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6. A Crisis of Victory
- The University Press of Kentucky
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159 6 A Crisis of Victory The passage of the Voting Rights Act coincided with Wilkins’s tenth anniversary as head of the NAACP. Under his watch the Association’s general income had tripled; membership had increased from 240,000 at the end of 1954 to 455,150 ten years later, with a high point of over half a million members in 1963; circulation of The Crisis had risen by 200 percent; and the staff had expanded from 68 to 125.1 The Association had seen the passage of momentous pieces of civil rights legislation, survived the best efforts of white resistance to wipe out the Association in the South, and also—so far—the challenges posed by the SCLC, SNCC, CORE, and other groups. But it almost seemed as if the Association’s best days might be behind it. Despite its success, it was still in a precarious financial position, there was concern about the decline in membership, and the organization’s direction was in a state of flux. The decline in membership had serious financial implications and demanded urgent attention. Wilkins blamed the fall in membership numbers on changes to its fund-raising program, where less emphasis was being placed on door-to-door solicitations, but he also argued that a “mistaken belief that the war against racial discrimination is over and everyone can relax” was exacerbating the problem.2 Membership levels had fluctuated dramatically over the years, making it difficult to make long-term financial and strategic plans. The Association was almost always in a precarious financial position; but because it was wary of increasing membership fees, revenue from memberships was never going to be sufficient to cover the organization’s operating costs unless it increased its base by a significant number. Even following 1963’s record membership levels, the NAACP 160 ROY WILKINS ended the year with a deficit of approximately $300,000. Life memberships , which cost $500, helped to some degree, but in the mid-1960s these made up only about 3 percent of total membership. The split with the Inc. Fund had also taken its toll on funding at a time when the legal implications of many direct-action protests put significant pressure on the Association’s coffers. In addition, neither contributions to the NAACP nor many of the expenses incurred in its work were tax deductible, thus adding still more pressure on an already straining system. To address these problems, general counsel Robert Carter proposed a new entity to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that would have tax-deductible status and therefore be much more attractive to foundations , corporations, and large-scale philanthropic donors. Following the IRS’s approval, the Special Contribution Fund (SCF) was created in 1964 to allow tax-deductible contributions to the NAACP to be made through the SCF. Donations to the fund could be used for litigation (including bail bonds), voter registration, and public information programs. In fact, the only elements in the NAACP’s program that could not be funded through SCF contributions were the Association’s lobbying activities . Applying lessons learned from the painful split from the Inc. Fund, Wilkins ensured that the SCF was entirely controlled by the NAACP’s board and executive director. Income from the Special Contribution Fund, which became fully operational in 1965, contributed around one-third of the Association’s budget in its first year. Appealing to large corporate donors and philanthropic foundations was a departure for Wilkins, who disliked fund-raising outside of the Association’s membership—possibly as a result of the NAACP’s past experience of working with donor organizations, where money was given under certain terms and conditions that sometimes did not fit with the Association’s way of working or its broader goals. Nevertheless , even without much effort from Wilkins, the SCF’s tax-deductible status began to attract large, regular donations from individuals and corporations . Foundations too began to dig into their pockets. In 1967, for example, the Ford Foundation donated $300,000, which allowed the NAACP to expand some of its most important programs.3 There were plenty of demands on this new influx of cash. The complexity of the problems requiring the NAACP’s attention, not least bail- [3.141.24.134] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 00:41 GMT) A Crisis of Victory 161 ing out protestors in Mississippi, demanded significantly more funds than were available in its accounts: the NAACP estimated it would need a budget of at least $1.5 million...