I. What is Philanthropy?

Norman “Sandy” McCulloch and Dorothy McCulloch of Barrington are long known for their charitable giving and community service. This year alone they have received several prestigious honors. Mrs. McCulloch was one of only 32 Americans — including President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter — to receive a Millennium International Volunteer Award for her long-time work with International House. And Dartmouth College named its newest residence hall in honor of Mr. McCulloch, past chair of the university’s Board of Trustees. Mr. McCulloch has been on the Board of St. Andrew’s School since 1964, and is Chairman of the Board of The Rhode Island Foundation.
Is philanthropy a family trait?

You bet it is. I learned both from my parents and my wife’s parents. Both couples felt as I do that philanthropy of both your time and talent was a moral and civic obligation.

There was plenty of focus on earning a living and raising a family, but there was always an understanding that if we achieved success as a family, then it was time and indeed our duty to help other people.

Since we feel it is an obligation to give back, we don’t deserve any praise or recognition or particular highlight or spotlight. Both of our parents did their philanthropy very, very quietly.

There truly is a “joy in giving.” The sense of satisfaction of participating is such that one feels really good about giving.

Dina Lopez is a 20-year-old Providence woman who was born in Guatemala and moved to Providence at age 2. She and her mother and sister qualified for a Habitat for Humanity home (pictured here) when she was just entering her teens. That experience began several years of her own volunteer work, including with Habitat for Humanity, and her decision to attend Brown University to study community health. She was on the first board of YES, a youth philanthropy board.

I first became involved in community service when we got our house from Habitat for Humanity. It was my first time seeing people giving time and energy for no other reason than helping. I saw how much fun it was for them just knowing they were contributing to working families in the community.

I saw first hand what it really means to give. It means empowerment, it’s educational, it’s recreational at times.

What have you learned from your work with YES?

It surprised me that giving was hard. My mother couldn’t quite understand why. I explained that it involved improving the community, involving community members, and trying to come up with ways to grapple with issues.

What does the word “philanthropy” mean?

My first reaction is to think of people just giving money and that’s it. It’s not as positive a connotation as I’d like to have it. It’s an incredible gesture, but it’s just not enough.

Frederick Williamson moved to Rhode Island in 1929 at age 14. He began working at the Quonset Point Naval Station in 1941 shortly after it opened, and stayed for the next 27 years, steadily rising to positions of more and more responsibility. While taking on increasingly demanding jobs for the Navy, he was also playing a key role in the community: as President of the Urban League, as a columnist for the Providence Chronicle, with the NAACP, as the state’s Historic Preservation Officer, on the Board of the Domini Fund, and founding the Black Heritage Society. At the behest of then-Governor Frank Licht, Mr. Williamson became Director of the State Department of Community Affairs in 1969, and stayed there for the next 16 years.

I look at philanthropy from my background in management. You get things done through government assistance and funding, but there’s a limit to what they can do[. And] too much government becomes an incursion into rights. You get things done by individuals dipping into their pockets.

What has to happen is what I call the “green frontier”. What [black Rhode Islanders] have to do is teach our youngsters to participate and understand more of the economics of saving, investing, and pooling your money; this is the last and most important frontier. With that you can have more kids going to college, buy a house in a better community. Once you’re able to do that, you can pass it on, you can put out a helping hand to others to do the same thing.

Julianne Jennings, now of Newport, grew up in Providence and East Providence. Her father — both Indian and African American — “started his own business and managed to keep us afloat and well fed.”

A defining event in her life was attending the Algonquin Indian School in Providence “where I learned all my traditions, the language, the culture, the crafts.” In recent years, as Strong Woman, she has found a calling as a storyteller and presenter in much demand from schools, libraries, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, and other venues.

We were taught early on (at the Algonquin
Indian School) that all men are fathers and all women are mothers, and must accept their responsibilities accordingly. I consider myself a good mother, a good community doer.

When the Pilgrims first came here, Indians gave unconditionally. The Indian philosophy is somewhere down the road, someone’s going to take care of you. We also believe that if you’re not worthy of what we’ve given you, the Indian will take it away. That’s where the term Indian Giver comes from.

The Indian still has to give unconditionally; he has to give more than his neighbor, because of the negative images we have to overcome. So I have to work twice as hard to be heard, to be recognized, that I too am a thinking, feeling person.

As a community person, I don’t associate myself with philanthropy at all. I just consider myself a kind-hearted individual.