Nonprofit news roundup for Oct. 3, 2008

October 3, 2008

The North Carolina-based Golden LEAF Foundation is seeking a $100 million loan to help the Global TransPark Authority, a state-funded business park in Kinston, N.C., attract an airplane-parts manufacturing company, The News & Observer reported Oct. 3 (see loan story). The effort to lure Spirit Aerosystems to Kinston is part of a plan to create more than 1,000 jobs in Eastern North Carolina. Though the foundation has more than $700 million in assets, the money is tied up in investments that would be difficult to undo without hurting the foundation's allocation strategy.

Google has introduced a plan to cut down America's dependence on coal and oil by 2030, Reuters reported Oct. 2 (see energy story). Google executives said the plan, which aims to cut oil use for cars by 40 percent, would cost less annually than the proposed $850 billion Wall-Street bailout currently causing discord in Congress. Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the search-engine company, invested $45 million this year in groups researching wind, solar and geothermal energy. 

In Brief:

* Living Stones Church in Illinois, one of the 33 churches whose pastors delivered sermons in support of particular presidential candidates Sunday, is one of many evangelical churches trying to break down the barrier between religion and politics, says Dale Buss in an opinion column in The Wall Street Journal Oct. 3.

* Raleigh, N.C.-based Urban Ministries of Wake County, which receives about 100 calls a day from people who have lost their jobs and health care, is nervously eyeing the plummeting stock market while facing a drop in donations, WRAL reported Oct. 1.

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