Magazine Publisher’s Charity Begins — but Doesn’t End — at the Office

For Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, there was only one way to ring in the new millennium.

The successful business-magazine publisher spent New Year’s Eve inside a warehouse in her hometown of Greensboro, N.C.,

building house frames for Habitat for Humanity with 600 friends, family members, and acquaintances.

“I didn’t want to be drinking champagne, flying around the world, or on some exotic island,” says Ms. McElveen-Hunter, president of Pace Communications, a private company that publishes numerous airline and other specialty magazines, including Elegant Bride. “I wanted to be someplace that makes a statement about what my life represents. I wanted to be making a difference when the millennium came in.”

Increasingly, business owners such as Ms. McElveen-Hunter approach their giving creatively, and their involvement extends far beyond just writing a check for a good cause.

“I really do consider myself an agent for change,” says Ms. McElveen-Hunter, who sits on the board of Habitat for Humanity International and who, for the past two years, has served as the chairman of the United Way of Greater Greensboro’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society, whose members have donated $10,000 or more to the charity.

In fact, Ms. McElveen-Hunter’s philanthropy extends far beyond the charity board room. Each year, she gives 15 per cent of her company’s profits to charity. (Although she declined to reveal those figures, Ms. McElveen-Hunter did say Pace Communication’s annual sales are just below $80-million.) She has contributed millions of dollars — both from the company’s coffers and her own personal wealth — to the United Way and Habitat for Humanity.

Ms. McElveen-Hunter has also garnered recognition for her efforts to encourage philanthropy among women. Most notably, in the last two years she has persuaded more than 80 women to contribute $10,000 or more to the local United Way.

“Bonnie represents a new generation of corporate leadership in that they invest themselves in a very direct way in causes that they really believe make a substantial difference in the quality of life,” says Betty Beene, president of the United Way of America.

“Bonnie’s greatest strength is her ability to help others become involved in effecting change,” she adds. “With Bonnie you don’t just write a check and walk away. She wants not only your pocketbook, but she wants your head and heart every bit as much.”

Ms. McElveen-Hunter’s entrepreneurial spirit has been at the core of Pace Communications for 27 years. She started Pace magazine in 1972, at age 22, with just one part-time secretary to assist her. In 1983, Pace Communications was spun off from the parent company that had been backing Ms. McElveen-Hunter’s work, and she was able to acquire a third of the stock.

Four years ago, she bought out the remaining stockholders and put her 15-per-cent giving policy in place. When she announced the policy to her employees, they gave her a standing ovation.

Her philanthropic focus, which she says is rooted in her strong Protestant faith, extends to other areas of the business. Three years ago, when Pace Communications celebrated its 25th anniversary, Ms. McElveen-Hunter gave each of her employees — nearly 200 — a $2,500 bonus. The only thing she asked in return, she says, was that they consider donating 10 per cent of their bonus to charity.

“We had 100-per-cent participation,” she says. Later, her employees presented her with a green leather-bound album in which each wrote what he or she did with their contribution.

The company also provides college scholarships of $5,000 to any child of Pace Communications employees who maintains at least a C average. Last year, Ms. McElveen-Hunter gave $1-million to establish a similar college scholarship fund for the children of Habitat for Humanity employees, whose salaries are modest.

But Ms. McElveen-Hunter is much more than a generous donor. Those who know her say she is also an extraordinary fund raiser. When a luncheon she hosted last June for then-presidential hopeful Elizabeth Dole raised $110,000, the candidate was so impressed that she persuaded Ms. McElveen-Hunter to serve as the finance chairman of her short-lived campaign.

Except for that brief foray into politics, however, Ms. McElveen-Hunter’s fund-raising efforts have all been philanthropic.

Shortly after she moved into a million-dollar home in 1997, she volunteered to hold a fund-raising party for Habitat for Humanity — in part, she says, to ease her own conscience.

“My husband and I felt a responsibility if we were moving into this beautiful home that the least we could do was make sure other people had roofs over their heads,” she says.

The event was dubbed the Habitat Hard-Hat Hurrah. Ms. McElveen-Hunter tacked her new home’s blueprints on one wall and added construction lighting for effect. She had wheelbarrows piled high with fresh shrimp and a backhoe filled with oysters.

”She invited all these folks in and then put the hit on them,” says Jim Melvin, former mayor of Greensboro and a long-time friend who now runs the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation.

The party raised $1-million — including $225,000 donated by Ms. McElveen-Hunter — for Habitat’s local affiliate to finance the construction of 20 new homes in the city.

Ms. McElveen-Hunter has proved equally successful in raising money for the United Way of Greater Greensboro.

In 1997, when she became chair of the local De Tocqueville Society, Ms. McElveen-Hunter decided not to pursue the same “good old boys” around town for donations.

Instead, she went to a previously overlooked source — the women of Greensboro. She recruited 41 women into the De Tocqueville Society, a group that previously had counted just four women among its members. Together, the women gave more money to the United Way than did any other group of women in America — a total of $910,000.

Last year, she repeated the success, bringing 40 more women into the society and raising $1.2-million.

“She is so contagious,” says Mr. Melvin, the former mayor. “And she doesn’t take No for an answer.”