Mat 1 998 ^ ^ ‘^aroUna VOLUME 5, ISSUE 9
Raleigh
PhilanthropyJoumal
A nonprofit newspaper about the nonprofit community H A t
OF NORTH CAROLINA
Corporate mergers put pressure on giving programs
By Michael R. Hobbs
expanded its philanthropy.
But that economic growth also has
allowed many firms to grow by acquir
ing other firms. When that happens,
one city's large corporate headquar
ters suddenly becomes the branch
office of some other city's corporate
headquarters.
That's happening in Indianapolis,
Tempel says, where the two firms that
own the city's two major banks now
are themselves merging, leaving the
citv with no locallv owned major hank.
"Decision-making often leaves and
goes to the corporate office," he says.
That means the city that's home to
the larger corporation may benefit
from the growth.
Charlotte, for example, has seen its
hometown companies NationsBank,
First Union and Duke Power grow into
national entities. NationsBank most
recently announced it is merging with
Bank of America. First Union is com
pleting a merger with Core States of
Philadelphia. And Duke Power has
firms to give to the Charlotte area as
they never have before.
For example, the Arts and Science
Council of Charlotte/Mecklenburg
recently completed a fundraising drive
in which First Union employees con
tributed more than $1 million. It was
the largest employee campaign for an
arts council in the nation, says Mary
Eshet, a First Union spokesperson.
First Union long has been involved
with the arts council and the local
United Way she says.
grown as we've grown."
First Union works to ensure that
when it acquires a bank that the local
community still will benefit from cor
porate giving.
In the merger with CoreStates
Financial, the two banks announced
they would estabUsh a $100 million
charitable foundation to serve the
Philadelphia area. First Union also has
committed to maintaining local corpo
rate giving at a pace set by CoreStates,
which amounts to $17 million a vear.
Quick. What's one plus one?
Sometimes it's not two, say people
who have watched as large corpora
tions in many of America's industries
have merged to become even larger
corporations.
One result often is less overall
charitable giving by the combined
firms, says Gene Tempel, executive
director of the Center on Philanthropy
at Indiana Universitv.
"Corporate mergers have a major
impact," Tempel says. "They cause a
decline in corporate giving."
Bolstered by economic growth, cor
porate America in recent years has
When that happens, he says, com
munities like Indianapolis' can expect
a decline in giving to local nonprofits,
Tempel says.
become Duke Energy with its acquisi
tion of PanEnergy Corp. gas company
in Houston.
The growth has enabled those
"It's a long-standing commitment
and those organizations would say
First Union has always been a key con
tributor," she says. "But our ability has
she says.
"Dedication to the community is a
Look for MERGERS, page 13
SAS donates $1 million to natural sciences museum
By Patty Courtright
SAS Institute Inc. of Cary gave
$1 million to the North Carolina
Museum of Natural Sciences, and
the museum responded by
installing a skeletal replica of the
rare dinosaur Acrocanf/iosatims in
the lobby of the company’s research
and development building.
“SAS Institute’s donation to the
museum is the largest corporate
contribution our capital campaign
has received,” says Betsy Bennett,
museum director. “We wanted our
thank you to the company to be
equally impressive.”
The SAS gift has been ear
marked for the new Mountains to
the Sea exhibit, the centerpiece
exhibit in the 200,000-square-foot
museum, scheduled to open in fall
1999. In the exhibit, visitors will
walk through North Carolina’s
recreated environments, from the
mountains to the Coastal Plain.
While at SAS, the 40-foot-long
replica was visited by children from
the institute’s child-care centers.
Museum staff also traveled to SAS
Preschoolers enjoy a dinosaur replica on display at SAS Institute.
to present two multimedia pro
grams to institute employees.
Acrocantkosaunis, which ulti
mately will be a featured museum
exhibit, left SAS April 24 and may
travel to other Trian^e businesses
that have contributed to the museum,
says Karen Kemp of the museum.
IBM and Carolina Power & Li^t
may be slated for a prehistoric visit,
Kemp says, although CP&L employ
ees likely will have to travel to the
museum because of space.
