By: Marnie Thompson

These days, it seems rare to get timely information, especially about money matters, from agencies and organizations. Yet, at F4DC, we think that transparency – the practice of proactively sharing detailed and accurate information with the public – is a key hallmark of authentic democracy. If the community doesn’t have ready access to solid, understandable information, we can’t be sure whether our institutions are living up to their billing, can’t hold them to account in any real way. Nor can the public engage in informed debate and decision-making about the value of those institutions to the community or the direction we’d like them to go in.

In an effort to practice what we preach, this webpage is the place where we talk turkey about money. Here’s the latest scoop on F4DC’s money – how much we have, where it came from, and where it’s being spent.

You can see on our Balance Sheet and our Statement of Financial Income and Expense that as of October 31st. we had received only a small portion of the money that will ultimately come from the estate of W.H. Thompson (my Dad). This year, we received $354,000 from Dad’s estate, out of a total that we expect will amount to roughly $5 million (though this figure is hard to pin down, given the state of the economy these days!).

“Why is it taking so long?” you might ask. It’s because of the kinds of investments that my Dad made, which were mostly not in the stock market or other publicly traded instruments. He mostly invested in privately arranged loans to commercial real estate developers, start-ups of companies making medical devices, that kind of thing. We can’t get the money in these kinds of investments “on command.” We have to wait till the loan agreements become “liquid,” or pay off in the form of cash. And then we have to wait a little while longer while the estate settles this aspect of its business and pays off its various beneficiaries, of which F4DC is one.

It’s going to take a number of years for the estate to be made liquid and settle, and it’s going to happen in stages. With the economy in the condition it is in, it’s hard to know how long this will take, but we estimate about 5-7 years, with a good portion of it coming in the next 1-3 years. Read the rest of this entry »

F4DC is excited to announce our recent grant recipients. In this second grant cycle, we awarded a total of $30,000 to 13 organizations in support of what we believe are outstanding community-focused programs. The following programs received grants for their dedication to strengthening communities through authentic democratic practices:

100 Leaders was awarded a grant to support the work of identifying, developing, and networking community leaders for more effective and sustainable community involvement and advocacy.

Caregiver Village’s grant will support a planning process that culminates in a strategic plan to guide a partnership between the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness at UNCG and the Piedmont Heights community.

Choosing Sides will use their F4DC grant to help expand the Choosing Sides program by one additional independent site, and to provide transportation to assist in bring together participating groups.

Crack Intervention Research Project will use their awarded grant to support a participatory research project by the Harm Reduction Crack Institute and Yale School of Public Health to develop deeper insight as to how to tailor crack intervention so it best suits the needs of local crack users and decreases the incidence of HIV, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases. Go here to learn more about the project. Read the rest of this entry »

(This is the speech I gave at the first board meeting of F4DC in July of 2007. It lays out part of the vision for this organization. This works continues to be a challenge.  ELW)  

Today we are called upon to seize this moment.  We are here with gardeners, artists, technicians, philosophers, mathematicians, organizers, musicians, theologians, story tellers, nurturers, analysts, and all other forms of trouble makers.  We make trouble for the status quo, but beyond that — we have the capacity to analyze end replicate our understanding so that the trouble is made world wide.

This may be the most incredible board ever.

But with the infinite human potential, it doesn’t matter.  We are who we are.  And today is now.  In the early part of the last century, scholars, activists, intellectuals converged onto New York.  Some had been displaced by the NAZI regime in Germany.  Others had decided that the repressive atmosphere at Columbia University was more than they had to bear.  They were sociologists, economists, linguists, psychologists, political scientists and educators. They began an intellectual movement that has helped shape the latter 20th century and the 21st. Read the rest of this entry »

F4DC hosted a free six-hour Grant-Writing Workshop for those who were interested in additional information and help in preparing their grant proposals

The workshop was held Saturday, August 23, 2008 from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM at The Greensboro HIVE, 1214 Grove Street. Attendance at the Grant-Writing Workshop was optional; however, we encouraged grant-seekers to attend if they had questions about the application process or needed assistance with grant proposals. Go here to view the workshop agenda. View photos of some of the participants in the Grant-Writing Workshop.