Foundations seen shortchanging evaluation

Foundations say they do not spend enough to share the results of evaluation work or equip grantees to collect or evaluate data, a new report says.

Among foundation officials who responded to a survey, 71 percent said their foundations invest too little in disseminating evaluation findings externally, says the report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy in Cambridge, Mass., and the Center for Evaluation Innovation in Washington, D.C.

And 69 percent said their foundations invest too little in improving the ability of grantees to collect or evaluate data, says the report, “Benchmarking Foundation Evaluation Practices.”

The findings are based on responses from senior evaluation or program staff at 127 foundations in the U.S. and Canada giving at least $10 million a year, or from members a network of foundation leaders in evaluation convened by the Center for Evaluation Innovation.

Seventy-six percent of respondents said it was at least somewhat challenging to generate meaningful insights for their foundations from evaluations, while 82 percent said it was at least somewhat challenge to generate useful lessons for grantees.

And 91 percent said it was a challenge for program staff to find time to use information collected through or resulting from evaluation work.

While only 34 percent of responding foundations operate a dedicated evaluation unit or department separate from their program department, the report says, 62 percent of respondents report directly to the foundation’s CEO or president.

“That says to me foundations are taking this work seriously,” says Ellie Buteau, vice president for research at the Center for Effective Philanthropy.

Charitable giving improves for human services

Giving to human-services organizations has caught up with and exceeded that of all other types of nonprofits, a new report says.

Between 2009 and 2015, giving to human-services groups grew by 58.1 percent, compared to 48.7 percent for the rest of the nonprofit sector, says the report from the Giving USA Foundation.

Human-services organizations accounted for 35.5 percent of all public charities in 2014 but received just 11.7 percent of all charitable donations, trailing religion, which received 32 percent, and education, which received 15 percent, according to other research cited by the report.

It looked at a database created through formation of the Growth in Giving Initiative, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute, and DonorPerfect Software.

The Initiative, an offshoot of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, partnered with fundraising data management firms Bloomerang, Neon and Abila, which contributed millions of individual, anonymous gift transaction records.

The report found that human services organizations that receive less than $1 million in total annual contributions often are the most successful at acquiring donors.

Human services organizations also tend to be more successful at retaining higher-end donors than those who give relatively smaller amounts, the report found.

And it found that human services organizations and other types of nonprofits alike saw overall donor retention fall by nearly seven percentage points between 2005-06 and 2004-15, although human services organizations tended to experience higher retention rates.

Study tracks planned giving to universities

Planned gifts to universities are more likely from alumni, older donors and those without children, a new study says.

And donors who live in the same state as a university are significantly more likely to make more than one planned gift to that school, says the study by the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and sponsored by Pentera and its president and CEO, Claudine A. Donikian.

The study analyzes data on planned gifts and donors from five universities in the U.S., and includes data on planned gifts made from 1972 to 2015, with the range of dates varying by university.

Seventy-three percent of planned gift donors studies were graduates of the schools that received their gifts.

Individuals from the World War II and Baby Boom generations represented 54 percent of current planned giving donors studied, and the likelihood of making a planned gift rises sharply when donors reach ages 45 to 50.

Donors with no children were more likely than those with children to make charitable bequests, and the average and median dollar amounts of their bequests were significantly higher than those of donors with children, based on data on roughly 2,500 gifts made to two universities.

Twenty-one percent of donors made more than one planned gift to the same university over time, according to data from three universities, and donors living in the same state where the university is located were significantly more likely to make more than one planned gift to the same institution.

Charitable bequests were the most common planned giving vehicle, representing 42 percent of over 9,700 planned gifts studied, followed by charitable gift annuities, which represented 12 percent.

The so-called “80/20 rule” in fundraising, with roughly 80 percent of charitable giving dollars coming from about 20 percent of major donors, applies in planed giving, with most planned giving dollars studied coming from a small group of major donors.

Komen awards $3 million in breast-cancer research

Susan G. Komen awarded nearly $3 million in new funding for breast-cancer research to three institutions in North Carolina, bringing Komen’s total research investment in the state since 1982 to $40.4 million.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received most of the $3 million, while North Carolina Central University in partnership with Duke University received $405,000. Duke also received a much smaller award.

Since 2000, affiliate Komen North Carolina Triangle to the Coast has provided $12.5 million in funding for community programs serving local women and men, and contributed $4.7 million to the Komen’s overall investment in research in the state.

High Point United Way aims to raise $5 million

United Way of Greater High Point has set a goal of raising just over $5 million in its 2016  annual campaign, up from $4.9 million last year, when it exceeded its goal.

