Fund Raising
14 • PhilanthropyJournal of North Carolina
Who does the asking?
A new survey by the National Society
of Fund Raising Executives shows
60 percent of its members
are women.
October 1993
Public philanthropy
Smedes York finds himself always on the run in his business and his philanthropy.
Photo by John Rottet
The public and private missions of Smedes York
Raleigh's former mayor heads the
third generation of a prominent
family business. He’s also one of
the Triangle's leading civic
leaders and philanthropists.
People wonder what makes
Smedes York run. He says he’s
simply driven by a devotion to
family and community.
By C.E. Yandle
very morning, after rising
at 6, Smedes York jogs
f through a landscape that
L— defines and drives him.
He trots down the driveway of the
Craig Street home his father built in
1946. He passes Cameron Village, the
suburban shopping center his father
built after World War 11. He runs
down Oberlin Road, past nondescript
office buildings that bear the York
name. He passes St. Mary's College,
the all-girls preparatory school start
ed by his maternal great-great
grandfather. He lopes through the
campus of his alma mater, N.C. State
University, past the prominent brick
bell tower his grandfather erected.
The landscape of Raleigh is the
landscape of the Yorks. That’s true
of the bricks and mortar built by
three generations of Yorks. It’s also
true of the civic leadership whose
mantle has passed to Smedes York.
At 52, the former two-term
Raleigh mayor runs one of the
Triangle’s big development compa
nies. He serves on public and civic
bodies. And he routinely heads up
civic projects.
“I don’t know many people who
give of themselves and their assets
as Smedes does,” says Wake County
Manager Richard Stevens.
To many, including his closest
friends, what drives York is a mys
tery. Some say that York wants to
shake off the shadow of a powerful
father.
Others su^st he has his eye on
the governor’s mansion or the U.S.
Senate.
Still others say he simply embod
ies the ideal of a philanthropist -
Look for YORK, page 17
Boone selected
State to get
its sixth
NSFRE
chapter
North Carolina's newest chapter
of the National Society of Fund
Raising Executives is about to
be bom in Boone, bringing edu
cational programs and speakers
to an isolated but growing group
of fundraisers.
By Katherine Noble
A / orth Carolina’s mountain
/V community soon will be
home to the state’s newest chapter of
the National Society of Fund Raising
Executives.
H all goes as planned, the Boone
chapter should be up and running
soon after the first of the year, says
Jerry Moretz, president of the new
chapter and vice president for devel
opment and public relations at
Boone’s Watagua Medical Center.
“We felt many folks who could
benefit were not participating
because it was too far to go for meet
ings,” Moretz says. The closest chap-
Look for BOONE, page 16
Higher giving
Fund raising on rise
by colleges, universities
Giving to higher eduducation
grew last year. Growth is expect
to continue at a moderate pace
as the economy searches for
direction and competition heats
up for charitable dollars.
By Todd Cohen
C olleges and universi
ties in the U.S. and in
North Carolina
enjoyed a fund-raising
surge last year, but
school officials shouldn’t rest on their
laurels. Keeping up the pace could
prove tough, a national study sug
gests.
In the year ended June 30, 1992,
U.S. higher education raised $10.7
billion. That was up half-a-biUion dol
lars from the previous year, an
increase of 4.9 percent, according to
the annual report on voluntary sup
port of education by the Council on
Aid to Education.
The New York-based organization
said that, short of a stock market
boom and a jumpstart for the econo
my, fundraising should grow modest
ly in the face of increased competition
for charitable dollars.
In North Carolina, giving to hi^er
education grew 6.8 percent, to $346
million. North Carolhia’s bounty was
the result in large part of capital cam
paigns under way or recently com
pleted at a host of schools.
Duke University, for example,
which recently completed a $221 mil
lion capital campaign, raised $127.2
million in the period covered by the
report.
EDUCATION
In the U.S., alumni donations to
hi^er education grew 6 percent and
accounted for 27 percent of giving;
giving by individuals other than alum
ni grew 8.2 percent and accounted for
23 percent of aU support; corporate
giving grew 1.3 percent and account
ed for 21 percent of al support; and
foundation giving grew 3 percent and
accounted for 20 percent of all contri
butions.
Four-year pubUc colleges and uni
versities showed a higher rate of
growth in giving than their private
counterparts, and the survey predicts
that trend wUl continue.
The survey predicts that growing
competition among different types of
schools probably will result in schools
defining their missions and their
fund-raising more sharply, and in
donors better targeting their giving.
Atlanta fundraising consultant
Doug Alexander attributes the big
increase in giving in North Carolina
to the large number of aggressive
capital campaigns by public and pri
vate colleges and universities in the
state.
In addition, says Alexander, presi
dent of Alexander O’Neill Haas &
Martin, a surging stock market likely
resulted in bigger-than-expected gifts
through bequests, which typically
designate a percentage of an estate
to charity. Increases in stock values
thus translates into larger bequests.
He predicts that, despite increas
es in giving in the future, colleges and
universities wiU have to make some
tough choices because donors
increasingly wUl restrict the use of
their gifts.
“What that’s going to do is hurt
the pay-the-light-bill kind of gifts,”
Alexander says.
“You’re going to see an increase
in the numbers from the development
office, but the instituitions are going
to say those are not the dollars to do
what we need to do.”
No. 8 in U.S.
Duke top NC
fundraiser
D uke University in
Durham raised $127.2
million in the year
ended June 30, 1992,
just over one-third the total raised by
all Tar Heel colleges and universities.
Nationally, Duke, ranked 8th
among all U.S. schools in its fundrais
ing, according to the Council on Tlid to
Education. And only the University of
Wisconsin at Madison raised more
money from corporations than did
Duke.
Wisconsin raised $49.5 million in
corporate dollars, compared with
$49.4 million for Duke. Duke ranked
sixth nationally in the level of founda
tion support, at $34.9 milhon.
Duke far exceeded the national
average in the proportion of dollars
raised from corporations and founda
tions — 38.8 percent and 27.4 per
cent, respectively. Nationally, on
average, corporations accounted for
21 percent of giving to higher educa
tion, while foimdations accounted for
20 percent.
The average U.S. college or uni
versity raised 27 percent of its dollars
from alumni and 23 percent from indi
viduals other than ^umni. That com
pares with 14.7 percent from alimmi
at Duke and 14 percent from individu
als other than alunmi.