IU TO AWARD THREE HONORARY DEGREES TO HELP CENTER ON PHILANTHROPY CELEBRATE ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University will award three honorary degrees as part of the 10th anniversary celebration for its Center on Philanthropy, located on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus.

Recipients will be James A. Joseph, the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa; Charles Johnson, now retired from Lilly Endowment Inc.; and Virginia Hodgkinson, director of the National Center for Charitable Statistics. All three will be granted the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

The awarding of the honorary degrees is scheduled Nov. 24, as part of a two-day recognition of the Center on Philanthropy's anniversary. IU President Myles Brand will make the presentation.

A community dinner will be held Nov. 23 at the Westin Hotel Indianapolis. The second day of activities will begin with an anniversary symposium in the University Place Conference Center on the IUPUI campus, followed by the Rosso Medals Awards luncheon, also at University Place. The 10th anniversary convocation, featuring an address by Joseph and the degree presentation, will begin at 3 p.m. at the conference center.

All anniversary events are open to the public. Tickets must be purchased in advance. For more information, contact the Center on Philanthropy, 317-274-4200.

Biographical sketches of degree recipients

JAMES A. JOSEPH

Joseph was nominated by President Bill Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to South Africa in July 1995. He had been appointed undersecretary of the Department of the Interior by President Jimmy Carter, was a member of the advisory committee to the Agency for International Development under President Ronald Reagan, and was appointed an incorporating director of the Points of Light Foundation and a member of the Presidential Commission on Historically Black Colleges by President George Bush.

Joseph was president and chief executive officer of the Council on Foundations from 1982-1995, and was vice president of Cummins Engine Company and president of the Cummins Engine Foundation from 1972-1977. He is the author of two widely acclaimed books, The Charitable Impulse and Remaking America.

CHARLES JOHNSON

Johnson has been a major contributor to the health and success of colleges and universities and nonprofit organizations in Indiana and nationally. He is a founding member of the IU Center on Philanthropy and the National Committee of Planned Giving. He also organized the Indiana Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.

Johnson initiated a program funded by the Lilly Endowment and others to provide training on an ongoing basis for Indiana private college presidents, board members and fund- raising personnel through the Independent Colleges of Indiana Foundation. He received the Henry A. Rosso Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Ethical Fundraising in 1995.

VIRGINIA HODGKINSON

Hodgkinson is recognized as an outstanding contributor to scholarship and service in philanthropy. She has been executive director of the National Center for Charitable Statistics since 1983, and has served as a consultant to the Center on Philanthropy since its inception. She was instrumental in the establishment of Research in Progress at the center and the placement of Independent Sector at Indiana University.

She is co-author of Nonprofit Almanac: Dimensions of the Independent Sector, which provides information to scholars and practitioners. In 1996, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

For more information, contact DeAnna Hines, executive director of communications, 812-855-0850, djhines@indiana.edu or John Althardt, IUPUI Communications and Public Relations, 317-274-7711, jalthard