Corporate Philanthropy

Becky Warrick, a teacher at Stough Elementary in Raleigh, uses here customer appreciation card to pay for groceries and in so doing earns cash for her school. More below: Ike Belk: Portrait of a Happy Giver

Giving & Getting
Everyone wins when companies support causes
in ways that benefit shareholders and the community


By Laura Williams-Tracy

Time was when corporate philanthropy mainly consisted of a CEO putting his signature to a company check. If the check contained enough zeroes and if the donor craved credit, there might also be a photo op for the local paper showcasing the parties on the giving and receiving ends.

But now many companies strive to do more — sometimes with resources rather than dollars — as they face additional pressure from shareholders to participate in philanthropy that builds value for the company. They are learning the advantages of channeling their philanthropy through projects that earn goodwill and the disadvantages of continuing to give tastefully but silently.

Which may explain why, in a year when the stock prices and balance sheets of some of North Carolina’s best-known corporations were down, many still found a way to show their generosity toward the communities where they operate. Experts say there may be other reasons — beyond sheer goodwill — that corporate giving doesn’t always nose-dive during tight financial times.

“Companies are beginning to realize that if their philanthropy is not focused, if executives are not engaged in the mission, it can affect their employees and their customers, ” says Todd Cohen, editor and publisher of Philanthropy Journal, an online newspaper based in Raleigh that reports on corporate giving nationally.

Companies that do good things and communicate their charitable activities often discover that more people want to work for them, more investors what to place their money there, and more customers want to do business with them, Cohen says. “As a result there are a growing number of companies developing a business plan for their philanthropy,” he says. “It helps customers remember what that company does.”

 Adds Beth Briggs, a philanthropic advisor to corporations, foundations and individuals whose company, Creative Philanthropy, is based in Raleigh. “Corporations are inundated with requests — more than they can possibly fund,” she says. “Because of that, companies are becoming more strategic to make sure their giving is focused. And often that focus is related to the business the company is in.”

Indeed, a recent study by The Conference Board, a nonprofit organization that disseminates information about management and the marketplace, concluded that many charitable programs no longer are being viewed as traditional philanthropy but as a way to generate economic growth. Such programs don’t just aid the community but also the company and its shareholders, the study said.

And even in difficult economic times, companies still place a high priority on giving back to the community. A study done on behalf of Robert Half Management Resources found that 31 percent of chief financial officers polled said social responsibility programs that support charitable giving are very important to their organization.

There are countless companies in North Carolina that provide products or services to help others help themselves. Below, we look at five who make a difference.


Doing Good with Doughnuts

For almost all of its 65-year history, Winston-Salem based Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. has sold doughnuts to nonprofit organizations such as swim teams, church youth groups and Girl Scout troops, at half price, roughly $2.50 a dozen with their blessing for the group to then sell at a full price of $5 and pocket the difference.

Last year the fundraising program helped nonprofits raise more than $27 million, and the number is expected to exceed $40 million this year as the newly public company expands across the United States and into other countries.

“The program has turned out to be a huge way for us to connect to our customers emotionally,” says Stan Parker, Krispy Kreme’s senior vice president of marketing. Parker often receives letters from customers wanting to share their Krispy Kreme story —– how selling doughnuts when they were children to raise money for Little League baseball uniforms or pay for a class trip endeared the company to them as well as taught them some valuable lessons about working hard for a good cause.

“It’s more of a way to be part of the community than to be in business. It’s a very deep discount,” says Parker.


Feeding Education Finances

When Harris Teeter conceived of its popular Together In Education Program four years ago, it had two equally important goals in mind, says Kevin Crainer, director of VIC marketing. One was to increase the company’s donations to schools in the market it serves. The other was to raise awareness of Harris Teeter’s private label brands. The resulting program is Together In Education in which customers link their customer loyalty card, called a VIC card, to a specific school. Then whenever that customer buys Harris Teeter’s private label brands, a portion of that money goes directly to the school as cash.