To kick off the campaign, chaired by Ken Smith of Smith Leonard, volunteers from Bank of America and United Way visited a record-high 45 companies on September 13 during its seventh annual food drive.

They collected donated food, filling three tractor-trailers from Old Dominion Freight Line.

The food was donated to 13 local food pantries.

Conrad retiring from JDRF

Michael Conrad will retire, effective October 7, after 16 years as executive director of the Piedmont Triad Chapter of JDRF in Greensboro.

Gorham retiring from Goodwill

Richard J. Gorham will retire, effective January 6, 2017, as CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central North Carolina in Winston-Salem.

The group’s executive board will conduct a search for the next CEO with Goodwill Industries International.

Averhart to succeed La Force at Leadership Triangle

Winkie La Force will retire in January as president of Leadership Triangle after 14 years at the organization.

Succeeding her will be Jesica Averhart, community engagement director at The American Underground in Durham, who will begin her new job during the first three months of 2017.

Rape-prevention program focus of study

The effectiveness of a rape-prevention program at Children’s Home Society of North Carolina in Greensboro is the subject of a study by the Injury Prevention Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that will be funded by a four-year, $1.79 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Based in Guilford County, the purpose of the program, known as “Wise Guys: The Next Level,” is to educate young men and boys about relationship violence and sexual assault prevention.

The study aims to help determine the best practices for expanding similar rape prevention programs throughout North Carolina and the U.S.

Page Grimsley event to be held October 14

The 11th Page Grimsley Rivalry Reunion Golf Tournament to raise money for the athletic departments at Page High School and Grimsley High School in Greensboro will be held October 14 at Bryan Park in Greensboro.

Since it was launched, the tournament has raised over $110,000 for each school.

Event raises $100,000 for three nonprofits

The PTI 5K10K on the Runway race raised a total of $100,000 for Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina in Winston-Salem, Greensboro Urban Ministry and Open Door Ministry in High Point.

In 2015, the event raised $40,000.

Family House raises $6,500

SECU Family House in Winston-Salem raised $6,558 for its Milk Money Fund in its second year hosting the Milk Money Challenge, which raised $4,161 through seven individual fundraisers, and the remainder through donations.

It uses the Fund to buy coffee, milk, eggs, creamer and last-minute meal purchases for guests.

Silent auction to benefit Hirsch Wellness Network

The 8th annual Art Lives Here Silent Auction to benefit for Hirsch Wellness Network

will be held October 8 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the gallery of Revolution Mill at at 1150 Revolution Mill Drive in Greensboro.

Last year’s event netted nearly $20,000 for the Hirsch Wellness Network.

School of Arts Foundations names three board members

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts Foundation in Winston-Salem elected three new members to its board of directors — McDara P. Folan III, senior vice president, deputy general counsel and secretary at Reynolds American; Mary T. Perkins, retired director of nursing for Brenner Children’s Hospital and assistant vice president of Behavioral Health Services for Wake Forest University Baptist Behavior Health; and E. Taylor Shipley Jr., retired manager and instructor for Booke.

N.C. Central gets $40,000

North Carolina Central University in Durham has been awarded a $40,000 grant from Google to foster an interest in technology and computer science in students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Women’s group gives $35,000

The Women’s Impact Network of New Hanover County, a program of the North Carolina Community Foundation, awarded $35,000 to SkyWatch Bird Rescue Center.

Goetz Foundation to honor author

Noah Z.M. Goetz Foundation in Durham will honor local author Belle Boggs with its

Family Building Blocks Award on October 27 at the 6th annual

Family Building Blocks Gala at Brier Creek Country Club in Raleigh.

Board chairs unprepared, disengaged, study finds

Chairs of nonprofit boards in the U.S. are poorly equipped to lead their organizations and have little contact with their communities, constituents, funders and the media, a new study says.

Among 635 board chairs responding to a study by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, only half prepared themselves for their leadership role and, of those who did prepare, their main source of training was to observe their previous chairs, regardless of whether they were effective leaders, says the study, Voices of Nonprofit Board Chairs.

A tiny number of chairs received formal training, used online resources, read nonprofit books or magazines, or used libraries to help learn how to be effective leaders, says the study.

And many board chairs served on their boards, in any capacity, for only three years or less before assuming their leadership role, which they often took on because others were not willing to, the study says.

It also found that, despite an increasing focus on nonprofit accountability to communities and constituents they serve, board chairs are disengaged from them.

Board chairs “seem to spend most of their time isolated in the boardroom, rather than engage with their constituents and stakeholders to whom they are accountable,” Judy Freiwirth, chair of the Alliance’s Governance Member Affinity Group says in a statement.

