THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 22, 1994 TAG: 9410220323
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DURHAM LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Charities will have to prove their responsibility more than ever to get money from people who are increasingly suspicious of them, Duke University President Nan Keohane told a group of philanthropists Friday.
``We live in a profoundly skeptical society,'' Keohane told more than 500 people who gathered at a hotel here for a statewide conference on helping philanthropic groups better manage their resources.
The conference was sponsored by The News and Observer Foundation of Raleigh and a journal that the foundation helped fund, the Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina.
Charities also must avoid the temptation of using for-profit corporations as models for running their organizations if they are to maintain their integrity, as well as public trust, Keohane said.
``We are held to a standard that is different than the corporate world,'' she said. ``Nonprofits are and should be different.''
As part of that difference, charitable groups should set examples for businesses by adopting progressive policies for their workers such as flexible hours and family leave policies.
Yet, Keohane said, nonprofit groups should follow American businesses as the economy becomes increasingly international.
``(Businesses) are erasing national and political boundaries, and nonprofits must do so, too,'' she said.
Meantime, while charities are finding it harder to raise money, they haven't seen a reduction in donations.
The number of nonprofit groups in North Carolina increased from 8,500 in 1987 to about 13,500 this year, with assets of more than $18.3 billion.
However, the number of groups hasn't meant a reduction in donations: per-person donations increased by 6 percent from 1991 to 1992, and the state ranked ninth in income given to charities.
Organizers of the conference earlier Friday honored one exemplary philanthropist, Frank H. Kenan, by giving him the North Carolina Philanthropy Award for his charitable work in the state.
Kenan, 82, chief executive officer of Kenan Transport Co. and a trustee of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, has donated more than $100 million over the last several decades to the University of North Carolina. by CNB