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SEPTEMBER 2001
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Each month the A.J. Fletcher Foundation issues an internal report on the status of existing grants and the effectiveness of past commitments. These evaluations enable the Board and Staff to assess the Foundation's direction and focus.
We believe that the reports will also serve as useful tools for both the referenced organizations and for other North Carolina funders. Reviewing the methods used to address a particular social issue can help to measure the effectiveness of an organization's planning and potential for long-term stability.
The staff of the A. J. Fletcher Foundation is pleased to publish these reports as another way to serve the nonprofit community in North Carolina.
For more information on funding, Please click here.
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During the past month, the A. J. Fletcher Foundation made grant payments to four North Carolina nonprofits, for a total of $187,500:
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Appalachian State University
(2nd payment of 2)
To support construction of a recording studio for the School of Music |
$ 50,000
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Hospice of Wake County
(2nd payment of 2)
For support of a financial development program
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37,500 |
UNC Center for Public Television
(2nd payment of 5)
To support a series of documentary programs on the life and work of influential, living North Carolinians
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50,000 |
United Cerebral Palsy
(1st payment of 2)
To underwrite the development office
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50,000 |
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Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network
(Raleigh)
Organization Background
The Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network (WIHN) has provided housing to homeless families since 1994; its Day Center is located on Method Road, between Western Boulevard and Hillsborough Street.For a number of years the organization provided housing for 50 families a year, the equivalent of 5,000 “service units” per year. Campaign Chair George Deaton describes a unit of service as providing shelter, meals and counseling services to one homeless individual for twenty-four hours.
Purpose and Use of Grant
When it applied for Fletcher Foundation funding, WIHN’s goal was to increase the number of families it serves from 50 to 100. In July of 1998 when the organization moved to its new Day Center on Method Road, its capacity doubled.
The Center provides a place for families to stay during the day if they are not working. It provides a physical address where they can receive mail, have access to phones and voice mail, do laundry and take a hot shower. Wake County school busses pick up children at the Center each morning; when they return in the afternoon, they are able to do homework or rest before the WIHN shuttle takes them and their families to the various churches that provide dinner and a place to sleep.
Residents, or “guests,” may stay at the WIHN Day Center for a maximum of 8 weeks. Counselors are on site to work with families, helping them learn to establish goals and manage the chaos in their lives. Fifty percent of the guests come from outside North Carolina, and most have difficulty finding affordable housing. Some have jobs, but all the guest families require some form of service or counseling to help them through hard times.
Impact of Organization and of Foundation Funding
According to WIHN Executive Director Sue Marcinko, there has been an increase of single men with children on the streets during the first half of 2001. Still, at least 40% of the homeless families seen last year were single women with children; in most instances, they were escaping from abusive situations. There has been a steady increase in the number of families needing WIHN services over the past 4-6 months. With the help of numerous donors and volunteers,WIHN has been able to achieve its goal of providing help to 100 families per year.
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 Families are able to interact more normally in the environment provided by WHIN.
 Many families have have difficulty finding affordable housing.
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 Gallery space of the Toe River Arts Council.
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Toe River Arts Council
(Spruce Pine)
Grant Background
The Toe River Arts Council serves two counties in the North Carolina mountains from facilities in two separate locations. There is an office in Burnsville and a new Gallery Arts Center in Spruce Pine. The A. J. Fletcher Foundation has awarded the Council a grant of $10,000 to support its move to a 2,900 square-foot facility in downtown Spruce Pine. The funding also helped the Council develop new programming for the facility.
The Arts Council has converted a former furniture store into an ideal space for art exhibitions as well as concerts and dramatic presentations. In a proposed second phase (yet to be completed) the Council will convert the building’s second floor to studio space for teaching both the visual and performing arts.
In an effort to reach out to the community, the Council holds classes for pre-schoolers and K-5 students, both in their school classrooms and at its new downtown facility. As part of its recent growth, the Council has been approved for a “Green Thumb Workers” grant which will allow it to hire a full-time employee to manage the gallery.
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Penland School of Crafts
(Penland)
In 1999 The Penland School of Crafts in rural Mitchell County made a proposal to the A. J. Fletcher Foundation for $50,000 to develop a Master Plan for growth. They have found this plan to be a critical factor as they refurbish some of the older buildings and build newer ones. The plan has also helped the Penland board understand what the School’s needs are, and thus has increased board support. It has allowed the School to move forward with a Capital Campaign: for the first time ever, Penland has received $1 million in commitments from its board this year.
First Results from the Plan
The newest building on the campus is a metal-working studio, the “Iron Works.” The Craft House is slated for renovation, and there are plans to build a “fire pond” to provide water in case of fire on campus. Longer term, both the woodworking and printing shops are in need of expansion.
Additional Impact of the Grant and the Plan
Penland personnel have worked with at-risk children this past year, both in the pubic schools, and on the Penland campus. One of the students who took these classes expressed an interest in learning how to be a chef---a somewhat different art form! He is now working as an intern with Penland’s resident chef.
