May 1, 2008

DURHAM, N.C. - In thanks for the years she spent reading and researching at a Durham library, Dorothy Gier donated her home to the Durham Library Foundation.

Gier, who had lived in Durham for 15 years, gave not only her four-bedroom house, but all its contents, including African artworks collected during her time teaching children Nigeria and Somalia.

Some of those pieces of art will be displayed in the North Branch facility she frequented.

The remaining contents of the home, including clothing, furniture, books and craft materials, were either donated to local charities or at an auction that raised more than $8,000.

The Scrap Exchange received craft items and the Durham Rescue Mission received clothes and furniture.

Proceeds from the sale of the house will go to the Campaign for the Library, which has a goal of $5.2 million.

Gier left her home to retire in St. Louis, Missouri.

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April 24, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. - A giving circle made up of young Raleigh-area women will hold a kickoff party May 1 in downtown Raleigh.

The Beehive Collective was created last year with the goal of expanding its members' philanthropic reach beyond women's issues and engaging the community in giving.

The group's "The Bees and the Birds" kickoff party will take place at White Collar Crime on E. Davie Street, and will feature a live musical performance by Atomic Rhythm Allstars, information about the giving circle, and light snacks.

The event will run from 7-10 p.m. and a donation of $5 is suggested.

For additional information, email buzz@thebeehivecollective.org.

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Liza Roberts | April 24, 2008

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- As the number of women's giving circles grows and the idea picks up steam across the state, much can be learned from the pioneers of this philanthropic phenomenon.  

Marla Adams, a founding member of Asheville's 300-member-strong "Women for Women" program, is one such pioneer.

The long-time lawyer and community leader believes that Women for Women, launched in 2005, is a success largely because it has been a collaborative effort from the beginning.

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together," she says, citing an African proverb. "It is very much a team effort."

The fund, which will give away more than $300,000 this year in the form of a handful of $35,000-$100,000 grants, has met a need, Adams says, both within the community of fund members as well as among grant recipients.

In its first year, Women for Women, which is aimed specifically at improving the lives of women and girls in the Asheville region, snared 213 members, all of whom pledged $1,100 a year for three years. 

That was more than twice as many members as the founders had hoped to attract.

The next year, the number jumped to 270, and now there are more than 300 members.

A full $1,000 of each member's contribution goes directly back into the community in that same grant cycle, while the remaining $100 helps offset the expenses of the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, which operates the fund.

Adams believes part of Women for Women's success is due to its focused agenda.

"We felt that if we were going to rally women together, it made sense for us to be rallying together to help other women," she says. "Otherwise, why make it single-sex? All of our funds go to women and girls."

The fund's grantees to date include programs that transition women from prison to productive lives; programs providing aid and support to victims of domestic violence; a project that educates childcare workers about the earned-income tax credit and other financial matters; and support for a fiscal- and legal-services organization that helps needy women who come into the hospital system.    

"Women like the idea of collective giving and of having an impact," Adams says.

They also like to know that their monetary contributions will be responsibly administered. Adams credits the support and credibility of the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina for helping Women for Women in that regard.

"The Community Foundation has helped enormously," she says. "It's a known quantity, with great credibility in the area."

Adams notes that other successful collective giving circles, including those in Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Raleigh, are also affiliated with their local community foundations.

Recruiting members

From the beginning, Adams and her four fellow founding members put a huge emphasis and effort on recruiting.

"I can't even tell you how much discussion went into getting the word out," she says. "We decided small-group settings were the best, and came up with a list of prospective members, both from the community foundation records and our own circles."

A series of small gatherings were held: lunches, coffees, after-work wine-and-cheese get-togethers.

Almost all were held in someone's home, because "it was much more personal that way, much better than going to a big meeting somewhere, much more opportunity for questions and answers."

Another factor in the fund's success, Adams believes, is its lack of onerous membership requirements.

"We've made it very clear that women can be involved as much or as little as they like," she says. "If they want to be part of the giving, but due to other involvements can't do more than that, that's fine."

Adams, a community leader since her high-school days, knows well how other involvements can accumulate for busy women who care about their communities.

Her nonprofit work began in earnest in about 1980, when she arrived in Asheville.

