Texas Tidbits: Baylor Philanthropy Lab benefits Waco nonprofits

Students in Baylor University’s inaugural “Philanthropy and the Public Good” class directed $100,000 to Waco nonprofit organizations. After a semester-long evaluation process, the class presented grants to the executive directors and boards of eight nonprofit organizations—Waco Habitat for Humanity, Family Health Center, Shepherd’s Heart, Communities in Schools for the Heart of Texas, Talitha Koum Institute, Animal Birth Control Clinic, Compassion Ministries and Act Locally Waco. Throughout the fall, the students operated as a foundation board of directors, deciding in “board meetings” how and where to give funds; as foundation program officers, cultivating relationships with nonprofits, assessing their needs and effectiveness and in some cases advocating on their behalf to the larger board of directors; and as employees of a nonprofit organization, writing grant applications that were considered by the larger board. Baylor worked in partnership with the Fort Worth-based Once Upon a Time Foundation, which began the Philanthropy Lab program in 2011. Since its founding, the Philanthropy Lab has given more than $3 million to build philanthropy education at select universities.

CLC reallocates hunger funds to respond to Ebola crisis. Commissioners on Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission unanimously voted to reallocate $6,000 of Texas Baptist Hunger Offering funds from one project to another in Sierra Leone because of the Ebola crisis. Originally intended to defray school fees and provide meals for students, the funds instead will help rehabilitate a school that has been closed for nearly half a year due to the Ebola epidemic. The Baptist Convention of Sierra Leone requested the reallocation, believing it will to open job opportunities for residents in a nation where nearly 50 percent of people lost their jobs.

Dallas couple endows Baylor chair in religious freedom. Jerry and Susie Wilson of Dallas gave Baylor University $2 million to establish an endowed chair in religious freedom. The Jerry and Susie Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom will help Baylor University and its Institute for Studies of Religion address issues of freedom of conscience and worship, as well as Christianity’s role in promoting human freedom, Baylor President Ken Starr said. The future holder of the endowed chair will lead Baylor’s efforts to strengthen and affirm congressional support for the preservation, protection and defense of religious freedom on Capitol Hill. In addition, the chair will collaborate on critical projects involving international religious freedom through diplomatic engagement and integrating religious freedom into broader foreign policy.