The Affinity Group, a network of nonprofit consultants, researchers and capacity-building organizations, conducted the study.

The study recommends that the nonprofit sector develop an “intentional practice” of board chair preparation and succession planning; provide more accessible resources for board chairs, as well as training, coaching and mentoring; develop “shared leadership models” rather than relying on one individual to fulfill all board leadership roles; build “leadership capacity” for many potential and emerging board members; and “support and expect” board chairs to be actively engaged with their community and constituency, and in leading advocacy efforts.

Pay gap persists but share of female CEOs grows, report says

Women continue to trail men in median compensation for comparable jobs at similar nonprofits but, over the 10 years ended in fiscal 2014, women increased their share of CEO positions except at nonprofits with budgets under $1 million, a new report says.

Compensation increases for incumbents in 2014 still lagged behind their rate before the recession, and health and science organizations posted the highest overall median salaries, while arts, religion and animal-related organizations posted the lowest, says the 2016 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report.

The gap between men and women in median compensation for CEOs ranged from eight percent at organizations with budgets of $250,000 or less to 23 percent at organizations with budgets over $25 million, says the report, which was based on data on over 135,000 individual positions at over 96,000 tax-exempt organizations.

In the 10 years ended in fiscal 2014, the share of female CEOs at the largest nonprofits doubled to 20 percent, although women still hold less than a third of CEO positions at organizations with budgets over $10 million and, overall, their share of CEO positions fell steadily as organization size grew.

Women continue to represent most CEOs at smaller organizations.

In 2008, median increases in compensation for incumbent CEOs generally were four percent or higher, while in 2014 increases were below that level for the sixth straight year.

For the 11th straight year, Washington, D.C., had the highest overall median salary for CEOs among the top 20 metro areas, while Portland, Ore., had the lowest, although the median salary of CEOs in Atlanta had the lowest purchasing power when adjusted for cost of living.

Voters favor more investment in early education, poll finds

Big majorities of voters in North Carolina want more investment in early learning, including providing greater access to affordable child care, Smart Start, publicly-funded pre-kindergarten programs, and programs that build parenting skills, a new bipartisan poll says.

Favoring expanded access to the state’s Smart Start and pre-kindergarten programs are 70 percent of Republicans, up from 50 percent in 2014, and 87 percent of independents, up from 73 percent, as well as 92 percent of Democrats, unchanged from two years ago, the poll says.

Based on interviews of 500 individuals conducted in July by cell phone and landline, the poll was commissioned by the First Five Years Fund and the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation, and conducted by the polling team of Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm, and Hart Research, a Democratic firm.

Two-thirds of North Carolina voters say most early education programs are not both high-quality and affordable, and majorities of Democratic, Republican and independent voters say the state should make early education more affordable to working families.

Fifty-eight percent of voters say they would have a “much more favorable” impression of a candidate for elected office who supported investing in early childhood education, and only five percent say they would have a less favorable impression of that candidate.

A recent national poll released by the First Five Years Fund showed similar trends among voters throughout the U.S.

Nonprofit collaboration focus of symposium

Collaboration and trust in the nonprofit world will be the focus of a free symposium on September 22 in Charlotte hosted by the Better Business Bureau

Speakers will be Art Taylor, president and CEO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance in Arlington, Va., and Alli Celebron-Brown, vice president and director of community programs at Foundation For The Carolinas in Charlotte.

The event will be held in the Sam Lerner Center in Shalom Park at 5007 Providence Road from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., with registration starting at 8 a.m. and breakfast at 8:15 a.m.

Graham joins School of Government at UNC

Anita Brown-Graham, former director of the Institute for Emerging Issues at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, has joined the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as program director — heading a special initiative to work with public officials on policy issues that affect local communities — and as professor of public law and government.

Wellman retiring from E4E Relief

Laura Meyer Wellman, a former executive vice president of Foundation for the Carolinas in Charlotte, will retire, effective November 1, as president and CEO of E4E Relief, an employee disaster-relief program and wholly-owned subsidiary of the Foundation.

Ore named advocate of year by AIDS Action Network

Addison Ore, a founding board member and former co-chair of the North Carolina AIDS Action Network, and former executive director of the Triad Health Project in Greensboro, has received the Advocate of the Year award from North Carolina AIDS Action Network.

Winston-Salem Foundation awards $907,000 in scholarships

The Winston-Salem Foundation awarded 544 higher-education scholarships totaling $907,388 for the 2016-17 academic year to local students.

The Foundation awarded the scholarships from 118 scholarship endowment funds established by individuals, families, and businesses since 1923.

