MAY 1994
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 9 / $5.00
PbilantbropyJouniai
Breaking the cycle
N.C. Fund yields legacy of progress
In the early 1960s, with the help
of the Ford Foundation, progres
sive activists in North Carolina
started a fund to attack poverty
at its roots. The Fund sprouted
roots, and today they’re nour
ishing a network of organiza
tions still working to make life
better lor disadvantaged North
Carolinians.
By Davto E. Brown
Poverty.
In the rural South of the imd-20th
century, so many people started,
lived and finished their lives like
worn-out tires. Rolled on the best
they could, without much tread for
the slippery spots. They’d run awhile
on a flat if they had to. If anybody
stopped to help, it usually was a
weak patch.
‘Round and ‘round.
In the early 1960s some people
from more fortunate backgrounds
saw something else going ‘round and
‘round. They called it by a curious
new name — the “cycle of poverty”.
They were, in the words of one, “a
heck of an interesting mix of entre
preneurs and bleeding hearts.” They
were agitators and rabble-rousers in
staid communities with weU-marked
racial and socioeconomic divisions.
They were convinced that the only
way to beat poverty was from the
roots up.
In North Carolina, that roiling tor
nado on the horizon was not just the
civil ri^ts movement. It was also the
North Carolina Fund, a social phe
nomenon that was to cut a wide path
throu^ the status quo.
In 1963, the Fund had $9.5 million
to attack the causes of poverty — $7
million from the Ford Foundation,
$1.6 million from the Z. Smith Rey
nolds Foundation and $875,000 from
the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foun
dation.
Thirty years later, the Fund’s
grandchildren form a remarkable
web of community-based organiza
tions aimed at improving opportuni
ties in housing, employment, health
and education for low-income people.
It covers a state noticeably less poor
than her southern nei^bors.
The Fund’s executive director,
George Esser, stated its mission just
as its original five-year life was
expiring 25 years ago: “If we want
the poor to find and experience moti
vation, it must be because they know
they are respected as free individu
als with the right to define and solve
their own problems.
“We are going to have unrest,
urban and rural, until we stop con
sidering welfare and public housing
as ‘handouts’ at the same tune that
we consider farm subsidies and FHA
loans and expressways as our rights
as American citizens.”
BEGINNINGS
Gov. Terry Sanford was search
ing for something that would last
beyond his mandatory single term.
He had been dovra some dusty roads,
spent some time in schoolrooms and
on front porches in North Carolina’s
remote corners. He saw mechaniza
tion sapping the mill jobs that had
been a refuge from the rapid decline
in farm jobs. His efforts to improve
the state’s schools were frustrating
because so many children dragged
Look for FUND, page 6
Changing of guard
New
generation
reshapes
giving
Over the next 20 years, a new
generation will control the
purse strings. Inside the board
rooms of family foundations,
trustee leadership also is
changing hands. No one is cer
tain what the changes will
mean for grant making and indi
vidual-giving patterns, but theo
ries abound.
By Katherine Noble
he numbers are astound-
I ing: In the next two
/ decades, more than $8 tril
lion will be transferred from the wal
lets of a generation that has helped
fund the growth of America’s non
profit sector into the pockets of its
children and grandchildren. The
question is, where will the money go
from there?
This isn’t the first intergenera-
tional transfer of wealth. Bnt two
factors have merged to put it in the
philanthropic spotlight. First, the
accumulation of wealth after ’World
War II and during the Reagan era
means more money than ever is
being transferred. A generation that
Look for DONOR, page 21
Animal magnetism
Zoo links enviromnent, education
One of the state's most popular government
agencies is poised to change the way zoos do
business in the next centuiy. Under the direc
tion of a new leader and with the help of the
nonprofit Zoological Society, the Zoo aims to
put Asheboro on conservationists’ and wildlife
specialists’ global map.
By Katherine Noble
Asheboro
A herd of African elephants saunters under
the shade of trees, the elephants flapping
/ I their fan-shaped ears at swarming insects
and kicking up dust with their bulky feet. Greater
kudu, impala and gemsbok graze in the distance, lift
ing their heads and pricking their delicate ears at the
sli^test sound.
In the foothills of the
Uwharrie Monntains near
Asheboro, more than 800 ani
mals native to Africa live at
the N.C. Zoological Park.
Already, the zoo is one of
the world’s finest, with
aviaries and indoor and
outdoor facilities closely
resembling the wildlife’s
natural habitat.
Now, under the lead
ership of its new director,
David Jones, the zoo is embark
ing on a project to place it
among the premier animal view
ing facilities in the world.
A youngster among institu
tions that have been around since
the first half of the century, the
N.C. Zoo is well positioned to
Ramar, a 25-year-old silverback gorilla,
is oldest of the zoo's six gorillas.
Photos courtesy of the N.C. Zoological Park
become a model zoo, Jones says. He gave up his post
as director of the London Zoological Society’s conser
vation and consultancy to come to North Carolina.
“I think it’s very likely that within the next five
years, and certainly by the turn of the century, the
Look for ZOO, page 22
Family matters
Communities
recruited
for children’s
crusade
With America's children in an
escalating crisis, a campaign is
under way to fight violence,
poverty and poor health. And
leaders of the campaign are
working hard to muster recruits
from all walks of life, including
businesses and churches.
By Todd Cohen
Chapel Hill
H alf a century ago, Hugh
MeColl Jr. and Marian
Wright Edelman were
children growing up in the Marlboro
County seat of Bennettsville, S.C.
They lived within two blocks of each
other, yet they occupied opposite
worlds — one white, one black.
McColl’s family owned large cot
ton farming and ginning interests,
while Edehnan’s father was a pastor
of the county’s
largest black
Baptist church
and her mother
ran a home for
senior citizens
and foster chil
dren.
Yet some
thing in those
separate child
hoods would
shape two na
tional leaders.
McColl, 58,
is chairman
and chief exec
utive of Na
tionsBank
Corp. in Char
lotte, the third-
large st U.S.
bank, and is
one of the na
tion’s financial
titans. Edel
man, 54, is pre
sident of the
Children’s De
fense Fund in
Washington and widely considered
the nation’s leading advocate for
children.
Today, the two are working
together to help rescue the futures of
America’s children. As they see it,
the rescue operation will require all
members of a community to pull
together.
Last month, McColl and Edelman
Look for CHILDREN, page 21
Marian
Wright Edelman
Hugh McColl
iNSIDi
Connections 3
Foundations 6
Grants and Gifts 17
In May 16
Job Opportunities 20
Opinion 10
People 17
R.S.V.R 16
Professional Services...! 8
NONPROFITS
Misuse of funds
can be avoided
To avoid incidents like
those at two Charlotte
nonprofits, experts soy,
boards should be engaged
and involved as stewards
of their assets.
• Page 4
■
'V.
L
VOLUNTEERS
%
i4
.*A
More skills,
less free time
Once they stuffed
envelopes and answered
phones. Now nonprofit
volunteers serve clients,
write materials and help
run the organization.
A
Page 8
CORPORATE GIVING
Firms show
they care
Tar Heel nonprofits
benefit from companies
that feel a responsibility
to the communities in
which they operate.
Page 12
FUNDRAISING
Duke revamps
fundraising offices
Contemplating a
$900 million fundraising
effort, Duke University
is reorganizing its
development offices.
• Page 14