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Sunday, November 4, 2001
Growing our community
Coastal Bend Community Foundation helps charities do everything from filling prescriptions to building playgrounds
By Leanne Libby
Caller-Times

Photo Illustration by John Bruce and David Adame/Caller-Times

Executive director Jim Moloney's task is to master the art of networking, both with donors and potential donors as well as charities seeking financial assistance.

Gilbert Ibarra was fighting cancer, but his primary concern was graduating from high school with his friends. A computer would go a long way toward helping him keep up with his studies, but seeing as his modest Brownsville home didn't even have a phone, buying a computer was out of the question.
   Out of the question, that is, until David Abarca arrived with a free computer. Less than a month earlier, Abarca had done the same for a homebound Flour Bluff student. Abarca was on his way to founding the Cancer Students' Computer Fund. A lifelong volunteer, he knew fund-raising could be a daunting task, so he went to the Coastal Bend Community Foundation for help.
   "We went from being the garage band of non-profits to an up-front stage group because of the credibility that goes with (the foundation)," Abarca said.
   On Nov. 20, the Coastal Bend Community Foundation will celebrate its 20-year anniversary. While many of the donations the public foundation receives are large ones from

living philanthropists or bequests, other accounts have balances in the thousands, not the millions.
   And while money given to the foundation may reappear in the community in dramatic fashion, such as a new library or a new wing on a museum, many smaller funds and grants touch lives, such as Ibarra's, throughout the Coastal Bend.
   Growing an education
   With the computer installed, Ibarra set to work. His friends took computer disks back and forth to his teachers, and Ibarra achieved his goal.
   "The same night my daughter walked across the stage at King High School, (Ibarra) walked across the stage with his friends," Abarca said.
   Ibarra received his computer a few weeks after Abarca had done the same thing for Flour Bluff student Frank DeLuna.

   When Abarca's daughter was in high school, the band director often asked for a few minutes of silence for students to gather their thoughts or pray. One day, however, he told the group that there was a boy in the community, DeLuna, who was sick with cancer and suggested that the students might want to pray or think about him.
   As time went on, Abarca continued to hear about the boy's condition from his daughter. They learned that DeLuna was missing quite a bit of school. His parents were considering buying him a computer to help him keep up with his classmates. Abarca, who owns a software company, was moved to action.
   "I could not begin to imagine as a parent all the things you would go through if your child was ill and also have to worry about computer payments," he said.
   He got in touch with the DeLuna's mother, who he had never met, and told her to stop worrying about the computer. He didn't know how, he said, but he would take care of it for her.

   Abarca started working the phone, and friends from the area and other cities responded with donations. Two collected money from their Sunday School classes. Ten fast and furious days of fund-raising later, he delivered a computer, a printer, software and an Internet connection.
   As soon as he raises money for software, Abarca plans to donate 22 computers to Driscoll Children's Hospital. He has four more to place in patients' homes, but lacks software for those computers as well. He has applied for a grant from the Coastal Bend Community Foundation to help him purchase what he needs.
   Laying a foundation
   Today, the foundation is worth more than $32 million. Last year, it gave out about $3.6 million in grants. Things looked a lot different 20 years ago, however.
   When Dana Williams, who served as the foundation's executive director from 1981 to 1998, came on board, the foundation wasn't worth a dime. The former CCISD superintendent was charged with the formidable task of convincing potential donors that a community foundation was an idea whose time had come in Corpus Christi.
   "When I started work, it was pretty tough to try to build a foundation," Williams said. "It was tough to go to a guy with money and say, 'We'd like you to contribute.' They'd ask how much money was in the pot, and I would say, 'none.'"
   Local philanthropist Paul Haas was so confident that a community foundation was right for the area that he donated $150,000 for operational expenses.
   "I had seen their success in larger cities like San Francisco and Dallas, to some extent, and I thought it would fit Corpus Christi very well," Haas said. "There was the desire to make funds available in one place to help the community. Then we needed to let people know it was there and they should be spreading the wealth."
   Easier said than done, of course.
   "People were a little bit skeptical of what good we could do and the way we would handle the money," Haas said. "The way we could handle that was to get good trustees and get them to understand it and be positive about it."
   While a cadre of spokespeople was all very good, Haas knew money would be even better.
   "One always becomes more acceptable if one has more money," he said with a laugh.
   In 1981, Dorothy Sigler was working part-time at the Chamber of Commerce when the buzz about forming a community foundation started. The Chamber offered free office space for the fledgling foundation, and Sigler helped Williams with secretarial duties.
   Slowly but surely, donations started to come in. When F. Starr Pope Sr. died in 1987 and the foundation received more than $4 million from his estate in 1989, they knew they were in business. At last, they could start giving out grants.
   Williams and Sigler moved to their own offices in the First City Bank building (Now Wells Fargo; today, Sigler and current executive director Jim Moloney work out of offices in the 600 Building.) Sigler started working full-time and has hardly had a moment's rest since.
   "There's no boredom," she said. "Donors call to check on their funds, donors with advised funds ask us to make distributions, we have materials to prepare and reports on funds. We have one grant period a year, and it's quite busy. We are taking many calls and mailing out guidelines for applying for grants."
   Growing medical help
   In a month, Open Arms and Thankful Hearts helps fill more than 812 new prescriptions and 3,500 refills. While Congress has mandated free medications for indigent patients, co-founder Jeannie Hodgkiss said that doesn't mean they are easy to come by. Long forms and filing fees often stand between a patient and good health. Hodgkiss co-founded OATH as a paperwork clearinghouse to help patients cut through the red tape.
   "With us, help getting a three-month supply of medicine costs $10," Hodgkiss said. "That could be $2,900 worth of cancer medication."
   One tearful client told Hodgkiss that OATH's help in getting her medication meant she could afford a birthday gift for her grandson.
   When Hodgkiss opened her doors in 1999, she lugged her computer from home. The phone system left a bit to be desired as well. With only two lines, no voice mail, and a touch-and-go transfer system, it was hard to project a professional atmosphere.
   Lou Adele May, a member of the foundation's board of directors, told Hodgkiss about the foundation. A few annual grant applications later, Hodgkiss sees a big difference in her organization. The first year, they were able to buy a computer system. Next, they received $10,000 to buy a new phone system.
   "The voice mail added a professionalism we really needed and we don't hang as many people up," Hodgkiss said.
   "The Coastal Bend Community Foundation has always been somewhere to go," she said. "Jim (Moloney) is just always there to listen and advise, and he's always looking for funds for us."
   This year, Hodgkiss filed a grant application with the foundation for 10 more computers so the staff can stop doing all the paperwork by hand.
   Making the connection
   Moloney, who took over as executive director of the foundation in 1998, said one attraction of the foundation is the idea of donors leaving a permanent mark on the community. A one-time donation of $20,000, for example, could provide a $1,000 annual gift in perpetuity.
   Helping make small miracles happen at area charities, however, keeps Moloney busy. On Thursday, the foundation will announce more than 100 grants worth about $500,000. Moloney read through 198 applications to whittle the list, which he then gave to the grants committee. The board of directors grants final approval before they are announced.
   Moloney's task is to master the art of networking, both with donors and potential donors as well as charities seeking financial assistance.
   "I know how a non-profit works, so I can advise someone on setting one up," he said. "I can also talk to people looking for grants and advise them on which projects have the best chance of getting grant money."
   By learning all he can about area charities, he finds the best ways he can help them and how to advise his donors.
   "I can call them and say, 'I have a charity I think you would like. Would you like to make a donation?'"
   While Moloney appreciates the large gestures that donor-advised funds sometimes make, he seems to take equal, if not more, pride in the many smaller grants made possible by donations that come without strings attached.
   "For Operation Paintbrush, for example, we provided cash to buy paint," he said. "That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is to the person whose house gets painted."
   Growing a playground
   Sandy Billish looked out the window of her Padre Island home one day and saw a little girl trying to learn to ride a Big Wheel in the middle of the street. At that moment, Billish decided what she could do to improve her community.
   At the time, Gypsy Park, near her home, consisted of little more than a swing set and a basketball hoop. Billish formed a committee and began raising funds for a refurbished park. Another group had tried to do the same thing in the early '90s. They abandoned the project, but not before setting up a fund at the Coastal Bend Community Foundation.
   "I met with Jim and told him what our plan was, and he said he would work with us and help us keep track of the money," Billish said.
   Donations started coming in. Some were big, like the builder who donated the $10,000 pavilion, but many were small, coming in checks of $25 or $50 from neighbors.
   "Whenever there was something that needed to be delivered or we needed to pay a vendor, I would send a request to Jim, and he would send a check," Billish said.
   During the seven months the park was under construction, Billish spent almost every day on site.
   "The biggest reward is seeing it used every day," she said. "I was walking out there one day to see where we should put the exercise stations. Two little girls rode up on their bikes with a picnic basket. 'We're going to have a picnic,' they said. 'Would you like to join us?' It moved me to tears."


Contact Leanne Libby at 886-3615 or libbyl@caller.com

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