Charlotte church raises $200,000 for school in Haiti

Forest Hills Church in Charlotte raised nearly $200,000 to build an elementary school for Mission of Hope, Haiti, in memory of Dobbs and Reed Eddings, who were killed in a car crash in Charlotte last year and were the sons of Gentry Eddings, a pastor at the church, and his wife, Hadley.

The church agreed to contribute additional funds to pay for construction of the school.

Me Fine Foundation getting $20,000

The Me Fine Foundation in Princeton, N.C., has received a total commitment of $20,000 over five years from two franchises of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar­B­ Q.

The Foundation provides financial assistance and support programs to parents and caregivers with children receiving long-term medical treatment from children’s hospitals at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Guilford County Schools track students’ volunteer time

Guilford County Schools have contracted with x2VOL to track the time students volunteer each year — estimated at thousands of hours — through service-learning projects.

In the past five years, those hours have totaled 1.4 million hours, according to a data from a tracking system the new system replaces.

Underwriters Association gives $1,000

Triad Association of Health Underwriters gave $1,000 to the NC Military Order of the Purple Heart, Wounded Warrior Leave Fund.

The Association raised the money at its annual golf tournament on May at the Greensboro National Golf Club in Summerfield.

Poe Center to host 25th anniversary event

The Alice Aycock Poe Center for Health Education will host an event to celebrate its 25th anniversary on September 24 at the Center at 224 Sunnybrook Rd. in Raleigh starting at 7 p.m.

Arts Council to hold annual meeting

The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County will hold its annual meeting September 26 at 5:30 p.m. at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in downtown Winston-Salem.

Grants focus on agricultural and science education, hunger relief

Nonprofits in the Greensboro and Research Triangle Park areas with projects that promote agricultural and science education or help relieve hunger are eligible for grants of up to $10,000 through the Syngenta Community Grant Program.

September 30 is the deadline for submitting grant applications.

Pope Foundation accepting grant applications

October 17 is the deadline for submitting applications to The John William Pope Foundation in Raleigh for the 2017 Joy W. Pope Memorial Grant in the Arts and the 2017 Joy W. Pope Memorial Grant in Human Services.

Each grant will total $100,000 for an innovative project to be completed in 2017

Volunteers to paint and repair homes

Community Housing Solutions in Greensboro will begin its sixth annual Paint the Town neighborhood blitz on September 17, with volunteer groups repairing and painting a total of 13 homes in the Glenwood neighborhood over nine days, including painting nine of the homes in a single day.

United Way, schools get support from High Point University

United Way of Greater High Point received a $1,000 donation from the Student Government Association at High Point University and nearly 1,400 canned food items and other nonperishables collected by student clubs on campus.

And local schools are getting over 1,000 books donated by the class of 2020 at the University.

Goodwill to hold annual banquet

Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina will host its annual awards banquet on September 29 at the Greensboro-High Point Marriott Airport at One Marriott Drive in Greensboro starting at 5:30 p.m.

Wharton heads Heart Association young professional group

Jake Wharton, partner at Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, has been named chair of  AHA PULSE Winston‐Salem, a new young professional social group, sponsored by Belk, that supports the American Heart Association in Forsyth County and is the first PULSE group in North Carolina.

Greensboro Swarm to focus philanthropy on education, wellness

The Greensboro Swarm basketball team will focus its philanthropy and social projects during the 2016-17 season on education and wellness in the Triad.

Currituck Dare funder awards $20,000

Currituck-Dare Community Foundation and Women’s Fund awarded $20,000 in local grant awards. The Foundation is an affiliate of the North Carolina Community Foundation.

Forsyth United Way raises $14,000

United Way of Forsyth County raised $14,000 at its 5th Annual Moonlight Madness Run on August 26 to kick off its annual fundraising campaign.

Chairing the campaign is John Fox, chairman of the Mid Atlantic Region for First Tennessee Bank.

Giving to arts groups falls when attendance grows, study finds

Donations to arts and culture organizations decreases when attendance increases, a new study says.

Researchers at the University of Missouri and Rutgers University-Newark in New Jersey analyzed data from the Cultural Data Project, a group that tracks information on the arts and culture sector.

The study — “Do donors care about results? An analysis of nonprofits arts and cultural organizations.” — used attendance as a “performance metric” because, the researchers say, attendance can measure success across various types of events or exhibits and is considered a critical tool in measure performance of the success of arts and culture groups.

Better performance such as strong attendance, one of the researchers says, “creates an image of success” that can make an organization “appear less needy, which may lead to donors being less inclined to support them.”

Leadership program launched for girls

September 22 is the deadline for nonprofits in Guilford County to submit applications to use Girls Leadership Edge, a series of learning modules to provide leadership skills to girls ages 13 to 15.

