DATE: Sunday, October 26, 1997              TAG: 9710260060

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ARLINGTON                         LENGTH:   95 lines

LEADERS DISCUSS PHILANTHROPIC ROLES IN HELPING COMMUNITIES AS GOVERNMENT IS STREAMLINED, PRIVATE GROUPS' SOCIAL BURDENS WILL INCREASE.

The downsizing of government may mean that private philanthropies - ranging from large national foundations to small community trusts - must assume greater roles in revitalizing America's neighborhoods.

But what should those roles be?

That was a key question for more than 200 leaders from foundations, government, regional and neighborhood organizations gathered here for the 103rd annual conference of the National Civic League.

The conference's theme, ``The Role of Philanthropy in Community Building,'' took on a sense of urgency as the participants also wrestled with the impacts of smaller government at the federal, state and local levels.

``I've already gotten a sense of the crucial role that foundations play and must continue to play as community builders. Now, more than ever, the focus for foundations is at the local level,'' said retired Army Gen. Alphonso E. Lenhardt, executive vice president of the Council on Foundations, an association of more than 1,500 grant-making foundations and corporations.

For many conference participants, the urgency also is playing out in the challenges of welfare reform under downsized governments.

Richmond Social Services Director Michael Evans suggested that philanthropies can find an important role in assisting various community groups to help people move from welfare to work - and to continue working at livable wages.

It will be relatively easy for many welfare recipients to find low-paying jobs in a prosperous economy, Evans said. But he contended that welfare reform will succeed only if people are able to retain their jobs and begin moving into better-paying positions with adequate benefits, especially during tough economic times.

Evans warned: ``When the economy turns (down), people will be flooding back to our offices.''

Others shared Evans' concerns.

``Politicians like to point at welfare reform as an experiment,'' agreed Pablo Eisenberg of the Washington-based Center for Community Change, ``but we're dealing with 2 million to 3 million people's lives over the next few years, and they don't think of it as an experiment.''

Some charitable groups in Hampton Roads already are seeking ways to promote new networks among private, nonprofit services that work with the poor, especially welfare recipients. The United Way of South Hampton Roads has convened a series of discussions aimed at improving coordination among its 68 affiliate agencies.

At times, the exchanges resembled bitter, political debates over the downsizing of governments. A centerpiece of the discussion was a report, ``Giving Better, Giving Smarter,'' released in June by the National Commission on Philanthropy and Civic Renewal.

The report recommends that philanthropic donors demand demonstrable and real results from community groups; seek to create moral leadership; avoid being embraced by government and focus on tangible, local problems.

``We are rediscovering and reinvigorating the traditions of local help and neighborliness,'' said Leslie Lenkowsky, an advocate for the National Commission and a research associate in philanthropic studies and public policy at Indiana University.

Philanthropies need to reassess their roles and help grass-roots community groups, said Charles R. Halpern, president and CEO of the liberal Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York City. But he charged that the National Commission was a front for right-wing politics supported by the conservative Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee.

Implementing the recommendations, Halpern said, would amount to funding agencies that mostly treat the symptoms of poverty but gut any community-based effort to fight the root causes of poverty. The commission, he said, also ignored the needs of groups that would have trouble proving tangible results, such as in the cultural arts and advocating for a cleaner environment.

But do philanthropies have enough money to fill the breach left by downsized government? For many conferees, the question became: How could the foundations best use their money to help local communities?

The combined assets of all 40,000 foundations in America total $226 billion, but that equates to 7.5 percent of the federal government's annual budget and 30 percent of the budgets of all 50 states, said Damian Thorman of the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.

In recent years, the National Civic League has moved from its founding purpose of promoting good government to a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages a broader vision of citizen participation, especially in communities.

Charities are trying new ways to include average citizens in decision-making.

The United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta trains its staff and affiliated agencies ``to bring more people to the table to participate in the design of programs and the implementation of programs. It's just a part of our work now,'' said Dan Williams, the organization's first director of civic involvement.

``Clearly, you cannot simply do research; you also have to empower people to take control of their own lives,'' said former Sen. Bill Bradley, now chairman of the National Civic League.

Community building through partnerships ``cannot succeed unless the residents themselves are the major forces in planning and implementing the solutions,'' said Eisenberg of the Center for Community Change.

``There is a reluctance among philanthropies to fund coalitions,'' he also noted, adding: ``Neighborhood and community building takes money, big money.''

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