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 Nantucket Preservation Trust Chosen for 2004 Massachusetts Catalogue for Philanthropy The Nantucket Preservation Trust has been selected as a Massachusetts 2004 Catalogue for Philanthropy charity. This year’s edition of the Catalogue will profile 69 of Massachusetts' outstanding environmental, cultural, and human service agencies as "examples of excellence" in Massachusetts philanthropy. Nantucket Preservation Trust was chosen from a total applicant pool of over 150 organizations. It is hard not to care about historic preservation on Nantucket, but it takes work, grounded in generosity, to do it. In 1955 the Town of Nantucket and the Village of Siasconset were officially designated Historic Districts by the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1970 Nantucket Town Meeting expanded the District review jurisdiction to include the entire island—which features more than 2,400 documented historic structures. In 1997 a new, strong and sophisticated player appeared: the Nantucket Preservation Trust, specializing in promoting and arranging permanent, binding covenants between property owners and the public, to preserve any part(s) or all of the historic features of their properties. With this instrument, the outside, the inside, the land, or any designated part(s) thereof, can be preserved from “modernization” by charitable gift. One of NPT’s first initiatives was to convene eleven organizations concerned about historic preservation, to form the Nantucket Preservation Alliance—another strategic step forward. But if the opportunities are great, so are the impediments. In 2000, the National Trust for Historic Preservation added Nantucket to its List of the Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places in the entire U.S. So NPT has a big job—researching, marking, teaching, protecting, and preserving, as many and as much of these historic structures as possible. You don’t have to live on Nantucket to appreciate that they are working for you, too. The Catalogue, which was the first of its kind anywhere, was created by a group of leading foundations in 1997 to help close the gap between Massachusetts’ ranks in income and in charitable giving—then the largest such disparity in the nation. To do this, in addition to the annual Catalogue itself, the project developed the nationally-known "Generosity Index"™, a website (www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org), "Giving Massachusetts Day" proclaimed since 2001 as the day after Thanksgiving by Governors Swift and Romney, and many other "donor-friendly" tools. Since 1997, charitable giving here has doubled, from $2 billion to $4 billion, and though the Catalogue makes no claim for this growth, the Catalogue Project is widely recognized as a national leader in donor education. There are now similar Catalogues in Polk County, NC, Whatcom County, WA, Washington, DC, and St. Louis, MO, and others are being planned in several other philanthropic markets. According to George McCully, President of the Catalogue, "The Catalogue is designed as a showcase for Massachusetts philanthropy, and a one-stop-shop for a family's charitable giving. A single check, electronic transaction over the web or stock transfer can be allocated to as many charities as the donor pleases, and because the Catalogue is sponsored and paid-for by its philanthropic sponsors, 100% of every donation goes to the designated charities." Nantucket Preservation Trust was chosen in rigorous competition by professional grantmakers. "Charities are selected for general excellence, cost-effectiveness, and teaching value about philanthropy," McCully said. |
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