"I was a woman attorney, and there were not that many of us," she says, noting that she represented a "two-for-one" bonus for nonprofit boards.

Adams also cared enormously about her community, was interested in learning what it needed and how she could help, and quickly found herself sitting on a number of local boards, from the YMCA to the American Cancer Society.

"If you name it, I went through it," she says.

Just do it

She found time for these nonprofits even during her career as a civil litigator, and finds the time now, six years after she retired from the practice of law.

In addition to her work with Women for Women, Adams is involved with the North Carolina Center for International Understanding, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Nature Conservancy, as well as the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina and other local foundations.

"You just do it," she says. "It sounds trite, but if it's important, you do it. Certainly I was realistic, and I think you do have to learn how to say no. But it's just one of those things that you can carve out the time to do, like you carve out the time to brush your teeth every day."

As Adams looks around her community, she says she is encouraged by the young people she knows and meets.

"I think if anything, the young people today are more engaged than they were when I came along - more involved and more engaged," she says.

And perhaps they would agree with Adams when she says her community work is something she does because she has to.

"I strongly believe that it is important to do something for the public good," she says. "I can't imagine doing anything that did nothing but benefit me."

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Rosie Molinary | April 17, 2008

Two of the largest Junior Leagues in North Carolina currently are led by African-American women, a testament to the evolution the groups have undergone in recent years.

That increasing diversity benefits not only the groups' members, but the communities they serve, say the presidents of the Charlotte and Raleigh-area Junior Leagues.

"We are much more diverse then we were when I joined, but not as diverse as we want to be," says Twan Ellison, president of the Junior League of Charlotte.  "We want to make sure that all women in Charlotte know that the Junior League in Charlotte is open to them.  We want divorced women, single women, women without children.  This is about broadening the group of women we have so that it looks more like the community."   

Founded in 1926, the Charlotte group aims to improve its community by promoting volunteerism among its membership, which is made up of more than 2,000 women. 

A 2007 survey of high-school students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System revealed that more than one in 10 whites and African-Americans and almost two in 10 Hispanics had attempted suicide in the previous year. 

The Junior League of Charlotte is trying to change that count.

The group evaluates its focus area every five years to ensure its efforts are based on needs in the community. 

"When we went to the community three years ago, children's health, their mental, physical and dental health, was the major issue," says Ellison.    

Through that exercise, the Healthy Child Initiative was born.

To accomplish its goals, the group launched several efforts, including the documentary "Through My Eyes," which provides education about teenagers and mental illness. 

A straightforward portrait of the struggle some teens face, the documentary received two regional EMMY nominations. 

"It is awesome what women can do when all you say is your job is to create awareness," says Ellison.      

They also have a campaign to raise $1 million by May 2008 for the Junior League's Family Resource Center at the Levine Children's Hospital. 

With $813,000 raised as of late March, their vision is to provide $500,000 for the physical space and $500,000 for programming. 

"If I found out tomorrow that my child had a hearing challenge, I could walk into the family resource center to get up-to-date research for free," says Ellison.  "But there are parents who will never darken the door of the family resource center so we want to take those resources out into the community and provide not just health education but prevention and intervention."

At the Junior League of Raleigh, the current President Linda Douglas takes very seriously her role in providing skilled and diverse leaders to her community. 

"My goal, for some time, has been to bring attention to the outstanding women we have in the league who aren't always noticed," says Douglas, who is the first African-American president of the Raleigh group.  "Many of these leaders are women of color. I've worked hard to introduce black women to Junior League in general."

In part, she considers the Junior League an opportunity to introduce a diverse group of women, and their many talents, to the community.

"I want the women I bring in to gain what Junior League has to offer, and I want the Junior League to gain what these women have to offer," she says.  "What's exciting about this is that people, not only in the league, but also in the community, are having a chance to see these women in action."  

With a current focus of "Promising Youth," the group's 1,740 members support local youth programs with volunteerism and grant money. 

One such organization is SAFEchild, started 15 years ago by the Junior League of Raleigh to keep children in Wake County safe from physical abuse and emotional neglect.     

Both the Raleigh and Charlotte Junior Leagues regularly provide leadership, communication, and fundraising training for their memberships.   

