Black Bankers President Warns Churches: Change the Way You Do Business
By Hazel Trice Edney

Michael Grant, President, National Bankers Association

WASHINGTON - (TriceEdneyWire.com) - The head of a national Black bankers organization is warning that growing foreclosures upon churches across America indicate that houses of worship must quickly change the way they do business or possibly face a national crisis.

“A trend in church foreclosures is causing national leaders representing African-American communities all over America to focus their attention on potential solutions to avert an impending crisis,” writes Michael Grant, president of the National Bankers Association in a three-page report, released exclusively to the Trice Edney News Wire. “With the advent of the mega-church as a phenomenon, church leaders are being forced to rethink their growth strategies.”

At least 138 church properties were sold by banks last year and about 270 around the nation since 2010, according to CoStar, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information company. Ninety percent of the sales reportedly result from foreclosure.

On March 6, Reuters reported, “Banks are foreclosing on America's churches in record numbers as lenders increasingly lose patience with religious facilities that have defaulted on their mortgages, according to new data…The surge in church foreclosures represents a new wave of distressed property seizures triggered by the 2008 financial crash, analysts say, with many banks no longer willing to grant struggling religious organizations forbearance.”

According to Grant, whose organization has a membership of 37 banks, he sees no major disparity between the numbers of foreclosures upon Black and White congregations. However, he writes, “A preliminary analysis of many African-American churches that pursued aggressive expansion strategies has yielded a few interesting and common patterns.”

He ticks off the patterns as follows:

• Expansion efforts were not usually directed by financial plans constructed by individuals who had the expertise to give church leaders sound financial advice.
• Many financial decisions by those who oversee aggressive expansion strategies were not rooted in frugal planning or monitored by systems of accountability.
• Record-keeping is often not dictated by accepted accounting practices.
• Lending institutions are oftentimes not contacted early enough to avail the church of bank assistance in the forms of loan modifications or forbearance.
• Many church leaders mistakenly believe that bank assistance is available after foreclosure procedures have begun. In reality, by the time the church is being foreclosed on, the bank has exhausted all of the remedies at its disposal.

Grant concludes that though many church decisions are made based on faith and visionary leadership, “The church must be thought of as a business.”

He states, “Just as the hospital exists to promote physical health and wellness, it is nonetheless a business. The church’s business is to promote spiritual health and well-being. It is also a business. If sound business principles are not adhered to, the church jeopardizes its ability to provide a valuable benefit to its congregants.”

Church leaders across the nation are being impacted by the economic crisis, not only causing a shortage in the collection plate, but the decreased ability to help parishioners in financial trouble and difficulty paying its own bills, including staff salaries and mortgages. Though small and middle-sized congregations are seeing more foreclosures, even mega-churches have not been exempt from drastic measures.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the 30,000-member Potter’s House in Dallas, said he was forced to make major cuts three years ago in order to avoid doom.

“Membership has gone up. Income has gone down. We’ve laid off about 40 people from our staff. We’ve had to make some hard choices. We’ve had to curtail some of the services that we’ve normally had to provide to the community because our resources are hard hit. I’m getting calls from pastors all over the country who are downsizing, cutting back on services, cutting back on office hours because they are being adversely affected by this also,” he said in an interview with this reporter.

Currently, church organizational leaders are exploring new ways to operate financially as they await improvement in the economy. The Rev. Dr. Franklyn Richardson, chairman of the Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC), says understanding more about banking, how it works and specifically how Black banks can help abate financial crisis in churches is on his agenda. He concedes that the Black church, as an institution, does not fully understand how best to relate to banks.

“I don’t think we actually do. I also don’t think we take advantage of what our collective deposits could demand on Monday mornings after Sunday,” said Richardson after holding a session on economics and the Black community during a  CNBC meeting last week. “So, we’re looking at – especially given the electronics today, if we were able to bring our Sunday morning deposits together electronically and leverage them in the market, how that could change or have impact on how we can get banking services in our communities. That’s what we’re talking about now.”

