Community Concerns: Conference offers new ideas for giving programs

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In my last column I promised to finish my report on the first-ever White House Conference on Philanthropy. Among the interesting trends discussed were:|ret||ret||tab|

Professor Rosabeth Kanter of Harvard spoke of employer-offered opportunities for community service as the newest kind of employee benefit, especially useful for employees who do not have the time to research opportunities for volunteerism, but also important in building employee leadership skills and morale. |ret||ret||tab|

Timberland Corporation gives employees release time of five days each year for community service in their program called City Year. |ret||ret||tab|

Bank of America gives its employees two hours per week if they are volunteering in the schools. |ret||ret||tab|

Home Depot provides the supplies and its employees the time to build playgrounds at schools in the Kaboom program. |ret||ret||tab|

IBM and its employees have contributed a quarter of a billion dollars to schools in cash, equipment and community service hours. Among other features of the IBM plan, the company contributes $1,500 to the employee's charity after the employee has contributed 100 volunteer hours.|ret||ret||tab|

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs spoke about Venture Philanthropy, which takes the principle of venture capital into the world of philanthropy by taking risks, being active in the giving process and using innovative giving for community purposes. |ret||ret||tab|

Kevin Fong of the Mayfield Fund, a venture capital fund, and individuals from 30 high tech companies seeded the Entrepreneurs Foundation with founders' stock and stock options, which have already produced $4 million for the fund. |ret||ret||tab|

High tech exec Catherine Muther formed the Three Guineas Fund to bring together women entrepreneurs who were asked to pledge 2 percent of the value of their company into the incubator, then later provide the decision-making for the charitable grants. Both funds are housed at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.|ret||ret||tab|

Since that November conference, a couple of the philanthropists present have made philanthropic news. |ret||ret||tab|

Paul Newman launched a new organization in February with the goal of increasing corporate philanthropy by at least $15 billion annually. His group, the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, cited a decline in the percent of corporate profits given to charity in recent years and the fact that 75 percent of the nation's corporations still give nothing at all to charity. |ret||ret||tab|

Newman himself gives all profits from his Newman's Own food products to charity. |ret||ret||tab|

Chief executive officers from an impressive list of major institutions have joined the committee including the CEO of Missouri's own Hallmark Corporation.|ret||ret||tab|

Many at the White House Conference on Philanthropy called for repeat sessions, and a representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stepped forward to offer a follow-up session designed specifically for youth.|ret||ret||tab|

Incidentally, since then, the Gateses have made another large gift to their foundation, making it the largest charitable fund in the world. |ret||ret||tab|

Last chance! |ret||ret||tab|

Around town, several capital campaigns are wrapping up, but it's never to late to contribute. |ret||ret||tab|

Catholic Campus Ministries is in the final stages of its very successful campaign to raise $3.8 million for a new center and additional funding for a planned permanent operating endowment.|ret||ret||tab|

Construction is slated to begin in April for the new facility which will serve students from all the universities in town in effect, the largest parish in town. |ret||ret||tab|

Developmental Center of the Ozarks is seeking the final $170,000 in its $1.35 million campaign to expand and update its regional program of assistance to the developmentally disabled. |ret||ret||tab|

The Family Resource Center at Boys and Girls Town, which will work in collaboration with the Council of Churches Foster Family Placement program, has raised more than $1.3 million toward its goal of $1.6 million. |ret||ret||tab|

Great success has been experienced in the Council's recruitment of foster homes among member churches, which will enable our community to keep its foster children in the area.|ret||ret||tab|

Congratulations to the volunteers and staff of these successful campaigns.|ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|(Jan Horton is executive director of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.)|ret||ret||tab|

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