Newspapers / Philanthropy Journal of North … / May 1, 1996, edition 1 / Page 11
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May 1996 Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina • 11 The next revolution MICHAli HOOKER Meeting the challenge of economic change Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from a speech that Michael Hooker, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, delivered at Philanthropy ’96, the third annual conference for North Carolina’s nonprofit sector. The theme of the conference, which was sponsored by the Philanthropy Journal, was “The Next Revolution. ’’ The “Next Revolution” is not still to come: it is upon us already And our common concern is to find means to cope. What should be the role of our state university in this turbulent- ly changing world? In that role, what responsibihty do we share with you? The combination of a scientific- technoiogical revolution and a sea change in the way the world does business are bringing about irre versible, irresistible, pervasive changes in the way we Uve, in the way we work, in what work is to be done by the human workforce and what work by machines that displace human beings, in both the goals and the means to reach them that drives business, in the ways in which nations sind their economies function and interact, in what is possible and what is impossible for governments to do to influence desirable change, in what our people feel about them selves, their jobs, and their countiy, and in what humankind can expect of its future. If we are all to learn how to do our work in this new economic and social setting, we must not deceive our selves into denying its reality We must see as far as we may do the hard work of thinking how to cope, and lead the way for our people. Then must we not prepare our selves to address the underlying question: How and by what means, in the face of these economic forces, can humankind reclaim masteiy of the economy in service to the whole human race? How shall America keep its strong leadership, and how shall it exercise it, not merely in the interests of Americans, but coUabora- tively with the other nations of the world, in the better interests of all the inhabitants of this tiny, hurling sphere, whizzing through the uni verse? At the root of this matter is the need to educate our people for this new age - not only for the best jobs they can be trained to do, though that is of first importance to every person. But we must also be sensitive to the greater long-term importance of giv ing people the metaphysical where withal to accommodate the disrup tions of change. In that regard I am greatly troubled by assaults upon the arts through reductions in their fund ing. It is Uterature and the arts that give meaning to human life and that enable us to gain an understanding of the world and an appreciation of our place in it. Nothing can be more important in a time of turbulent external change than having a firm metaphysical footing within our selves. I call upon us all to redirect our attention to the extreme impor tance of enabling people to hve mean ingful hves while we also focus on enabling them to Uve productive Uves. These two themes, enabUng peo ple to Uve productive lives and mean ingful Uves in this new knowledge- based economy must also inform our thinking about North CaroUna’s pub- Uc schools. Whatever the economic vicissitudes that envelop us, and whatever wiU be the character of North CaroUna’s economy in the 21st century, we know that our competi tive advantage wiU be secured only by the extent to which we have devel oped, nurtured, and fostered our brain power. There is no more urgent exigency than that of improving our pubUc schools. It is for this reason that I have announced that our School of Education wiU be focused solely on providing service to North CaroUna’s puhUc schools. We are passionately determined to do every thing within our power to improve the preparedness of the students we send as new teachers into the public schools. We are equaUy determined to do everything within our power to assist pubUc schools in addressing the myriad of concerns with which they struggle. For example, we are worried about the enormously high attrition rate for new teachers. I am confident that we can do a better job of prepar ing new teachers to face practical problems that wiU confront them in real-world environments. You and we must share concerns about the social consequences of the changing world economy for the economy of the United States and for our philanthropic mission. And you and we must share in the knowledge revolution - the transformation of the means of learning by those stunning developments in technology that, among other things, made it possible for the ingenious human race to cast around this globe of ours a Uving Unk- age of knowledge communication. We - aU of us - need to be fuUy Unked in that World Wide Web of knowledge. We need to take advantage of the growth of Free-Nets in our communi ties, with the access to Uhraries and other resources they afford, with the means they make avaUable to the smaUest enterprises represented in this room to have economical access to the information they need to func tion. It is clear that the first mission of my nonprofit is higher education. But higher education is vitally concerned with the arts and culture, emergency services, the environment, families and children, health care, higher edu cation, housing and nei^borhoods, jobs and community