Bishop Eugene Ward, Pastor of Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio is also board member of CNBC, which comprises nine denominations and an estimated reach of over 10 million parishioners across the U. S. He says church officials are sometimes actually leery of Black banks.

“I really believe that in most cases we find ourselves being careful when it comes to Black institutions. And we migrate more to Caucasian institutions because of our ignorance and our lack of trust for those who are in Black banking,” Ward says. “The dry answer and a very good example for us is that many of us look to them to favor us and we abuse them rather than cooperate with them to do the same things that we would do with Caucasian institutions.”

Ward adds that church leaders have a skewed view of banks in general. 

“We really only want banks for money, but a lot of us right now can’t really afford to pay back,” he said. “And because of banking practices, now Caucasian agencies have turned to where they are really not operating to lend money to Black churches any more, now we’re finding ourselves in really dire straits because we don’t have anyone to turn to. Had we started to invest with the credit unions and the Black institutions, I feel that we would be in much better shape.”

Grant outlines 12 basic facts that church leaders need to know about banks. Among them are the following:

• Churches that seek their bank’s help or assistance as soon as a problem with making payments arises stand a far greater chance of avoiding foreclosure.
• Loans to churches are classified as commercial (or business) loans.
• Proportionately and historically, African-American banks make and have made the largest percentage of all loans to Black churches.
• Loans are the primary sources of revenue for banks.
• Foreclosures could cause banks to diminish their loan loss reserves and negatively impact the community and real estate values.

Ultimately, Grant writes that churches must become more like businesses as they seek to survive in the current economic climate:

“Identifying qualified financial counselors and utilizing certified accountants is no longer a luxury. If the church is to survive to continue its work, it must have an organization structure that resembles the modern corporation.”

Bond Revoked: Trayvon Martin Killer Back in Jail

By Trice Edney Staff

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer charged in the Florida killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, was remanded back to jail Sunday after the judge in the case revoked his bond saying he misled the court about his finances.

Zimmerman, who had been free on a $150,000 bond returned to custody in Sanford, Fla. less than an hour short of the 48-hour deadline given by Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. on Friday. Television video showed the 28-year-old back in handcuffs, dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt.

His attorney, Mark O'Mara, is expected to ask the judge for another bail hearing this week so that Zimmerman can explain to the court why he and his wife said they had little money to make bail when they in fact had approximately $155,000 in a Paypal account. A recording of a telephone coversation between them allegedly revealed that he and his wife discussed the exact amount of the money in code before testifying that they did not know how much was in the account.

Because of their apparent indigent status, Lester gave him a low bail of $150,000 of which he only had to pay a small portion.

He also allegedly turned in only one of two passports after the court requested his passports as a condition of his bail. That was to lessen his risk of fleeing the country.

O'Mara reportedly told reporters that Zimmerman was concerned "for his safety any time he has to come out of hiding."

The latest is an unexpected twist in the case in which Zimmerman, who is White and Hispanic, is charged with shooting 17-year-old Martin in the chest on Feb 26. The unarmed teenager was walking to his father’s residence from a store where he had bought Skittles and ice tea. 

Protests broke out in Sanford and around the country when Zimmerman remained free based on police contentions that a so-called “Stand Your Ground” law appeared to apply. But after six weeks of freedom, a special prosecutor charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder. Zimmerman claims he fired the gun in self-defense during a physical altercation with Martin.

Lawyers for Martin’s family say the youth was racially profiled by Zimmerman who called the police for no reason and then followed Martin against the advice of a 911 operator. As Martin walked, he talked on the phone with his girlfriend who has said he told her he was being followed.

Though the judge could very well post a higher bond and free Zimmerman again, his re-incarceration was met with applause from Rev. Al Sharpton, a chief advocate for justice in the case.

"National Action Network and I requested that the Judge review the bail bond after it became very clear that George Zimmerman had raised money online,” he said in a statement. “We joined with the family and others concerned about the fairness of proceedings in asking for a review and we take note that based upon the evidence, the Judge has made a fair-minded decision based upon the evidence."