“For us, this is a great opportuni
ty to inform people about the new
museum and about oiu capital cam
paign,” she says. “It brings together
the things we do best: hands-on
programs for both kids and adults,
while at the same time building our
message about museum member
ship.”
Going an extra mile
Some groups use adventure
to raise funds, publicity
Trips that involve climbing, hiking
and biking have become a way to
raise funds and publicity for a vari
ety of causes.
By Joan Alford
Folks are climbing mountains,
rafting Whitewater rapids, and biking
as far as 3,000 miles to raise money
for charity.
Special events planners are creat
ing unique outings that pit partici
pants against the elements while
raising funds and drawing attention
to their causes. Outdoor enthusiasts
not only test their physical
endurance but also develop aggres
sive fundraising sWUs.
Charities may require a partici
pant to raise as much as $6,000 to
join an event which does not cover
registration fees, round-trip travel
expenses, and most times, meals, and
lodging.
Although relatively few charities
enter into major adventure fundrais
ing, the ones that do go at it in a big
way.
The American Lung Association
has the most extensive catalog of
events. A majority of the more than
200 ALA offices across the country
hold their own multiday bike treks
and hikes.
The Washington state ALA wiil
have a “Climb for Clean Air” event
two weekends during July. For a $100
registration fee and $3,000 each in
donations, adults “with a taste for
adventure and the motivation to
make it happen” can climb Mount
Rainier. A professional mountain
guide service will donate the services
of an experienced mountaineer.
The ALA began raising money
through outdoor adventures more
Look for ADVENTURE, page 5
Hitting the target
To measure success, nonprofits need to set goals
Nonprofit organizations are being
asked more often to prove they're
accomplishing something.
By Michael R. Hobbs
If you want to measure your suc
cess, you first have to know what
you’re setting out to do.
More and more often, nonprofits
are facing funders who want to know
whether a grant is going to have any
real effect. Those foundations and
companies often ask to see some
measurable results.
But before a nonprofit can pro
duce those measurements, the people
who run it need to set some realistic
goals, says Beth Briggs, a Raleigh-
based fundraising consultant.
“Usually their biggest problem is
they haven’t identified any specific
goals,” she says. “They’re trying to
evaluate their success without having
any goals in the first place.”
Don Wells, who directs a nonprof-
MEASURING RESULTS
it education program at Duke
University, agrees. He says if people
who run nonprofits think about what
it is they’re trying to accomplish, they
can identify relatively simple ways to
measure those accomplishments.
But it’s not always easy, he says.
“One of the elegances of Habitat
for Humanity is that when they’ve
done what they set out to do, they can
point to a house and a family that
wasn’t there before,” he says. “When
you talk about attitudes toward safe
sex, it isn’t that easy.”
When the push for measurement
of nonprofits’ work began several
years ago. Wells says, many organi
zations rushed into estabUshment of
elaborate evaluation procedures.
“There was a certain mania about
measurable outcomes that didn’t
honor the fact that a number of out
comes verge on the impossible to
measure empirically,” he says.
Many evaluation methods were
complicated, he says. Many nonprof
its have learned they can produce
solid evaluations by adopting simpler
standards.
“What is helpful in some of that
education is that there has been some
demystification of what evaluation is
about,” Wells says.
Bri^ says that’s what nonprofits
need to do as they set out to seek
Look for MEASURING, page 11
INSIDE I
1 mH?mm
1 FOUNDATIONS
[ vommwm
1 CORPORATE
1 FUNDRAISING
Grants & Gifts 15
In May 15
Opinion 10
People 16
Professional Services..! 7
Collaborations
growing
United Ways ore finding that
collaboration means more
money for services
■ Page 4
Beattie gives
$2 million
Warren Wilson College
receives a $2 million pledge
for a new science center
B Page 6
Global volunteering
up, survey says
A Lions Club Inti.study shows
people are volunteering more
than they did five years ago
■ Page 8
Red Cross blitz
National sponsors help put
Red Cross' TV campaign in
prime time
■ Page 12
NSFRE president
Paulette V. Maehara is
NSFRE's new president
■ Page 14