November ^9%
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
Connections
Mixed news
Skepticism of charity growing in U.S.
Giving and voluntarism are
increasing, but so is mistrust of
the nonprofit sector’s use of
charitable dollars, a new study
says.
By Sally Harris
AND Todd Cohen
Americans who support charity
are contributing more of their money
and spending more time volunteer
ing, but fewer households are con
tributing dollars.
Americans also are growing more
skeptical about whether nonprofits
are honest and ethical in their use of
the charitable dollars they receive.
Those are among the results of a
survey on giving and voluntarism in
the U.S. released in October by
Independent Sector in Washington, a
national coalition of nonprofits.
Three in 10 people responding to
the survey disagreed with the state
ment that “most charities are honest
and ethical in their use of donated
funds,” compared with one in four
respondents in 1993.
The biennial survey, conducted by
the Gallup Organization, says the
average household contribution to
charity grew to $1,107 in 1995 from
$880 in 1993 - an increase of 16 per
cent. After inflation, the increase was
10 percent, representing the first real
increase since 1989.
Over the same two-year period,
however, the percentage of house
holds contributing to charity fell to
68.5 percent from 73.4 percent, while
the percentage of household income
given to charity rose sli^tly to 2.2
percent from 2.1 percent.
Volunteering also grew in 1995,
with volunteers donating 20.3 bilHon
hours - up from 19.5 billion in 1993.
Ninety-three million adults, or nearly
49 percent of the population, volun
teered in 1995, up from 89.2 million,
or nearly 48 percent, in 1993. The
average volunteer spent 4.2 hours a
week working tor a charity - the same
as in 1993.
“The findings leave us cautiously
optimistic about the future of giving
and volunteering in our country,”
says Sara Melendez, president of
Independent Sector.
TTie survey also found that volun
teers give more to charity than people
who don’t volunteer, and contributing
households with a volunteer give a
much higher percentage of their
household income than do contribut
ing households that don’t have a vol
unteer.
Levels of giving and volunteering
also are closely related to member
ship in a religious or other nonprofit
organization.
The survey also found that “as the
percentage of volunteers increases,
giving wUl rise, or in times of econom
ic recession or uncertainty, giving will
not decline as much.”
The survey also reported differ
ences in gi\Tng patterns according to
gender race, age, income and educa
tion. It also found a number of key
factors that prompt people to con-
Look for SKEPTICISM, page 9
Playing it by ear
Health care gets dose of the arts
By Stephanie Greer
Durham
Be-bop and gospel music aren’t
traditional treatments for stroke
patients or cancer victims. Indeed,
many health-care professionals dis
miss the healing value of music.
But members of the Society for
the Arts in Healthcare are singing a
different tune.
The national organization held its
annual conference in Durham
September 26-28. Attendees came
from nearby Duke Medical Center
and from as far away as California
and Oregon to discuss issues devel
oping around the use of arts as part
of the healing process.
Jhe use of music, for example,
has been shown to vastly improve
patients’
demeanors and
to raise their
heart rates,
divert their
minds from
uncomfortable
procedures,
quiet newborns
and even lend
patients a
rhythmic help
ing hand in learning to walk again.
Research shows that sick people
Deforia Lane
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HEALTH
who listen to music experience a sig
nificant increase in immune cells in
their saliva, said Deforia Lane, the
conference keynote speaker and res
ident director of music therapy at the
Hospitals of Cleveland Ireland
Cancer Center and Rainbow Babies
and Chiidren’s Hospital.
People attending the conference
included artists, nurses, doctors,
therapists and other health-care pro
fessionals - aU of whom are working
to use the arts to further health-care
goals.
Yet they concede they face an
uphill fight because most health-care
professionals and administrators see
the arts as a “fringe” in health care
that is not important enough to be
permanently added to the budget.
The three music therapists at
Lane’s hospital, for example, are not
supported by permanent hospital
funding; rather, the positions are
funded by grants.
The creation of Lane’s job came
about by accident. As a breast cancer
survivor and former music student.
Lane understood the power of music.
She began to visit hospital patients
and play music for them in her free
time Mowing her battle with cancer.
She was so popular that administra
tors asked her to stay.
But the hospital’s permanent bud
get has no room for the three other
music therapists.
Although the number of profes
sionals who find arts to be essential
to healing is small, the rate of arts
acceptance in the health-care profes
sion is growing. Lane said. There are
now 7,000 music therapists in the
U.S., she said.
Debby Stone (left) and Anne
Griffin Wilson perform a
Christmas program at Bowman
Gray Medical Center.
Using the arts in hospitals
involves a lot more than simply music
therapy. Bowman Gray and Baptist
Hospitals in Winston-Salem sent sev
eral representatives to the Durham
conference. One of those representa
tives was Pam Wilson, Baptist
Hospital’s assistant director of recre
ation therapy.