June 3, 2012

Foundations Help Reverse Plights, Perception of Black Men and Boys
By Kimberly N. Alleyne

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from America’s Wire 

WASHINGTON—Concerned about the plight of African-American men and boys, several philanthropic organizations have launched initiatives to improve opportunities for them to succeed. Some programs address the structural bias that leaves these men more likely to be incarcerated, jobless and disproportionately affected by other social disadvantages.

One of every 15 African-American men is in a U.S. prison or jail compared with one of every 36 Hispanic men and one of every 106 white men. Moreover, scores of African-American men are affected by chronic unemployment, lack of education, poverty and poor health outcomes.

Organizations such as Open Society Foundations, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and local and regional foundations are working to assist African-American males.

Shawn Dove, campaign manager for the Campaign for Black Male Achievement sponsored by Open Society Foundations, recalls that media stories about the plight of black men in 2006 spurred discussion on how the foundation could engage.

“I thought, ‘How can we, a foundation that supports open society values, and believes in a democratic society, as a foundation, not be at the forefront of these issues?’ ” he says. “When we launched, there was not an equivalent on a national level.”

The program began in June 2008 and was to be a three-year campaign. But 18 months in, Dove says, George Soros, chairman of Open Society Foundations, and its board were impressed by the work, expanded the budget and agreed to make it ongoing. Since 2008, it has spent $29.6 million funding 94 organizations working on educational equity, strengthening family structures and increasing work opportunities. Grantees are in Chicago, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Jackson, Miss.

“We are responding to long-term systemic and structural barriers facing the African-American community, specifically black men and boys,” Dove says. “An adequate response is not a three-year or five-year commitment. An adequate response is generational commitment so that direct services and policy advocacy are bridged.”

Dove maintains that to adequately address challenges faced by African-American men, “we need an endowed social corporation that can focus on these issues for the long haul.”

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s work in this regard dates to the early 1990s when it launched a Men and Boys of Color initiative that included grants and creation of opportunities for black males. For more than 20 years, Kellogg has been in the forefront in supporting initiatives such as Community Voices, which started the nation’s first health clinic for men in Baltimore, addressed flaws in local juvenile justice systems and assisted ex-convicts in re-entering communities in numerous cities.

“Both explicit and unconscious bias affects young men and boys of color in particular, denying them equal opportunities to succeed in their communities, says Dr. Gail C. Christopher, Kellogg’s vice president for program strategy. “At the Kellogg Foundation, a critical objective for our racial healing and racial equity strategy seeks to remove structural and implicit barriers that limit their success. Achieving and sustaining racial equity requires strong systems of accountability, and as importantly, success requires uprooting a belief system of racial hierarchy.”

Last September, Kellogg sponsored “Too Important to Fail,” Tavis Smiley’s PBS report on health and education disparities among African-American boys. The foundation also funded a University of North Carolina project, the Promoting Academic Success initiative, which worked with families, schools and communities to improve academic achievement of African-American and Latino children in Lansing, Mich., and Polk County, Fla.

Under its America Healing Initiative, the foundation funds many organizations, such as the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, that engage in efforts to address the challenges faced by black males. One grantee, the Opportunity Agenda, recently released a report on perceptions of black males in the media. The report seeks to educate media makers, educators and others on how negative images of black communities perpetuate negative stereotypes.

A significant part of the challenge is improving educational opportunities for African-American men. With its College Bound Brotherhood program established five years ago, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation helps black youths and men achieve success by equipping them to pursue a college education. Based in San Francisco, the program provides grants to community-based organizations offering college preparedness programs in the Bay Area.

Justin Davis, the foundation’s program coordinator, says it has awarded more than $1 million to organizations. “We also offer an online database, which is a free directory that lists college readiness programs in the San Francisco Bay area community,” he said. “It helps students, parents and teachers.”

