Carolina for Kibera gets endowment fund
By: Sarah Donovan, Staff Writer
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: University
Carolina for Kibera, the focal point of the 2008 Senior Class Campaign, is developing a more stable, self-sustaining business strategy by establishing a $4 million endowment.
CFK's programs promote youth leadership and ethnic and gender cooperation in Kibera through sports, women's empowerment and community development.
"We want the security to continue the work that we are doing regardless of the amount that we are able to fundraise in any given year," CFK Vice President Emily Pierce said. "The sustainability that an endowment affords is unmatched by any other source."
One advantage that endowments have over grants is that they give an organization more flexibility in deciding how to spend money, said Mat Despard, professor in the School of Social Work.
"Grants come with so many strings attached," Despard said.
With an endowment, the group uses only interest accumulated from the principle balance for funding.
So far, the organization has raised $630,000 for its endowment fund.
Because CFK is now a major UNC-affiliated entity, the University will help the organization invest and manage its endowment.
The donation made from the senior class fund will go toward the clinics and toward sending UNC volunteers to Kibera.
"Our class is a very philanthropically minded and worldly class," Senior Class President Ashley Shores said. "That's why the CFK speaks so perfectly to what the senior campaign is."
Pierce, who is the only paid, full-time CFK employee in the U.S., said the endowment will ensure that the programs in Kenya receive their necessary funding each year as the programs evolve.
"We should be addressing the needs of the community in Kibera, not the needs of a foundation," Pierce said. "We want to stay true to our grass roots."
Next year will mark the final year that CFK receives grants from the Ford Foundation, one of the organization's primary benefactors since it was founded as a student organization in 2001 by then UNC student Rye Barcott.
In the charitable organization's first five years, CFK reinvested 82 percent of its funds into building and improving its four community development programs in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
CFK's annual budget of $250,000 will increase this year because of the construction of a third Tabitha Medical Clinic that will contribute to the treatment of about 20,000 patients each year.
"When you are looking at raising an endowment, you are looking at an organization that is way beyond its initial stages of growth," Despard said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
CFK's programs promote youth leadership and ethnic and gender cooperation in Kibera through sports, women's empowerment and community development.
"We want the security to continue the work that we are doing regardless of the amount that we are able to fundraise in any given year," CFK Vice President Emily Pierce said. "The sustainability that an endowment affords is unmatched by any other source."
One advantage that endowments have over grants is that they give an organization more flexibility in deciding how to spend money, said Mat Despard, professor in the School of Social Work.
"Grants come with so many strings attached," Despard said.
With an endowment, the group uses only interest accumulated from the principle balance for funding.
So far, the organization has raised $630,000 for its endowment fund.
Because CFK is now a major UNC-affiliated entity, the University will help the organization invest and manage its endowment.
The donation made from the senior class fund will go toward the clinics and toward sending UNC volunteers to Kibera.
"Our class is a very philanthropically minded and worldly class," Senior Class President Ashley Shores said. "That's why the CFK speaks so perfectly to what the senior campaign is."
Pierce, who is the only paid, full-time CFK employee in the U.S., said the endowment will ensure that the programs in Kenya receive their necessary funding each year as the programs evolve.
"We should be addressing the needs of the community in Kibera, not the needs of a foundation," Pierce said. "We want to stay true to our grass roots."
Next year will mark the final year that CFK receives grants from the Ford Foundation, one of the organization's primary benefactors since it was founded as a student organization in 2001 by then UNC student Rye Barcott.
In the charitable organization's first five years, CFK reinvested 82 percent of its funds into building and improving its four community development programs in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
CFK's annual budget of $250,000 will increase this year because of the construction of a third Tabitha Medical Clinic that will contribute to the treatment of about 20,000 patients each year.
"When you are looking at raising an endowment, you are looking at an organization that is way beyond its initial stages of growth," Despard said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
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