Since its inception, Harris Teeter has helped schools earn more than $3 million. And it’s become so popular among schools as a fundraising vehicle that there are now 2,721 schools enrolled.

Crainer says the program is an ideal fundraiser for schools because after a campaign early in the school year to encourage customers to link their VIC cards, they simply shop at Harris Teeter as they would regularly do, and the money flows to the school. One school in Greensboro, which Crainer wouldn’t disclose, earned more than $23,000 last year. “It’s truly a win-win-win, which will continue to strengthen the program for a long-term difference,” he says.


Calling on Good Deeds

ALLTEL has joined with several other communications partners to develop a program called Call-to-Protect, which provides cellular phones and airtime to victims of domestic abuse to enhance their safety.

Last year alone, ALLTEL distributed 158 phones to agencies and police departments in North Carolina to be forwarded to victims living in domestic abuse shelters or at home.

The Call-to-Protect program is a joint effort between the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, a trade industry foundation in Washington, D.C., Motorola and ALLTEL.

ALLTEL also sponsors a similar program called The Class Link, this time with CTIA and Nokia, to provide cellular phones to teachers in classrooms. Teachers use the phones to enhance their safety, for conference calls with parents, and for emergencies. ALLTEL has given 197 phones to classrooms throughout communities in Charlotte, Rocky Mount, Wilmington, Raleigh, Greensboro, Marshville and Hickory.

Programs such as Call-To-Protect and The Class Link not only help the communities served by ALLTEL but help to build the identity of Alltel among customers, says Karen Hern, communications manager for the Southeast region of ALLTEL. “It’s not just selling phones that makes Alltel so successful. It’s also about the goodwill we create,” says Hern.


Driving Toward a Mission

Along with its customers, Lowes Foods has made feeding the less fortunate a priority in its giving while attaching its charitable contributions to its corporate mission.

Last year Lowes Foods, based in Winston-Salem, gave 13 million S&H Greenpoints to seven chapters of the Second Harvest Food Bank in markets the supermarket chain serves. The Greenpoints were converted into 20,000 pounds of food. Customers of Lowes Foods, who accumulate Greenpoints every time they shop, are able to make a donation of their Greenpoints via the Internet.

The program is part of Lowes Foods mission to focus its philanthropy on feeding the hungry and educating children. Second Harvest Food Bank is the single largest recipient of the company’s charity, says Dianne Blancato, Lowes Foods public relations and communications manager.

This holiday season Lowes Foods is sponsoring its eighth Friends Feeding Friends food drive to collect nonperishable foods for Second Harvest Food Bank. Last year customers donated 400,000 pounds of food. The food drive is the largest single source of food for the Winston-Salem branch of Second Harvest and a significant source for the other banks. Since it began in 1995 the food drive has collected nearly 1.25 million pounds of food.

Lowes customers can drop their donations at the store. Lowes also partners with schools for the food drive, which teaches students valuable lessons about citizenship.

“Food drives like Friends Feeding Friends not only feeds hungry people but it raises awareness of the effect of hunger in the community,” says Blancato. “There’s a large critical need.”


Fulfillment of Others’ Needs

For Statesville-based EnergyUnited, an electric cooperative and the state’s third-largest supplier of residential electricity, its customers are also its owners, and by pooling their resources they’ve made a difference in the lives of many families in their market area.

The EnergyUnited Foundation is funded by customers who agree to round up their monthly power bills to the next highest dollar amount. The difference is donated to the foundation. The money, which totals $1.5 million since the program began in 1996, is used to help families in EnergyUnited’s service area of the central Piedmont and foothills.

Contributions have helped with medical bills, rent or mortgage payments or to purchase a new heat pump for a needy family, says Doris Brown, vice president of external relations for EnergyUnited. A board of 12 members reviews the requests and distributes the money. More than 105,000 member customers participate, she says.