In 2004 Penland will celebrate its 75th anniversary and there will be a series of special events to mark that anniversary. A curriculum on crafts is being produced for the public schools, and a creative collaboration with the Mint Museum in Charlotte is in the works.
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 Penland School of Crafts in rural Mitchell county
 Woodworking Studio, Penland
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 Conservation easements were recorded on five tracts of land. |
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Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust
(Boone)
In August of 2000, the A. J. Fletcher Foundation awarded the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust a $35,000 grant for operating support and organizational development. The funding covered a portion of the salaries of the Executive Director and Administrative Assistant, computer expenses, a newsletter and office overhead.
As a young organization the BRRLT wanted to insure its ability to carry out the mission of “preserving rural communities and culture in northwestern North Carolina through the protection of the land resources upon which they depend.”
In the second half of 2000, Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust recorded conservation easements on five tracts of land in three counties, assisting the three families involved with permanently protecting more than 350 acres. As a partner with the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, BRRLT was able to create the newest part of the North Carolina State Park System, the 220-acre Bullhead Mountain State Natural Area.
In the first six months of 2001, BRRLT was able to:
- Purchase a conservation easement on a 183-are farm in Wilkes County
- Obtain an option on a 273-acre farm in Allegheny County
- Close on four additional farm easement projects (total of 665 acres) in Watauga, Ashe and Allegheny Counties
- Obtain a letter of intent for the donation of a 1200-acre tract of woodland in Wilkes County
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Kids Voting North Carolina/Wake County
(Raleigh)
This private nonprofit, non-partisan organization has been part of Wake County since 1996. Over 100,000 students have been exposed to the responsibilities of voting and sustaining democracy.
The Fletcher Foundation grant awarded to Kids Voting Wake County has not only paid for operating costs, but has helped the organization instill life-long voting habits in children and increase adult voter turnout.
During the past year, the Kids Voting has been able to:
- Provide all Wake County teachers with access to the Kids Voting online curriculum, giving them the chance to individualize lesson plans when preparing students for upcoming elections
- Give 34,000 students hands-on experience at the polls. With the help of 3,000 volunteers, students were invited to“vote” at 168 official Wake County polling places
- Sponsor a Candidates Forum at Exploris, in which 150 students participated
- Send a Wake County student to the 2000 presidential debate in Winston-Salem
- Help increase adult voter turnout in Wake County by 19%. According to the Wake County Board of Elections, numbers have risen from 230,391 in 1996 to 275,112 in 2001
- Employ a part-time Volunteer Coordinator.
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Over 100,00 students have been expose to the respinsibilites of voting
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"The Thinker" |
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North Carolina Museum of Art
(Raleigh)
The summer of 2000 brought Festival Rodin to the Raleigh area. Funding from the A. J. Fletcher Foundation helped develop the Festival, which increased interest in the work of Auguste Rodin and promoted the Triangle as a “cultural destination.”
The Festival brought diverse arts organizations together to work toward a common goal, some of them for the first time.
Among the collaborative efforts linked to the Festival were:
- Carolina Ballet, with a grant from the Museum of Art, staged the ballet Rodin Mis En Vie
- The North Carolina Museum of Natural Science presented Festival Rodan, an evening of science fiction movies starring the fictional Japanese monster Rodan
- Exploris, Raleigh’s global museum, featured several weekends of activities related to France, concluding with a French Festival.
One of the Festival’s primary objectives---establishing a collaborative environment between the museums and arts organizations in the Triangle---was achieved. As Dr. Larry Wheeler of the NC Museum of Art stated, “The arts have declared themselves a major player in the civic area, clearly demonstrating what they can bring to the community in quality of life, dollars and energy.”
The following statistics speak to the success of the Festival:
- 40,000 inquires from potential visitors to the Rodin exhibition
- Over 5,000 calls to the Rodin toll-free number
- 7,412 website inquires about the “Rodin SuperPass”
- Over 5,000 SuperPasses sold
- 300,000 visitors to the NC Museum of Art during the run of the show,an all-time record
- Media coverage from across the country and around the world
An unexpected result of the Festival was the commitment to future collaborations by the partner organizations. The Festival bolstered the feeling that these organizations are more successful working as colleagues than as competitors.
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Salvation Army of Greensboro
A recent request from the Salvation Army of Greensboro was for help in building the Center of Hope, an emergency and transitional housing program for single men, women and families.
At the present time construction is underway and approximately 33% complete. Targeted time for completion is March, 2002.
Construction has been delayed because of several factors:
- Environmental cleanup on the property
- The first site chosen had to be changed. The City felt that traffic patterns around the site would be unsafe with the increased attendance in programs presented by the Salvation Army.
- The Fletcher Foundation’s grant was part of a $3.5 million Capital Campaign, which the Greensboro Salvation Army has successfully completed.
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