The effort was funded with a grant from the Women’s Professional Forum Foundation and developed in partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership and the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium.

Aging new focus of Junior League of Greensboro

Service to the aging population in Guilford County will be the focus of  community programs the Junior League of Greensboro supports starting in 2017-18.

The League is accepting proposals support and will hold an information session for grantseeking nonprofits on September 29 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at its headquarters at 3101 West Friendly Ave.

Grant applications are due October 31.

Central Park NC gets $400,000

Central Park NC in Star has received a $400,000 grant from the Windgate Foundation in Arkansas to help fund building renovations and arts and crafts programming at STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise.

Longleaf Collective seeks grant applications

Longleaf Collective, a giving circle in the Triangle for donors age 40 and younger who contributes 0.5 percent of their annual salary to a pooled fund, is seeking applications for a grant of up to $20,000.

In December, the group made a grant of $5,000 to the East Durham Children’s Initiative that was matched by a $6,000 grant from an anonymous donor.

October 7 is the deadline for submitting applications.

Wade Jurney Homes donating homes to military families

Wade Jurney Homes in Greensboro will donate six to eight homes to military families as part of an effort by national nonprofit Operation Homefront.

The first home will be located in Salisbury.

NC Navigator Consortium gets $2.4 million

The NC Navigator Consortium, a group of 13 health-care, legal-aid and social-service organizations, has been awarded a $2.4 million federal grant to help North Carolina consumers enroll in health-insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.

The grant will fund the consortium’s outreach and enrollment activities through September 2017.

YWCA of Greensboro gets $29,000

YWCA of Greensboro has received a grant of $28,977 from Ronald McDonald House Charities of North Carolina for its Home Sweet Home Project, which provides a toy or other item to every child who stays at the YWCA’s shelter.

AbolitionNC to host tea

AbolitionNC, a Greensboro nonprofit that assists survivors of human trafficking, will host its 2nd Annual Mad Hatter Tea at Starmount Forest Country Club in Greensboro on September 10 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Event to benefit women with gynecologic cancers

The seventh annual Athena’s Run, presented by law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton will be held September 10 at 8:30 a.m. in Tanglewood Park at 4061 Clemmons Road in Clemmons.

In its first six years, the event raised over $400,000.

Pro-bono marketing available

September 14 is the deadline for nonprofits in the Piedmont Triad or Triangle to submit applications to SFW, a marketing agency with offices in Greensboro and Raleigh, for pro bono marketing services.

Event to benefit Out of The Garden Project

The 5th Annual Hearts for Hope fundraiser benefiting Out of The Garden Project in support hungry children and families in the Guilford County area will be held September 24 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at C3 Greensboro at 300 N.C. 68.

Golf event to benefit PLS Farm Ministry

The inaugural PLS Golf Tournament to benefit PLS Farm Ministry in Reidsville will be held September 24 at Greensboro National.

ConvergeSouth 2016 gets $5,000

ConvergeSouth 2016 has received a $5,000 grant for its 12th annual conference from the Millennium Fund, which is managed by The Winston-Salem Foundation.

The conference is being held September 16 at Wake Forest University’s Innovation Quarter.

Miracle League marks first 10 years

The Miracle League of the Triangle will celebrate its 10th anniversary on September 17.

Association of Health Underwriters names officers

Bruce Frizen, managing agent and president and CEO of L.E. Goodgame & Associates in Waxhaw, has been installed as president of the the North Carolina Association of Health Underwriters.

Wes Washel of Asheville has been named president-elect.

Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club to host event

Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club of High Point will host its 7th annual kickball classic tournament and food truck festival fundraiser September 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at

its offices at 121 SW Cloverleaf Place.

Free training for high school counselors, college access professionals

College Foundation of North Carolina is offering six free training sessions across the state in October designed to help high school counselors and college access professionals assist students and parents in applying for college and financial aid.

The sessions will be held October 5 at the University of North Carolina at Asheville; October 6 at Meredith College in Raleigh; October 10 at Queens University of Charlotte; October 11 at East Carolina University in Greenville and at Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro; and October 14 at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington.

Diamente Center names board officers

Diamante Arts and Cultural Center in Cary named new officers for its board of directors, including Roberto Perez of Food Lion, board chair; and Augustine Roman, retired from Lenovo, vice chair.

KIPP Durham College Prep to mark opening

KIPP Durham College Prep will celebrate the opening of its newly renovated facility at the historic Holloway Street School on September 16.

Football game generates 7,000 cans of food for charity

The 20th annual Gate City Soup Bowl football game on September 3 between Greensboro College and Guilford College collected over 7,000 cans of food that will goto the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina.