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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Woodruff Arts Center nears corporate campaign goal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Only $88,355 to go. And three more days to raise it.
The Woodruff Arts Center annual corporate campaign has raised $8.61 million of its $8.7 million goal.
The feat is particularly impressive because that money was raised in only 10 months compared to the usual 12 -month effort. The shortened season was due to the arts center changing its fiscal year to end on May 31.
Not only did the center have less time to raise the money. But it also set a record campaign goal. And all that during a tough economy.
“Those factors have been balanced out by terrific leadership,” said Beauchamp Carr, executive vice president of the Woodruff Arts Center, who couldn’t say enough good things about Tommy Holder, CEO of Holder Construction Co., the chair of the campaign. “Tommy was really wonderful. The whole campaign cabinet was great.”
Carr was especially pleased with the $1.1 million raised through its challenge fund, chaired by search consultant Veronica Biggins. The challenge fund, which had 10 donors, matches new dollars raised during the campaign.
Those 10 entities were: AT&T, Bank of America, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, Deloitte, Georgia Power Foundation, Holder Construction, the Marcus Foundation, the Sara Giles Moore Foundation, SunTrust and UPS.
Carr was optimistic the goal would be met within the next few days.
“We are absolutely counting on rasing the entire campaign amount,” Carr said. “We have got to. Failure is not an option.”
Holder agreed, saying it would probably be the end of next week before they would be sure the goal had been met.
“We are very close, and we are confident we’ll get there,” Holder said. “The reporting process just takes a little longer.”
The top overall donors to the campaign are:
The one donor giving at least $450,000: the Coca-Cola Co.;
Donors giving $400,000 or more: the Georgia Power Foundation and Turner Broadcasting System;
Donors giving at least $300,000: the Cox interests, which includes a gift from Anne Cox Chambers and the combined donations from Cox Enterprises’ entities (including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB-TV, Cox Radio Group Atlanta and the Cox Foundation), Deloitte partners and employees and UPS.
Those giving at least $200,000: AT&T (which increased from $200,000 to $230,000), SunTrust foundations and employees, Florence C. and Harry L. English Memorial Fund, Harriett McDaniel Marshall Trust and the Walter H. and Marjory M. Rich Memorial Fund.
Among the other key members of the campaign cabinet: Georgia Power’s Mike Garrett who will chair the campaign next year; Deloitte’s Bradford Branch; H.J. Russell’s Michael Russell, Scott Selig of Selig Enterprises; Frank McGaughey of Powell Goldstein, Gary Peacock of SunTrust and Susan Bell of Ernst & Young.
Atlanta’s YWCA Salute Raises Funds
The YWCA of Greater Atlanta has been tallying up the dollars it raised from its recent Salute to Women of Achievement luncheon two weeks ago.
“The Salute was the best ever,” said Justine Boyd, CEO of Atlanta’s YWCA. “We raised almost $480,000 through the support of corporate, individuals and theAirTran Airways auction.”
This was the 25th anniversary of the Salute to Women of Achievement recognition, and so the YWCA decided to “salute the salute” and celebrate the achievements of the 250 women in its academy.
Since it was a special year, the Salute did not identify one woman as the overall woman of achievement. But it did induct 10 new women into the academy.
They were: Pinney Allen, formerly of Alston & Bird and currently the head of the Atlanta Girls’ School; Lisa Borders, president of the Atlanta City Council; Susana Maria Chavez, vice president and Southeast regional manager of Parking Company of America; LaJean Waller Gould, president and founder of the Women in Golf Foundation; Lisa Hamilton, president of the UPS Foundation; Ceceilia Houston-Torrence, community involvement banking officer at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta; Candace Kaspers, president of Gender Plus; Penelope McPhee, president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation; Rhonda Mims, president of ING Foundation; and Louise Sams, executive vice president and general counsel of Turner Broadcasting System.
Boyd took a moment to recognize the strides women have made in the past 25 years.
“We live in a city where the mayor’s name is Shirley [Franklin]. We live in a state where the chief justice’s name is Leah [Ward Sears], and we live in a place where Coke is known as Ingrid [Saunders Jones],” Boyd said. “We live in a place where women know no limits.”
Donna Buchanan to retire from Junior Achievement
Speaking of amazing women…. Donna Buchanan, president of Junior Achievement of Georgia, on Wednesday announced her plans to retire by the end of June.
Her successor will be Jack Harris, Junior Achievement’s chief operating officer.
Buchanan, a graduate of Georgia State University graduate, began her career with Junior Achievement in 1979 as an education manager in the New Orleans office. She left the organization for a couple of years in the 1990s, but returned in 1993 to become president of Junior Achievement of Georgia. Buchanan also is a past president of the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta.
Harris, a graduate of Princeton, has been with Junior Achievement for six years in various roles. Before that, he worked with Smith Barney and taught for two years at the Wesleyan School in Norcross.
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The Southern Co.-Home Depot connection
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At Home Depot’s annual meeting last week, a shareholder asked CEO Frank Blake how he finds time to serve on the board of the Southern Co.
“It’s a pleasure and an honor to be able to do that,” Blake responded. “It’s a significant local company. And I learn a lot serving on that board.”
So when I ran into Blake at today’s Southern Co. annual meeting, the first thing he told me was: “It’s a learning experience. This is my first time at Callaway Gardens.”
In fact, this is the first Southern Co. annual meeting that Blake has been able to attend. He has had scheduling conflicts in previous years.
And coincidentally, Home Depot’s name came up during the question-and-answer period with shareholders.
A shareholder urged Southern Co.’s CEO David Ratcliffe to get in the business of selling and installing solar panels so he could be a customer rather than buy from other energy companies like BP.
Ratcliffe made no promises, but said the utility would be open to link customers with firms in the solar panel business. Ratcliffe even mentioned Home Depot as a possibility.
After the meeting, Blake said: “We actually do sell solar panels, and we have solar installation business, but it’s done through BP.”
Blake has been on Southern Co.’s board since 2004, nearly two years before he was named CEO of the home improvement company. It was a natural fit because Blake served as U.S. deputy secretary of energy from May 2001 to April 2002.
Meanwhile, a recurring topic among shareholders at the Southern’s annual meeting was the desire for the company to invest more in alternative energy sources.
Philanthropist and environmentalist Ted Turner has been urging Ratcliffe to do the same. In fact, just this past weekend, Turner and Ratcliffe got together to continue their “conversation” on the future of the nation’s energy.
Ratcliffe, who seemed to be joking, said he and Turner may go into the wind power business in Texas. Turner already has invested in the solar energy business.
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More focus needed on transportation needs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After months of growing tension between the business community and state leaders over transportation issues, Gov. Sonny Perdue on Tuesday called a select group of top business leaders to a breakfast meeting at the Governor’s Mansion.
Mike Garrett, president of Georgia Power and the chair-elect of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, was at the meeting and said the governor gave assurances that he would work on a statewide transportation plan to present in the fall.
Among others at the meeting were Tom Bell of Cousins Properties; developer David Allman; Joe Leonard, retired AirTran CEO; Charles Tarbutton, chairman of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce; and Dick Anderson, new executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.
Garrett, interviewed Wednesday at Georgia Power’s annual shareholders meeting, said Perdue told the business leaders he knows the state needs a new funding source for transportation. But the governor added that he also believes the state needs to get its own house in order in how it implements projects, Garrett said.
“By fall, he wants to sit down with us and talk about his plan,” Garrett said. “It would be a menu of different things, and it would be a statewide solution.”
Business leaders believe metro Atlanta has the most critical transportation needs, Garrett said, and the group was quick to point that out to the governor.
“I told him that the Get Georgia Moving Coalition was born out of frustration in the business community,” Garrett said. “We have to make something happen, and we want to make sure it’s the right thing.”
The coalition tried to get the Legislature to allow voters to decide on the ability of regions to pass a 1-cent sales tax to pay for their transportation needs. That measure did not pass.
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