We believe that all of North Carolina benefits when every North Carolinian has the resources and opportunities to achieve their full potential and when each person’s worth and dignity is affirmed. Therefore, we desire for ALL North Carolinians to have access to high-quality education, to benefit from a healthy and sustainable environment, to enjoy economic opportunity under just and fair rules and to be able to engage fully in civic life. Our State-Level Systemic Change Strategy supports state, regional and local organizations, coalitions, or collaboratives that work to achieve systemic change at the state level in one or more of the following priority areas:
Advancing Public Education
North Carolina’s children should all have equitable, universal access to high quality public education that develops the full potential of each child – from the earliest years through high school. Furthermore, we believe that children who attend schools that value and embrace racial, ethnic and economic diversity will be best prepared to live, work and lead in our increasingly diverse state. We support systemic efforts to build public will in support of public education at all levels, and to increase the capacity of systems to continually improve and to advance educational equity.
Learn more about Advancing Public Education.
Fostering a Healthy and Sustainable Environment
Our lives depend on the resiliency of the natural systems that sustain us through their deep connections to our health, economic security and community strength. Therefore, we invest in systemic efforts that prevent harm to, ensure access to, and enhance the resilience of the environment. We place special emphasis on environmental justice, engaging with low-income communities and communities of color that contend with a disproportionate share of environmental hazards. Our support ranges from addressing issues of climate change to meeting the growth demands of the state in environmentally sound ways.
Learn more about Fostering a Healthy and Sustainable Environment.
Promoting Social and Economic Justice
Many systems and structures in North Carolina have often made it harder for populations who have been historically marginalized, subjected to discrimination, or excluded from full participation in society, to thrive. Structural oppression is both explicit and implicit and is often interwoven throughout systems in our state. Consequently, the Foundation supports work to remove structural barriers, with a particular emphasis on addressing disparities that lie within our systems of criminal justice, immigration and reproductive health.
Learn more about Promoting Social and Economic Justice.
Strengthening Democracy
As North Carolinians, our quality of life depends, in large part, on an informed and involved populace. We aim to strengthen democracy by ensuring that public institutions and processes are effective, transparent, accountable, accessible and inclusive— particularly among populations who have been historically marginalized, subjected to discrimination, or excluded from full participation in society. We support efforts to ensure the public’s ability to receive and understand accurate and objective information.
Learn more about Strengthening Democracy.
We recognize that each of these four areas intersect in multiple ways, and are particularly interested in approaches that not only strengthen each, but also work across them.
Between November 2018 and May 2019, Trustees awarded $28.2 million to 169 organizations across North Carolina, which includes multi-year grants for many of them.
WHAT’S NEXT
Because of the multi-year commitments to many of our current State-Level Systemic Change grantees, fewer funds are available for our Fall 2019 grant cycle. Organizations awarded grants will be announced after our November 2019 Board of Trustees meeting. Over time, the Foundation will work to capture and share stories of some of our State-Level Systemic Change grantees, through video or multi-media, to showcase the remarkable work these organizations are doing. In addition, the Foundation also will be working with a consultant or consulting team to support us in further designing and operationalizing our racial equity commitment both internally, within the Foundation, and externally across our diverse cohort of State-Level Systemic Change grantees, to continue to strengthen our capacity and their capacities for incorporating a racial equity lens into all of our work.
Learn More about State-Level Systemic Change Strategy
List of all State-Level Systemic Change Grantees
Between November 2018 and May 2019, Trustees awarded $28.2 million to 169 organizations across North Carolina, which includes multi-year grants for many of them.