"We want to help them become better volunteer leaders for our community," says Linda Douglas of the Junior League in Raleigh. "And because so many of our members work in other nonprofits, it's a way for them to strengthen their skills to help those organizations."

To that end, the Junior League of Raleigh is creating a Center for Community Leadership. 

The group has purchased a building and embarked on renovations that it hopes will make the center a benefit for the nonprofit community.

"We're pretty excited about how the Center for Community Leadership will be able to expand our training and provide much-needed training and meeting space for other nonprofits locally," says Douglas. 

With the changing times, organizations who wish to impact their communities have to update themselves to be relevant. 

North Carolina Junior Leagues are doing just that, providing their memberships and communities a valuable resource and opportunity. 

"A lot of our women do not get the chance to work in the community in their professional roles," says Ellison, "so this is in an organized fashion where you know when you get here, you will be able to have an impact."

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April 10, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The YWCA of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County honored 21 women leaders at its annual "Women of Vision" luncheon.

Several hundred people attended the invitation-only awards ceremony at the Benton Convention Center, where keynote speaker Susan Pauly, president of Salem Academy and College, used a poem by Tess Gallagher to illustrate women's multi-faceted role.

Award winners were chosen based on the impact their knowledge, creativity and leadership was seen to have on the local community.

They include:

* Jean Adams, attorney, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice

* Betsy Annese, president, Annese Public Relations

* Simona Atkins Allen, founder, Delta Arts Center

* Karen Bartoletti, executive director, Sara Lee Center for Women's Health

* Sharon Covitz, vice president of Institutional Advancement, Forsyth Technical Community College, and executive director, Forsyth Technical Community College Foundation

* Brennan Dawson, senior vice president for government relations, Reynolds American

* Annamarie D'Souza, vice president, human relations, Hanesbrands

* Krissy Dull, student, Bishop McGuinness High School

* Margaret Ann Hofler, business-services officer, BB&T Corp.

* Pam Kahl, former lead interviewer, Crisis Control Ministry

* Sallye Liner, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Forsyth Medical Center

* Megan Massey, student, East Forsyth High School

* Leigh McMillan, journalist, author and columnist, Winston-Salem Journal

* Willette Mosby-Reynolds, project manager, Wachovia Wealth Management, human-resources business unit

* Marjorie Rorie, director of community services, Truliant Federal Credit Union

* The Women's Fund Founding Members, Michelle Cook, Lynn Eisenberg, Sarah Holthouser, Mary Jamis and Janie Wilson

* Pam Versaggi, relocation director, Leonard Ryden Burr Real Estate

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March 27, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. - A Raleigh-based women's giving circle awarded a total of $20,000 last year to benefit Christian organizations serving women and children.

The Our Hands to Their Hands Giving Circle, which pooled the resources of 21 women last year, operates as a donor-advised fund of the Christian Foundation of the Triangle.

The circle awarded grants of $5,000 each to Building Together Ministries, Make Way Partners, Children's Relief International and the Raleigh Rescue Mission.

The group holds quarterly meetings, with each member committing to donate $600 over the course of a year.

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Todd Cohen | March 20, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- At age 31, with a five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, Beverly Berry of Greensboro was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Eleven years later, she and her husband, Ray, joined the newly-formed Piedmont Triad chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Since then, their family company, The Fresh Market, has contributed $1.5 million to the research organization, including $900,000 the company has raised at its annual "Sidewalk Sale" of hotdogs and root-beer floats.

At its 2008 JDRF Hope Gala on Feb. 23 at the Koury Convention Center, the charity honored Beverly Berry, who died Nov. 11, 2007, by renaming its Living and Giving Award in her memory.

At the event, Roy Carroll of The Carroll Companies was named the first recipient of the Beverly Berry Living and Giving Award.

The announcement, recognizing Carroll's annual "Building an End to Diabetes" project that has raised nearly $500,000 in the past three years, was made on the fifth anniversary of the day his family learned their eldest daughter, Brittany, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The gala, which the charity says raised nearly $1 million to support research to find a cure for diabetes, also honored Aldona Wos, former U.S. ambassador to Estonia, for her support and interest in diabetes research.

Beverly Berry "was a true spokesperson for diabetes and for our organization," says Mike Conrad, the chapter's executive director. "Her commitment and passion to find a cure will live on through this award, through the memories that will never be lost and also through the generosity of The Fresh Market stores."

