her organization plans to hold broad-based training sessions in different national Native American communities, including the Southeast. Chavis, who has headed the orga nization since 1993, has already seen an increase in awareness from Native Americans about the need for pri vate-funding. “There has been a huge increase in the past few months in the number of phone calls that we receive from people in North Caroiina asking, ‘Who funds this?’ and ‘Who funds that?,”’ she says. Larger funders in the state that fund Native American causes include the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, all located in Winston- Salem, says Chavis. Tom Lambeth, executive director of Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, says the number of grant applica tions that the foundation receives from Native American organizations is growing rapidly and has been over the past few years. “At the present we are reviewing six applications from Native American groups, and it’s a rare meeting if we don’t have at least one Native American applicant,” says Lambeth. “Ten years ago, we rareiy had any.” Chavis concedes that private phi lanthropy will not offset federal cut backs, but says that tackling Native American poverty will require increasing Native American aware ness about sources and priorities of private funding. Richardson of the Commission of Indian Affairs says that foundations are favorable to proposals from Native American organizations, but WUNC Continued from page 14 final leadership gift. WUNC’s initial goal was $2.5 mil lion, according to campaign litera ture, and $2.2 million, according to Davis and Strom. The station has raised just over $1.7 million, of which $660,000 has been spent on operating and other expenses. A consulting firm said in a 1986 feasibility study that the station couid raise only $1.5 million. The final tally will be $1,325 million, Davis and Strom say The campaign has faced numer ous setbacks, including the 1990 res ignation of the station’s original man ager, Gary Shivers; an unsuccessful “Buy A Brick” campaign in 1991; a public offer by the station that same year to refund money to donors who asked for the contributions back (only two did); the loss, also in 1991, of $325,000 in state and federal oper ating funds; and construction bids twice coming in over budget, forcing two redesigns. No one at WUNC expected to have as much difficulty as they did attract ing large individual donations, says Strom, and that has been the major stumbling block for the campaign. “I think, if you ask me where the campaign failed,” he says, “it might be that [the station] sounds so pro fessional on air and so successful that nobody stepped to the plate in believing passionately that this was a cause they should champion with a large capstone gift.” SOFTWARE -jbr Philanthropy Q The Raiser’s Edge for Windows^ for Fund-raising Q ParaGon™ for Planned Giving □ Award for Grants Management □Blackbaud Helping You Make The World A Better Place 4401 Belle Oaks Drive, Charleston, SC 29405 800-443-9441 E-mail address: sales@blackbaud.com Web site: http://www.blackbaud.com that “most foundations are being bombarded by people asking for money.” “And going for grants from foun- dations is usually a one-shot deal. The reality is that there is only so much money out there.” For information about Native Americans in Philanthropy, call Chavis at (910) 618-9749. CREATIVE PHILANTHROPY Helping foundations, corporate and individual donors identify community needs and provide solutions through charitahle contrihutions. ‘For information aBout professional support for esiecutives, Board memBers and individuals please call BetB (Briggs, (president at 919-786-4220. The Wotet Garden Office Pork 8404-E Glenwood Avenue Raleigh, NC 27612 22 years of philanthropic eoiperience Specialists in the Art and Science of Fund Raising A strategic planning and fund raising firm Feasibility Studies Strategic Plaiming Capital Campaigns Annual Giving/ Membership Assessments Board Worksessions Executive Recruitment Presentations/Speeches Workshops/Seminars Prospect Research Foundation Development and Management June Bradham, CFRE. 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Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Nov. 1, 1996, edition 1
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