“We want our customers to be involved,” says Brown. “And because our customer own our business, any profits we make should go back to them. We like to think we are part of the local communities we serve.”


Big Checks Also Pay Off

While such grassroots, customer-driven philanthropy has its place, large corporation donations — the kind achieved by writing one large check — are also critical to the needs of nonprofit organizations, warns Lauren Batten, whose fundraising company, Vandever Batten Inc. in Charlotte, recently helped raise $13 million for the city’s Children’s Learning Center.

“That unrestricted cash to a nonprofit is critical,” says Batten. And she adds it would be impossible for educational and arts organizations to build buildings and develop entire programs around small dollar contributions and in-kind giving.

And for many companies such traditional philanthropy is still the preferred method. Large, one-time gifts allow companies to create big programs or fund new buildings bearing the company name — something from which a report can be generated and an effort measured.

But in the world of corporate philanthropy, Batten says, there’s room for both. Companies agree that writing one large check is easier than the planning and logistics involved in running customer-involved charitable programs. But they say each type of philanthropy has distinct advantages and each reaches worthy groups that might not otherwise be touched.

“Just writing a check would be a smaller check and is a short-term donation,” says Crainer of Harris Teeter. “Our program is designed for a long-term partnership with our schools, and the increase of private label sales and the increase in our donations from year to year is a measure of that success.”

Giving is also spread over a wider base to customers who take the time to join in partnership with companies they patronize.

“It lets us touch so many more organizations,” says Krispy Kreme’s Parker. When a gift is mainly money, a company can normally get behind one or two particular causes. But the fundraising program allows Krispy Kreme to help everyone from church groups to swim teams, he says.

“When you look at Krispy Kreme customers, they are really everyone. This program mirrors who our customers are.”



Ike Belk: Portrait of a Happy Giver
If pride in North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning were measured in terms of dollars contributed, Irwin (Ike) Belk of Charlotte would be at the top of the list. If such measures are gauged solely by allegiance and steadfast devotion, Belk is in good company but still has few rivals.

He spent more than four decades as a member of the UNC Board of Governors, and as a North Carolina state senator some four decades ago Belk introduced the bill to create the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Since retiring as president of The Belk Group of Stores and amassing a personal fortune selling his family company’s stock, Belk has given generously to almost every public and private college in the state.

Belk has given millions upon millions to at least 33 universities in North and South Carolina and Tennessee for scholarships and fellowships, libraries, classroom buildings, dormitories, dining halls, naming many buildings for his wife of more than 50 years, Carol Grotness Belk.

Belk doesn’t discriminate between public and private universities as the benefactors of his gifts, saying that healthy competition is needed between the two.

And Belk is a strong believer in promoting athletics among students, funding some 14 track and field facilities at universities such as UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, North Carolina A&T University and UNC Pembroke. Such passion has a foundation: Belk held the half-mile record at McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he attended prep school. “The first objective in life is to educate your brain,” says Belk. “Your brain can’t function if your body is not in shape.”

A source of enjoyment for him lately is to commission artists to create giant mascots that adorn the state’s campuses. Belk takes great pride in having created the world’s largest bull at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte — which outdoes the bull at the Merrill Lynch building in New York City; the largest catamount at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee; the largest paladin (a knight on a horse) at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.; and the largest sculpture of a bulldog at Wingate University in Wingate.

Belk says he’s glad that that the universities gain bragging rights for their statues. His longtime support of amateur athletics — he says athletes in pro sports are overpaid — extends nationally as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and consistent contributor to that organization for 45 years. He proudly admits that he has attended every Olympic Games since 1968.

And at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, this year he received the prestigious Olympic Order, an award presented by the International Olympic Committee. The U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs was recently renamed the Irwin Belk Olympic Sports Complex.

Says Virginia Fincher, his assistant for 30 years, “He’s a generous man who loves to give away money.” -- Laura Williams-Tracy

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