The program hosts an annual graduation celebration at which college-bound high school graduates are lauded for their achievements. “This year, we are celebrating 150 young black men who are enrolling in college this fall,” Davis says. “This is the only event like it in the Bay Area. Last year, it was standing room only. One of the most powerful images was seeing a stage full of young black men who are going to college. It’s a great thing to see.”

The programs are making an impact.

Jordan Johnson, 17, is heading to Morehouse College next fall largely because of his participation in the Young Scholars Program, one 15 organizations that the Kapor Foundation supports through grants from College Bound Brotherhood. Johnson says the program changed his perspective about college.

The Young Scholars Program offers college preparatory and leadership development, plus tutoring, mentoring, cultural enrichment and scholarship assistance. Over the past 10 years, its students have attended colleges and universities such as Texas Southern, Fisk, Cornell and Yale.

“I got involved in the Young Scholars Program my junior year,” Johnson says. “Before I got involved, I thought I was going to a junior college or a two-year college. I didn’t have the professional, social or academic skills to go to a four-year college.”

But the program changed his aspirations. He plans to study business management. “I didn’t think I was going to Morehouse because my GPA is 2.67,” he says, “but the Young Scholars Program gave me hope. I have been accepted to 17 colleges. I have not received any rejections.”

Another organization, Foundation for the Mid South, works to address poverty in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, a region whose 30 percent poverty rate is the nation’s highest. Based in Jackson, Miss., the organization focuses on education, health and wellness, wealth building and community development. The Kellogg Foundation is among funders of its work.

Matthew Caston, a communications fellow at Foundation for the Mid South, asserts that to be successful, more African-American men require better education. For instance, the foundation’s data show that two of three boys of color cannot read at grade level by third grade and that 19.1 percent of black males are unemployed, compared with 8 percent of white males.

“We have found that education is the biggest determinant of success in the areas of incarceration, health and earning. People who are more educated are healthier and have better jobs,” Caston says, adding that reading scores are the biggest determinant for high school graduation and employment. “Males of color in our region are at the bottom in reading scores.”

The foundation is working to improve education and economic outcomes for youths of color by assisting parents and civic, community and government leaders in improving the educational system and launching a public awareness campaign about its shortfalls.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Black Male Engagement (BME) Challenge takes a different approach.

Pronounced “be me,” BME piloted programs in Detroit and Philadelphia last year, and its primary mission is to highlight actively engaged black men in those cities. BME is also funded in part by the Open Society Foundation’s Campaign for Black Male Achievement.

“There are many initiatives that show that black men are disengaged, absent or a threat to their communities, but our working assumption is there is nothing to fix about black males,” says Trabian Shorters, vice president/communities program at the Knight Foundation and BME’s spearhead. “BME is not about fixing black males. Black men are assets to their communities, and we are working to respond to the many of them who are engaged and how to get more black males engaged.”

Under the program, African-American men in Detroit and Philadelphia were asked to submit video testimony showing how they strengthen their communities. The 2,083 videos received told many stories about personal journeys that included men helping veterans returning to their community and introducing children to dance instead of street life. The storytellers were invited to apply for grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to further their community work.

“So many regular guys go unsung,” Shorters says. “They don’t do this work for a pat on the back, but it is nice to affirm what they do.” BME has awarded $443,000 in grants “to 443 regular, everyday guys,” he adds.

Shorters says everyone knows “good guys” who are not part of the dreadful statistics. “I hope that BME creates a network of these kinds of guys, regular guys,” he says. “We want to make it so that if your cousin Joe is a good guy, doing something great for his community, that he can plug into the network and meet other guys like him and find resources to support his work.”

Though many foundations focus their attention on systemic and structural barriers affecting African-American males, the whole “village” carries the burden of success.

“This is our unfinished business,” Dove says. “This is not black America’s unfinished business. It is America’s unfinished business.”

America’s Wire is an independent, nonprofit news service run by the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Our stories can be republished free of charge by newspapers, websites and other media sources. For more information, visit www.americaswire.org or contact Michael K. Frisby at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..