Baptist began utilizing recre
ational therapy as far back as 1975
and, about five years ago, the hospi
tal developed a visual/performing
arts committee, Wilson says.
Hospital administrators schedule live
performances, hire designers to over
see visual arts in and on the building
itself, and encourage students and
employees to play instruments, sing
or use their other artistic talents to
entertain patients.
Wilson says the arts are used
largely to soothe and ease stress on
patients and employees. And thera
pists at Baptist and Bowman Gray
also are nsing music for its physio
logical effects - on hand movements,
blood pressure and memory loss,
Wilson says.
The artistic encouragement
comes straight from the top: The hos-
pitai \1ce president pays for artistic
efforts out of his department budget.
“We just think it’s life-enriching,”
Wiison says. “It brings in a touch of
something you may not think you’re
going to see in an emironment that’s
so stressful...As a therapist, I have
tremendously seen the benefits of
patients who have been exposed to
the arts.”
She says she was surprised at the
conference at how many health-care
workers and artists complained
about the difficulty in getting hospi
tals to fund the use of the arts.
“In some ways, it was nice to hear
that maybe we’re doing more than
maybe we realized we were doing,”
she says. “But then again, its very
hard because you’ve got the places
with staff dedicated just to cultural
arts. And even thou^ they’ve got the
professional staff, we may have a bet
ter structure here for it.”
Conference participants brou^t
up other issues during a roundtable
discussion that centered on the need
for teamwork between artists and
health-care professionals. There was
also a debate over the issue of fund
ing One audience member suggested
that hospitals ask artists to volunteer
their time and talent for patients. But
another audience member said vol
unteering diluted the value of artists’
work by suggesting it doesn’t merit
payment.
United Way of America
names new president
A veteran of the United Way sys
tem has been named president and
chief executive officer of United Way
of America.
Betty Stanley Beene, president of
the United Way of Tri-State, succeeds
Elaine Chao as the new head of the
professionai staff of the United Way
of America, based in Alexandria, Va.
Beene was selected after a nation
al search was begun in May.
Paula Bethea Harper, chairman of
the Board of Governors of the United
Way of America, says Beene’s strong
history with the United Way move
ment piayed an important factor in
her selection for the job.
“She has demonstrated her com
mitment to resource development and
to community impact,” Bethea says.
“Betty will be a positive agent for
change. She will bring great momen
tum to our new strategic direction.”
As head of the United Way of Tri-
State, Beene oversaw a fundraising
operation that worked with 30 local
United Way affiliates in the
Connecticut, New York and New
Jersey area, and raised $95.6 million
in 1995. She also has served as presi
dent of the United Way of Houston.
Beene worked tor 12 years with
local and regional United Way organi
zations and 15 years with the Girl
Scouts. She is a doctoral candidate in
human resource development at
George Washington University and
serves on the boards of directors of
the Center for Strategic and
International Studies and the Wesley
Theological Seminary
She will receive a salary of
$275,000.
Sean Bailey
Journal
Online
wins
award
Washington, D.C.
Philanthropy Journal Online has
been named “Best Nonprofit
Electronic Publication” in a national
competition sponsored by Nonprofits
Online ‘96, a national conference on
nonprofits and the Internet.
The award, which was judged by
a committee of nonprofit profession
als and consultants who work with
Internet technology, was presented
October 15 at a one-day conference in
Washington.
Sean Bailey, director of new
media for the Philanthropy
Journal, accepted the award for the
Journal’s staff.
Philanthropy Journal Online was
launched September 1. The site
offers Web surfers a variety of ser
vices and activities, including the
ability to search for the latest job
openings; sign up for Philanthropy
Journal Alert, a free email newsletter
about national nonprofit news and
new stories and information on
Philanthropy Journal Online; register
the Web page for a.nonprofit or foun
dation with the Meta Index of
Nonprofit Organizations or
Philanthropy Links; visit the leading
nonprofit Web links selected by the
Philanthropy Journal staff; and
read news stories about the nonprof
it sector.
Two main features of
Philanthropy Journal Online -
Philanthropy Links and the Meta-
Index of Nonprofit Organizations -
have previously received national
awards for best nonprofit resource
links on the Internet.
Other winners of Nonprofits
Online ’96 Awards for Nonprofit
Website Excellence include:
• Best Innovative Presentation of
Content
Refuse & Resist
http://www.calyx.coin/~refuse/
>
• Best Interactive Advocacy
Campaign
NetDay ‘96 - http://www.net-
day96.com>
• Best CyberFundraising Site
American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org>
• Best Use of Interactive
Membership Development - Tie
American Civil Liberties Union -
http77wwwaclu.org'>
Women Leaders Online
http7ywl0.org>