Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
September 1993
Center
Continued from page 4
she decided she had to try and do
something about it.
She called on 32 of the state’s
nonprofit leaders to study the results
of her Interviews. The group decided
to go back to the nonprofits at the
grassroots level and find out what
type of assistance they needed,
where they were getting help and
where the holes were.
Eighteen months, 20 focus
groups, 250 interviews and 1,110 sur
veys later - all told the process
included 2,053 people who work in
the state’s nonprofit sector - the
group had a Ust of 400 services non
profits needed.
“The needs were even broader
and greater than we realized,”
Kendall says. “We knew we couldn’t
do it all.”
The common thread running
through the interviews and focus
groups, Kendall says, was that the
state’s nonprofits are “really commit
ted to serving their communities
effectively.
“It takes time and money to do
that,” she says. “This whole effort is
to make it possible for them.”
Kendall says the most important
THE PEOPLE AT THE N.C. CENTER FOR NONPROFITS
Phyllis Mahhews
Office manager
Matthews has been with
the Center since the plan
ning stage, working with
Kendall out of her home for
two months before the
Center moved to an office
in August 1991.
With degrees in account
ing and management from
N.C. State University,
Matthews is the person to
call for information on
Center activities.
Before her work for the
Center in July 1991, she
was an intern at the Public
School Forum of North
Carolina.
(919) 571-0811
Trisha Lester Leslie Takahashi
Lead Person on Editor
Information Services
Lester joined the Center in
July 1992, bringing with her
experience in the nonprofit
sector, particularly in educa
tion and youth develop
ment, as well as a master's
degree in nonprofit man
agement from the New
School for Social Research.
Her educational back
ground is in the arts, and
she earned a degree in
dance from the University of
Maryland after attending the
N.C. School of the Arts in
Winston-Salem.
Common Ground
Takahashi has a degree in
journalism from UNC-
Chapel Hill and a master's
degree in public policy and
environmental management
from Duke University's Terry
Sanford Institute of Public
Policy.
She was a reporter for The
News & Obsen/er, and
worked for the nonprofit
research firm MDC Inc. in
Chapel Hill, before joining
the Center's staff in July
1992.
Jane Kendall
Executive DiREaoR
With a master's degree
from UNC-Chapel Hill iri
higher education adminis
tration, Kendall was execu
tive director of the National
Society for Internships and
Experiential Education for
12 years, overseeing the
move of the headquarters
from Washington D.C.
In 1987, she was one of
46 people in the country
selected for a three-year
Kellogg Foundation
Fellowship designed to
expose mid-career leaders
to a broader, global per
spective.
functions of the Center are providing
a network for nonprofit board and
staff members to exchange ideas and
solutions, and providing a single
place that nonprofits can turn to to
find out about the many resources
available to them.
The Center’s library includes
books, articles and numerous other
resources on all aspects of nonprof
its, from board members and grants
to fundraising and volunteers.
“Our services are available to aU
501(c)(3) nonprofits in North
Carolina,” Kendall says. There are
currently 15,067.
People who are starting a non
profit also can become members,
entitling them to discounts on semi
nars, information and technical
assistance services, newsletters and
reduced subscriptions to various
nonprofit-related pubhcations.
Membership is also a way for
organizations of any size to benefit
from group discounts on office sup
plies, long-distance telephone ser
vice and other products and ser
vices.
“We try, for nonprofits that are
interested, to help them multiply the
impact of each dollar and each hour
that they have,” Kendall says.
Through its bimonthly newsletter
Common Ground, the Center also
provides its members a forum for
professional networking.
Finally, Kendall says, the Center
hopes to become an advocate for
North Carolina’s nonprofit sector.
“That’s one that we’re becom
ing,” she says. “We’re building our
constituent base to become a voice
for the sector.”
Already, the staff follows legisla
tion that affects nonprofits.
Because its services are available
to the public - a pubhc that is becom
ing increasingly interested in the
nonprofit sector - the Center also
plays an educational role.
“Anybody in North Carolina can
call us for information or help,”
Kendall says.
'The Center is on the leading edge
of what Kendall calls a national
movement toward nonprofits work
ing together.
“We’re kind of a catalyst for col
laboration within the sector and
between the sector and with busi
ness and with government,” Kendall
says. “Nonprofits are really ready to
work together, and to begin looking
at themselves as a vital and valued
sector of our state and nation.”
Pulling it together
Durham group to host
national conference
/ nterest in community
lending is growing and
the Center for Com
munity Self-Help in
Durham is bringing the
national spothght to the Tar Heel
state.
The Center, along with other
members of the Coalition for
Community Development Finan
cial Institutions, will hold a con
ference in January aimed at
groups that want to set up com
munity credit unions or expand
their lending practices to small
businesses and nonprofits.
Organizers expect the four-
day event will attract some 300
legislators, bankers and commu
nity development groups from
around the country.
“We’re hoping the conference
will give people a chance to look
at all the different models that
are out there,” says Mary
Mountcastle, president of the
board of the Z. Smith Reynolds
Foundation in Winston-Salem
and a consultant on the confer
ence.
The conference will include
representatives from Southshore
Bank in Chicago, which with Self-
Help has been cited by President
Clinton as a model community
financial institution.
A date for the event should be
nailed down this fall. For infor
mation about the conference, call
Everett Harper at Self-Help in
Durham at (919) 683-3016, ext.
230.
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Photo by Chris Dorst
Lenders
Continued from page 4
equation has been support from the
state legislature. During the past five
years, the General Assembly has
appropriated more than $6 million to
Self-Help, ihcluding $1 million this
year.
State House Speaker Dan Blue
has been a strong supporter of the
Durham Center because it serves a
broad range of North Carolina com
munities.
“We’ve got this rare thing in this
state in that we have not just urban
poverty and communities that need
development, hut rural ones as well,”
Blue says. “I think what you see us
having done is make a commitment to
a different kind of community
empowerment and economic develop
ment. And Self-Help is blazing the
path on that.”
A bill the Clinton administration
submitted to Congress in July calls
for creation of a special fund to boost
the financial portfolios of develop
ment banks, credit unions and other
community loan programs.
Elgie Holstein, a special economic
pohcy assistant for Clinton, says the
purpose of the federal initiative is not
to replace existing conmnmity finan
cial institutions, but to provide more
money for their efforts.
That’s good news for staff mem
bers at Self-Help, who worked to con
vince Washin^on that the govern
ment should support more than one
model of community lending.
Another message delivered at this
summer’s White House ceremony
came from Hugh McCoU, chief execu
tive of NationsBank in Charlotte.
He told the South Lawn gathering
about the need for cooperation
between banks and community loan
programs, noting that, “In North
Carolina...lenders from NationsBank
and the Durham-based Self-Help
Credit Union work hand in hand,
referring customers to each other to
ensure that all needs are met.”
Why are banks interested in com
munity financial institutions?
“It’s just flat good business,” said
Lynn Drury, director of corporate
public relations for NationsBank.
“We realize there is a whole segment
of the community out there that we
could serve with a bit more flexibili
ty.”
Like some other Tar Heel banks,
Nationsbank has been pushing for
“performance-based” evaluations of
community reinvestment by tradition
al lenders - an item included in
Clinton’s bill.
Self-Help staffers are confident
that leaders in Washington are mov
ing in the ri^t direction and are now
turning their attention to state gov
ernment.
‘We are discussing the possibilty
of the legislature providing some
matching funds for programs like
Self-Help that [will] get federal dol
lars,” says Bryan Hassell, develop
ment associate for the Durham cen
ter. “We’re reaching out to the whole
North Carolina delegation.”