By MATT LAMB
Staff Writer
The Moore County Board of Education is looking to reignite the district’s long-standing nonprofit fundraising arm, the Public Education Foundation of Moore County.
A newly constituted foundation committee, made up of school board members Ken Benway, Robin Calcutt and David Hensley, met recently to explore how best to start raising money for the school system.
The Public Education Foundation of Moore County is not a new organization. Incorporated in 1984, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit has since contributed more than $250,000 to educational efforts throughout the district.
“The mission of the Public Education Foundation is to encourage excellent educational practices in Moore County public schools by providing financial support and recognition for creative, engaging learning experiences,” reads the organization’s guiding documents.
Despite four decades of service to the community, the foundation has seemingly sputtered over the years, so much so that both Calcutt and Hensley campaigned on kicking the program back into gear. To that end, the foundation committee’s inaugural meeting opened with a primer from Germaine Elkins, the executive director of the Sandhills Community College Foundation. Elkins oversees a formidable philanthropic fund of over $50 million.
Elkins described how Sandhills has grown its foundation to a point where its net position rivals some four-year universities.
“I think nonprofits, that fiduciary duty should be core to what they are being conscious of,” she said, “the respect and stewardship we’re having for other people’s money that is donated to the nonprofit.”
Elkins expressed the importance of clearly articulating the foundation’s goals when engaging in community outreach.
“It is all about relationship development and having a deep understanding of the mission and what you’re trying to accomplish, communicating that to the public, and then finding the folks that resonates with, and where that overlaps, and you end up with this values exchange.”
Highlighting the college’s gift officers and distinguishing between individuals, family foundations and corporate donors, she added, “They’re out in the community all the time, talking about the college’s mission. Talking about the work we’re trying to do. Talking about our giving programs. Telling the stories of students’ success. Talking about the benefits that we offer. Giving our elevator speeches on all those different fronts.”
Foundation President Andrew Lyons followed Elkins, discussing the nonprofit’s history and current financial positioning. “It started as a grass-roots volunteer (organization). It hasn’t really changed at all. Its original intent was just to supplement the schools’ budget.”
He added, “Our bread and butter was getting requests from teachers for things that fell outside the budget.”
Lyons said that over time, the requests changed, becoming more “creative” in nature, like efforts to bring in school speakers and develop new programs like robotics. He said that the foundation has always had a modest budget, where the annual goal was to “try and figure out how we could give $25,000 to teachers.”
Split into several buckets — STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), arts, entrepreneurship and a general fund — the foundation has a current total bankroll of around $53,000.
The committee went on to consider ways to revitalize the foundation. Hensley suggested hiring a full-time executive director and potentially investing in foundation-owned subsidized housing for teachers, all while ensuring that the foundation’s values are reflective of the community.
“What a way to make money for the foundation, because you’re going to charge something for that housing. You’re not going to give it away for free. And, if you get it donated and you’re not paying property taxes on it because it’s a nonprofit, whatever that teacher pays in rent, if it’s half the market rate, that’s revenue for the foundation.”
Benway described the current state of the foundation as being in “discovery mode.” Moving forward, he and Calcutt plan to schedule a meeting shortly to start building ideas to reinvigorate the program.
Contact Matt Lamb at (910) 693-2479 or mlamb@thepilot.com.