development, kindergarten-through-12th grade education, social services, and spe cialized education. Much of the underpinning for the university’s teaching, research, and pubUc service comes to it in streams of Ufegiving support sourced in non profits in those fields. EquaUy much of the research, teaching and pubUc service of the university is of life-giv ing usefulness to you, working in those fields. You have given your [1996 North CaroUna PhUanthropy Award] today to the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which provided start-up funding for work being done in a university in behalf of the wider interest of the entire nonprofit community My uni versity through its School of Social Work, is proud to be engaged in this cooperative, coUaborative work to develop a Nonprofit Leadership Program. May that effort be only the latest example of the way in which we may aU share responsibiUties in the diffi cult work to be done to address the root chaUenge we have been dealing with today that of the profound eco nomic change which has enveloped us aU. Friday Continued from page 10 development and research, industrial development and in the cultural affairs that nourish us every day of our Uves. Those of us actively engaged know aU too weU that the change of federal poUcy in some of these fields and the consequent diminution of resource availahUity have thrust foundations into a much more diffi cult role; so many choices have to be made not heretofore experienced and the need is never fulfiUed. It Mows that foundations and trusts are increasin^y Important to the future of our state and certainly our country. We Uve in a divided com munity - haves and have-nots - old and young, between races and nationaUties, those vvdio serve us in pubUc affairs and those who denounce pubUc servants. In such a divided society weaker voices get lost. The question in North CaroUna today then is: Who speaks for the poor, that hungry chUd, that displaced employee, the homeless, the unedu cated, the sick without health insur ance; who speaks for those who have become our forgotten agenda? The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has, and I congratulate the Philanthropy Journal for choos ing this noble enterprise to be the 1996 recipient of the North CaroUna Philanthropy Award. For six decades now, this founda tion has made things happen in North CaroUna. It has been a le^er in effec tuating change, and its orbit of influ ence has ranged over almost every field of activity and every condition that impacts upon our citizenry 'The foundation has been an incubator of ideas. It has been a leader in taking the chance with the creative, innova tive and artistic mind. It has seen clearly its role in education by estab- Ushing such enterprises as the PubUc School Forum and kindergarten activ ity. Throng jts dozens of major grants affecting hi^er education, both pubUc and private, much has been done to promote access and to insist on quaUty in performance. In estabUshing the Nancy Susan Reynolds Awards, the foundation reached out in our culture and found the unsung and otherwise unknown heroes and heroines who give their Uves daily to the common task. I am deUghted that this awards program has been expanded to include and recognize new and substantial activi ty in improving race relations in our state. It is entirely fitting, then, that this audience pause in its deUberations and salute the trustees of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, past and present, and their chairman, the Hon. Steve Neal, and especially its splen did leader, Tom Lambeth, for ^ing such dedicated servants of aU the people of North CaroUna. I am sure that there are intervals in the Uves of each of us when we pause to measure how truly effective our efforts are or ou^t to he; and while we regret not meeting the chal lenge in every instance, we resolve to move forward. Today, this assem blage says to Steve Neal and his fel low trustees and to 'Tom Lambeth and his fine staff - weU done, 0 noble ser vants. Our gratitude is great and our confidence is hi^. Warmest congrat ulations on receiving the 1996 PhUanthropy Award. Salamon Continued from page 10 The first of these factors is middle class angst and anxiety In a word, the vast majority of the American population is finding it increasingly difficult to move ahead, and laige numbers are finding it necessary to work much, much harder simply to hold their own. The current crisis of the nonprofit sector is being abetted by a growing mismatch between the actual opera tion of the voluntary sector and popu lar conceptions of what this sector is supposed to be Uke, conceptions the sector itself has helped to promote. In a sense, the nonprofit sector is being hoisted on its own mythology Having faUed to explain adequately to the American people what its role should be in a mature weUare state, the sector has been thrown on the defensive by revelations that it is not operating the way its own mythology would suggest. In its pubhc persona, the nonprof it sector still holds to a quaint 19th century image of charity and altru ism, of small voluntary groups minis tering to the needy and downtrodden. In reality, however, the actual opera tions of the nonprofit sector have become far more complex. The sector’s self-image stresses private phUanthropy as the principal source of support. In fact, however, the largest source of income is fees and charges. Equally important has been the growth of partnerships between the nonprofit sector