Awards, Jun 03, 1999

The following awards have been presented for work in philanthropy, fund raising, volunteerism, and non-profit management:

Black philanthropy. Several awards were presented at the Second National Conference on Black Philanthropy, in Oakland, Cal., last month. The recipients:

— The 1999 Special Achievement in Philanthropy for an Individual Philanthropy Award: Oral Lee Brown, a realtor in Oakland whose Oral Lee Foundation provides college scholarships and other support for low-income students.

— The 1999 Special Achievement in Philanthropy for an Organization Award: Shell Youth Training Academy, a partnership between the Shell Oil Company and the Oakland Unified School District that provides employment opportunities for disadvantaged Oakland-area youths.

— The 1999 Lifetime Achievement in Philanthropy Award: Ruth M. Batson, founder and president of the Ruth M. Batson Educational Foundation (Boston), which provides black and disadvantaged students with college scholarships and money for books and other needs.

— The 1999 Philanthropy Award Winner: Barry Bonds, a member of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, for his work with the Barry Bonds Family Foundation, which supports programs for black youths in the San Francisco Bay area and encourages black Americans to register as bone-marrow donors.

Fund raising. The National Society of Fund Raising Executives (Alexandria, Va.) has presented its 1999 Awards for Philanthropy. The recipients:

— Outstanding Philanthropist: Ruth Collins Sharp Altshuler of Dallas, for her major donations to, and volunteer support at, various organizations, including Southern Methodist University, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

— Outstanding Volunteer Fund Raiser: Robert T. Shircliff of Jacksonville, Fla., for his work leading capital campaigns at Jacksonville University, St. Vincent’s Medical Center, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, and other local non-profit institutions.

— Outstanding Corporation: BankBoston (Boston), for its work over the past decade on City Year, the Center for Women and Enterprise, and other creative and innovative philanthropic activities.

— Outstanding Foundation: RGK Foundation (Austin, Tex.), a family foundation that focuses on education, health, literacy, and medical research, and that provides its recipients with additional technical assistance.

— Outstanding Fund-Raising Executive: Ted D. Bayley, executive director of St. Joseph’s Mercy Foundation (Atlanta), who has raised more than $100-million during his 38 years as a professional fund raiser.

The Awards for Excellence in Fund Raising, which are sponsored by Campbell & Company, were made in two categories. The award for large organizations went to Jack R. Bohlen of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center (Chicago); the award for small organizations went to St. Edward’s U. (Austin, Tex.), for its Second Century Campaign.

Human rights. The Reebok Foundation (Stoughton, Mass.) has announced the recipients of its 1999 Reebok Human Rights Awards, which honor human-rights activists who are aged 30 or younger. Recipients each receive a $25,000 grant, to be contributed to the human-rights organization of their choice. The winners:

— Julie Dogbadzi, 24, Ghana, who has mounted a “one-woman campaign” against the practice of “trokosi,” a tradition in the Upper Volta region of West Africa in which children are forced into sexual and labor slavery to compensate for the alleged crimes of relatives.

— Tanya Greene, 28, Atlanta, who represents indigent death-row clients in Alabama and Georgia through the Southern Center for Human Rights and who works to change policies and to educate the public about the role of racial discrimination, poverty, and other factors in the disproportionate use of the death penalty in cases involving poor, black individuals.

— Ka Hsaw Wa, 28, Myanmar, the co-founder of Earth Rights International, a non-governmental group that documents government-sponsored forced labor, rapes, and other human-rights violations in this country formerly known as Burma.

— Suba Churchill Meshack, 26, Kenya, co-founder and chair of the Kenya University Student Organization, who has been arrested numerous times and tortured for his work to expose government corruption and human-rights abuses in Kenya.