October 1993
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina • 5
Landloss
Continued from page 4
making money, the owner will eventu
ally lose it.”
Harris was among the members of
the North Carolina Association of
Black Lawyers who founded the Land
Loss Prevention Project in the early
1980s.
A workshop on farm loss was the
jumping-off point for creation of a non
profit law film housed at N.C. Central
University Law School, which contin
ues to provide office space and stu
dent volunteers to the organization.
“We were touched and moved hy
the ph^t of the black farmers,” says
Angela Bryant, an attorney who
helped organize the Initial farm-loss
workshop. “Some of our non-lawyer
friends challenged us to see whether
we couldn’t get the Association of
Black Lawyers to help these people.
And we said, We’!! show you.'”
One of the groujj’s important early
accomplishments was publication of a
handbook called “Ten Ways to Save
Your Land.”
“It was a real important task for us
to educate people about land loss,”
says Bryant, who now runs a multicul
tural consulting agency called Wsions
in Rocky Mount. “A lot of the lawers
felt like, ‘How can you lose land when
you have a deed?’ l^at they didn’t see
was that it was loss in terms of the
economic viability of the land and in
some instances, a lack of legal ser
vices ^ch led to the loss of title to it.”
From its beginnings as a two-per
son legal referral service, the preven
tion project has expanded to four staff
attorneys and 450 volunteers.
Satellite offices have opened in
Wilson and AhosMe, and the oiganiza-
tion publishes a regular newsletter
that connects it to farmland preserva
tion projects nationwide.
Last year, the land-loss project
helped 500 clients with farms ranging
in size from five acres to 100 acres,
says development director Cecelia
Moore.
Pamela Simmons, left, of the Land Loss Prevention Project, and Jennifer Garnett of the N.C. Coalition
of Farm and Rural Families, are working to preserve minority-owned farms.
Photo by John Fletcher Jr.
The organization’s $500,000 annu
al budget supported training work
shops, lobbying activities and commu
nity-based farm cooperatives across
North Carolina. The money comes
from foundation grants, the state
assembly and private donations.
Estelle Caldwell says volunteer
attorneys from the land-loss project
helped her win a five-year deferral on
a federal Farm Home Administration
loan tor her 32-acre farm in Turkey
Township.
‘We’ve had the farm in our name
ever since about 1977,” she says. “I’m
just trying to hold onto my family
land. I just want to keep it in the fami
ly-”
Mattie Southerland was struggling
to save her 50-acre farm in Warsaw,
Duplin County, when she saw one of
the land-loss public-service
announcements on television.
“I was in the process of losing
what I had,” she says. “The Land
Loss lawyer helped do the paperwork
for me and helped me try to get
enough funds together so whenever
they decide what [debt] payments I
have to make. I’ll have enou^.”
Although Southerland has told
some of her friends about the preven
tion project, not all of them have
taken advantage of the services it
offers.
“Some people are kind of scared
because they don’t want to trust
nobody,” she says. “I say you got to
trust somebody, and I trust them
totally.”
Volunteer attorneys for the land-
loss project cite other obstacles in
working with low-income farmers.
“My experience with farmers is
that they are not business people,”
says board president Travis Payne, a
partner in the Raleigh law firm of
Edelstein and Payne.
s
ome of our non-lawyer friends challenged us to see whether we couldn't get the Association of Black
Lawyers to help these people. And we said, "we'll show you.".
ANGELA BRYANT
Attorney
“I’ve represented about three
farmers in the last five years, and in
all three situations, their records
were a mess."
Payne’s interest in the land-loss
project stemmed from a broader
interest in civil rights law.
“Although at least half of our
clients at Land Loss are white farm
ers, stUl, the loss of black-owned land
over the last decade has been phe
nomenal,” he says. “Part of it arises
out of the fact that minorities often
don’t have good title to the land.”
In addition to the human
tragedies, board member Floyd
McKissick Jr. worries about the eco
nomic implications of losing small
farms.
“Certainly, in terms of what those
farms produce, that could be picked
up by corporate farmers,” he says.
“But relying on corporate farmers is a
different direction to go in. I still
believe there is a place for small, fam
ily-run enterprises.”
During the past year, the preven
tion project has become involved in
efforts to regulate large hog farms in
Eastern North Carolina.
Harris and other staff members
have been working closely with
groups such as the Alliance for
Responsible Swine Industry, to docu
ment environmental problems that
residents say hog farms are causing
in small, rural communities.
The project has also begun to field
calls from farmers and lawyers in
other states who see the land-loss
group as a model for national farm
land preservation efforts.