and the state. Yet these important partner ships have hardly been fuUy integrat ed into our concept of the sector and consequently remain somehow sus pect. So, too, with certain other salient features of our sector, such as pay and perquisites that at least some consider inappropriate; a focus that extends well beyond the poor and the disadvantaged; professionalization and bureaucratization, which threat ens to undermine the role of volun teers; and representational mecha nisms in some advocacy organiza tions that are imperfect at best. The third major factor helping to explain the crisis is the emergence of a ri^t-wing campaign dedicated to discrediting the nonprofit sector. The attack on the nonprofit sector is a strategically important part of the overall conservative assault on the welfare state, or at least on what stands for it in the United States. Simply by carrying out one of them central functions - to serve as a van guard and innovator, to give voice to the voiceless - nonprofit organiza tions have become anathema to the conservative cause. What should he done to overcome the fiscal and poUtical crisis that the nonprofit sector faces at the present time? Broadly speaking, three strate gies are available: The first such strategy is accom modation, or strategic retreat. Central to the accommodation response is the behef that private giv ing and voluntary activity can fill in meaningfully for the reductions in government support that the nonprof it sector is likely to endure as a result of budget cuts. 'The more likely response is that nonprofit oi^nizations will turn even more to fees, service chaoses and other essentially commercial forms of income to finance their operations. A second possible strategy for the nonprofit sector in the face of the bud get crisis it faces is the strategy of resistance - focusing primarily on lob bying efforts to resist the cuts being proposed in federal spending. However, the nonprofit sector cur rently lacks a sufficient political base from which to mount an effective campaign of resistance. 'The third possible strategy, and the one that I tend to favor, is a strat egy perfectly in keeping with the tra ditions of this sector: 'The sector should respond to the crisis it is facing by using it as an occasion, and an opportunity, for renewal, for rethinking its role and operations, for re-examining its own m5dhology in the h^t of contempo rary realities, and for achieving a new consensus, a new settlement, regard ing the functions of nonprofit organi zations, the relationships they have with citizens, with government, and with business, and the way they will operate in the years ahead. This does not mean that the sector should give up on resistance, where that is appropriate. But resistance by itself will not work unless it is accom panied by a serious effort at revital ization, recommitment and, where necessary, reinvention. First and foremost, renewal requires a re-examination of basic values and behefs. It is time to con vene a series of Commissions on the Third Sector both nationally and at the state and local level, to examine the health - both fiscal and moral - of the American nonprofit sector - including service and advocacy, as well as funding, agencies - to rethink the role, function and operation of the nonprofit sector for the next century Building on the work of the Commissions on the Third Sector, I propose that a series of Civil Society Summits be called both at the state and local level, and ultimately nation ally soon after the inauguration of the president in 1997. Like the pioneer ing such summit convened in North Carolina in 1993, these will he gather ings of government, business, and nonprofit sector leaders to explore how to promote more effective collab oration among the sectors to cope with our serious national problems. Concurrent with the effort to clar ify the value base of the nonprofit sec tor and the role the sector vM play in the future, a significant media cam paign should be launched to recon nect the nonprofit sector with its citi zen base and to education the public about the role that nonprofit organi zations play in the way we actually address pubhc problems in this coun tiy What should be emphasized is the modem reality of nonprofit organiza tions working coUaboratively with government and the business sector to respond to societal needs. 'This may he a complex message, but it is the reahty that now prevails. Yet it is a reahty whose image has unfortu nately been lacking in the pubhc mind. Bo.\kij ok Dim' TOSS Frask Danieis Jr, . Patrioa Woroncxf if M«L Finch IR, Tow?'Cohen , Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina Ko.uuioKAi'\i--f:ns k^Adger &liy Alexander Jr. Barbara Alien CosinneAlto William Aniyan Jr. George Autiy , JcJtnBeli David Bmevides Phip kiumenthal Wiiam Bondurant Jtennefh Brovm kob^ Bush Hdury Carter MiiS Chamb^ Ray A,03 JuKa Daniels li:J« Ckirnan tooaid Drago Wentworth Durgjn Martin Eai^ BlurherEhfinghausMI, Mewkth tm Fitzpatrick" Barbara Freedman Janies Goodman, Marfyn Hartaam' Nat Nn , .JanelC«jdaR Il«itnas lambeth EHzabeth Locke Midh^ kfersicano^ " ToddNte Mary Mountcasde NiDiodC' Jan*' Patterson Midrad Rose Shannon St ieftn. (Varies Sanders Donald Sanders _ Mary O.B.T. Semam, fhtiicia Smith Sfeevirood Smith V«am Spacer • .'GaiJd'Wiiams' Smedes 'tark
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.)
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May 1, 1996, edition 1
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