The partnership with The Fresh Market now has expanded to include JDRF sneaker sales and other fundraising events at all the grocery chain's stores in the Southeast and Midwest.

The Fresh Market says its fundraising for JDRF grew 30 percent in 2007.

Beverly Berry, who during the last five years of her life lived with ovarian cancer, which affected her diabetic control, said in 2005 that she "had not been thinking about a cure for me" in her work on behalf of the foundation, "but for the many children who will get this disease."

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Rosie Molinary | March 13, 2008

Robyn Fehrman has been engrossed in activism and nonprofit work for ten years.  As a Community Program Officer at the Triangle Community Foundation, she is acutely aware of the needs of her community and the difference that funding can make to a non-profit. 

So when she and her sister, Rachel Dirito, began talking about tackling some triathlons together in 2007, it was only natural for Fehrman to worry that the time commitment might require too much self-focus. 

Her sister shared her concern and so, together, they organized Tri to End Homelessness, a joint effort to raise $2,500 to support Genesis Home, the Durham agency whose mission is to end homelessness for families with children and young people by providing housing and supportive services to foster independence and where Fehrman's husband serves as the executive director.    

"Triathlon is an individual sport that requires a lot of gear," says Fehrman, 30.  "It can be a very selfish endeavor.  If I was going to do that much individually-focused activity, I wanted to offset that by doing something more community focused."  

Together, she and her sister drafted a letter asking for support, created a blog and began their training with the help of donated services from Sage Rountree, a triathlon coach in Chapel Hill who wanted to support their efforts. 

Raising money for Genesis Home "was really a motivational force on those mornings that the alarm went off and we didn't want to roll out of bed," says Fehrman.  "We knew we were doing something for a purpose greater than ourselves."

They completed five races over the 2007 triathlon season and raised more than $6,000 for the general operating expenses at Genesis Home. 

"We all have the capacity and power to make a difference in our community, even in the smallest ways, and people are looking for a way to be connected and a way to be involved," she says.  "This was just a vehicle for it.  It was easy to do and it built momentum along the way."   

Though Dirito's academic workload will keep her from racing in 2008, Fehrman wanted to continue the effort. 

With the ultimate goal of completing the 70.3 mile Beach to Battleship Half Iron this November in Wilmington, she hopes to raise $7,300 for Genesis Home. 

She'll continue to use her blog to tell people about her training experience and to educate them about Genesis Home and homelessness in general. 

"Homelessness comes in all shapes and sizes," she says.  "The families that we see at the grocery or on the bus or the kids we see walking home from school could be homeless. Genesis Home does that by giving families a place to stay together while they are moving out of homelessness and into productive life."

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February 19, 2008

A group of women in the Triad area will provide grants to other local women with the goal of helping them pursue their dreams.

The Fondue Fund, a group of women who pool their time and treasure to benefit other women in the community, launched the "Fund a Woman's Dream" effort early this year and will accept applications through Feb. 22.

Working with the Women's Resource Center of Greensboro, the fund will award grants ranging from $250 to $5,000 to fund ideas that have the power to transform applicants' families and communities.

Examples of those ideas include, but are not limited to, launching a small business, returning to school, pursuing professional certification, or renting space in an art studio.

Grantees will be selected based on the feasibility of their idea, the passion and creativity behind it and the availability of resources.

The Fondue Fund giving circle was created in 2004 to encourage philanthropy by and for women in the Triad region.

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February 19, 2008

A new women's fund in Northeast North Carolina has awarded its first round of grants benefiting the region's women and children.

The Women Givers of Northeast North Carolina, a fund operating under the umbrella of the Northern Albemarle Community Foundation, serves needy women and their families in Camden, Gates, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties.

The group awarded three grants during its inaugural grants cycle:

• H.L. Trigg Community School received $750 for positive behavior incentive program for at-risk kids in grades 6-12
• RHEMA Ministries Institute, Perquimans County, received $750 to improve health, fitness of children and older adults
• Albemarle Smart Start Partnership received $500 for resources for Parents as Teachers program serving needy families

The fund focuses its grantmaking in the areas of health, child care, older adult care, education, economic opportunities and entrepreneurship and community relations.

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