Reflecting on plans for the next 10
years, Harris focuses on the big pic
ture.
“We have to increase our aid to
farmers cooperatives and develop
alternative uses for the land,” he
says. “People need to be concerned
about this because part of the
American dream is land ownership.
That’s something we don’t want to
lose.”
Land Loss can be reached at (919)
682-5969.
TV
Continued from page 4
The Chapel Hill couple and other
parents that had experienced similar
losses founded the Group B Strep
Association, a nonprofit charged with
educating parents about a bacteria
that infects an estimated 12,000 new
borns in the United States each year.
The all-volunteer association,
which is run on a $25,000 budget out
of the Burns-Fulkerson home, pro
duces pamphlets and a newsletter and
answers information requests from
parents across the country.
Now, the group has cau^t the eye
of an independent television producer
who wants to include the Strep
Association as one of two Tar Heel
nonprofits featured in a proposed new
series called “The Visionaries.” The
other is the Human Services Alliance
of Winston-
Salem.
Bill Mosher
of W.R. Mosher
Productions in
Boston, says
he reviewed at
least 400 apph-
cations from
nonprofits that
wanted to be
part of the
series design
ed for public
television.
“I cried for
about 45 min
utes when I got
the application
from this
[Strep B]
group,” he
says. “We were looking for unique
organizations that would allow us to
ear
ing from other
people really
brings back
all the emo
tions we've
experienced
JAY
FULKERSON
Founder
Group B Strep
Association
explore issues and to show \Hiat hap
pens when one human being helps
another.”
Althou^ funding for the series has
yet to be nailed down, Mosher says he
hopes to begin filming this fall.
Bums says she and her husband
were honored their group was chosen
for the program. “We’ve been on tele
vision before but this would be the
most extensive coverage.”
Are they worried that national
exposure mi^t overwhelm their small
operation?
“The real purpose is to make sure
that the issue gets out there,” Burns
says.
Since they founded the association.
Group B Strep has become more wide
ly discussed in the medical communi
ty, Fulkerson says. But he says that
few physicians recommend screenings
for mothers who may be carriers, and
few inform parents of the existence of
Amending the code
State lawmakers rewrite nonprofit law
ar Heel nonprofits wfil
f have to file annual
f reports with the
f Secretary of State’s
■ office or face being dis
solved under a new version of the
North Carolina Nonprofit
Corporation Act that was passed last
summer.
The new statute, which takes
effect next July, also requires non
profits to furnish financial state
ments to members of the organiza
tion who request them in writing.
The law also reduces to one from
three the number of board members
required for nonprofits.
“That’s less accountability,” says
Leslie TakahasM, program associate
with the North Carolina Center for
Nonprofits in Raleigh. “But it may or
may not be a real change because
the Internal Revenue Service also
looks at whether a [nonprofit] board
is representative,” which means
most will have boards of more than
one member.
Mike Abel, a Greensboro lawyer
who helped draft the new law, says
legislators wanted to bring rules cov
ering nonprofits into line with the
state Business Corporation Act,
which was revised in 1989.
The new statute also is based on
a model nonprofit corporation act
developed hy a subcommittee of the
American Bar Association in 1987.
In addition to annual reports, the
act covers incorporation procedures;
members' meetings and voting; stan
dards of conduct tor nonprofit direc
tors and officers; and mergers.
The Center for Nonprofits, which
has stndied the new measure, has
concluded that it provides as much
liability protection for nonprofit
boards and officers as do current
regulations, Takahashi says.
And because the newly required
annual reports most likely will he
mailed by the state to organizations
registered as nonprofits, the center
does not anticipate many problems
with nonprofits failing to file.
For formation on the new regu
lations, call the NC Center for
Nonprofits at (919) 571-0811.
the bacteria.
Running a nonprofit has become
even more hectic, now that the Bums-
Fulkerson family has expanded to
include a three-year-old son and.
three-month-old daughter. Bums is on
leave from her job as a financial plan
ner for IBM, while Fulkerson works as
an architect for LCDA in Chapel Hill.
Next spring, they hope to hold a
national parents’ meeting and update
the Strep Association newsletter that
is now sent to about 3,000 families
across the country.
And of course, they will keep
answering their mail.
“The letters we get are pretty
heart-wrenching,” Fulkerson says
“Hearing from other people really
brings back all the emotions we’ve
experienced.”
Information on the Group B Strep
Association is available by calling
(919) 932-5344.
We Welcome
AND Congratulate a New Partner
Philanthropy
A J. Fletcher Foundation
Striving to Meet the Changing Needs of North Carolina
Post Office Box 12800 Raleigh, NC 27605 (919) 890-6081