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USM Forum -- Message Board -> AAUP-USM MESSAGE BOARD -> USM Foundation supports Mississippi Children's Home
Post Info TOPIC: USM Foundation supports Mississippi Children's Home
ram


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USM Foundation supports Mississippi Children's Home
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Potential participants have received invitations to a Wine Tasting and Silent Auction that will be held on May 4 at the Canebrake Golf Club, the proceeds of which will benefit the Mississippi Children's Home Services.  One of the "Aficianado Sponsors" is listed as "President and Mrs. Shelby F. Thames and the USM Foundation."  I should probably just feel all warm and fuzzy because the President, his spouse and the USM Foundation are all doing good stuff for a worthy charity.  Kudos and props to SFT and the Missus; but the inclusion of the Foundation as a sponsor gives me pause.

As an occasional donor to the USM Foundation, it bothers me a bit to think that the funds I contribute are going to the Children's Home.  Not that the Home is in any way unworthy of support, but if I wanted my money to go there, I'd make my own dang contribution.  I give to the USM Foundation with the assumption that it will benefit students, faculty, staff -- somebody-- at USM.  Silly me.

Maybe the sponsorship of the Wine Tasting and Silent Auction is from a particular fund that was established to promote the USM Foundation by demonstrating what a good corporate citizen it is.  In the alternative, perhaps this particular contribution was made from money that is assessed as "administrative expense" and charged against the endowed funds and scholarship money that make up most of the Foundation assets.  If so, I think it could have been better described.  To be frank, the actual description included on the invitation gives me the impression that the President uses the Foundation as his own personal charitable checkbook.

I can only hope that the next president will be -- if nothing else -- more conscious of the appearance of possible impropriety.



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Anonymous

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At this point in time, it behooves the Foundation to avoid anything that could possibly look funny.   Donors are thinking about coming back on board.

There was a time in the past when one of the departments in the former College of the Arts was listed as a donor on NPR.   I know those folks--and know it was for name recognition--but I always thought it didn't look quite right for the department/college to be asking for donors but itself be a donor.


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Southern Belle


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I fully support the MS Children's Hospital.

The Foundation has enough problems in their own house that need to be taken care of. 

How do current Foundation donors and possible future donors feel about this?

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Southern Belle at Southern Miss
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As a person who has donated to other schools, I always assumed that my money would be used on campus. While I too strongly support MS Children's Home, I don't understand how the Foundation picks which "worthy cause" to support. If they have this freedom, what's to keep them from picking something many donors would strongly oppose next time? It's the precedent that's worrisome.

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Love your enemies.  It makes them so damned mad.  ~P.D. East
LeftASAP


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Posts: 146
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Could it be the funds are just donations from the members of the department or unit?  I know that on occasion our department would collect donations from faculty and staff to make a contribution for some cause.  The donation was said to be from the department of __________. 

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Anonymous

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I work in non-profit.  Many times we have donors that are involved with our organization that make gifts on our behalf to other non-profits, and we get the "public" acknowlegement or PR associated with the gift.  It's like free advertisement for us b/c we have no budget for paid placement in the papers or glossies.  Not a check is cut nor disbursed from the 501(c)3 coffers.  And the original donor still gets the tax deduction associated with the gift, as they have no care to be publicly acknowledged or recognized. 

Anonymity is gold when it comes to major philanthropy.



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