As I reflect upon my nine years as president of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, there has never been a more challenging time to achieve our founder’s mission of ensuring NC residents with low incomes have access to quality health care and the opportunity to thrive.
Today and for the foreseeable future, the progress we’ve been fighting for is being threatened at the local, state, and national levels.
The recent draconian federal legislation that cuts more than $1 trillion from essential health programs like Medicaid health care coverage and SNAP food assistance is bad for North Carolina. Hard-working residents, rural communities, children, immigrants, and seniors—who rely on these services to go to the doctor, buy groceries, and take care of their families—will feel the deep impacts of a system that does not value their well-being.
Make no mistake—we will all suffer when these cuts take effect.
This fight does not belong to just those who are impacted. This fight belongs to all of us.
“We must demand changes to the rules in order to disrupt the very notion that those who have more money are worth more in our democracy and our economy. Since this country’s founding, we have not allowed our diversity to be our superpower and the result is that the United States is not more than the sum of its disparate parts. But it could be. And if it were, all of us would prosper.” – Heather McGhee, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together”
This is about restitching the fabric of community, so we can see one another as fully human. It’s about working together to create a future that bridges racial and wealth divides and benefits all. That is when we will truly thrive.
As a physician, I’ve had a 30-year career in health improvement for vulnerable populations throughout the state. I’ve seen too much suffering and a seeming lack of concern for people in need. At the Trust, we’ve been very cognizant of the root cause, long-term, seemingly intractable societal problems that need to be solved.
While philanthropy alone can never fill the gap created by these cuts, we must stand up for a future where everyone—families with low incomes, children, immigrants, communities of color—can thrive.
The Future We Want
I ask us to collectively create a future that is more just, more equitable, and that removes the barriers that stand in people’s way.
What does that future look like?
- Everyone has access to affordable health care.
- Every family has access to affordable childcare, high-quality PreK, and public education.
- No one goes hungry. Every person who needs food assistance can access it.
- People have opportunities for employment that advance them and their families economically and move people out of poverty.
- Immigrants can continue to work and prosper and take care of their families in our state.
How the Trust Is Showing Up Today
We call on our state leaders to keep Medicaid.
- The Trust recently released a statement calling on North Carolina to take action to ensure residents don’t lose their health care coverage and food assistance benefits. We will not back down on this issue—Medicaid expansion was a multi-year bi-partisan effort that resulted in more than 670,000 North Carolinians gaining access to health insurance.
We are addressing the challenges facing our state and country by centering community and acknowledging where we have caused harm.
- Earlier this year, we signed on to a Council on Foundations statement with more than 700 other philanthropic organizations, affirming our right to continue supporting the communities we serve.
- Three years ago, the Trust celebrated our 75th anniversary with a truth-telling journey. We told the true story of our founder—who was well-intentioned to serve those less fortunate and improve their health. The truth is that her initial bequest of $5 million to found the Trust came from tobacco profits and inherited funds originally earned through the sale and labor of enslaved Black people. This was hard to reckon with but essential we do so. As a result, we divested Trust holdings completely from tobacco production and increased our commitment to community-led efforts for racial equity and systems change.
We invest in grassroots organizations and leaders of color to build opportunity and push for change.
- In Robeson County, a community regularly impacted by hurricanes and flooding, residents have worked with local government to clean canals and streams and won more than $600,000 in funding for flood mitigation and relief.
- In Halifax County—after years of research, planning, and advocacy by community organizations—the County has finally established a recreation department to ensure equitable distribution of places for people to play and be active.
- We are amplifying grantee voices around what Medicaid cuts mean to them.
- Organizations like NC Field, Refugee Community Partnership, Unidxs WNC, and El Refugio are serving immigrant families and children as they navigate a multitude of new policies and actions that threaten their very existence in our country. We are honored to support them.
We work for a healthy news and information ecosystem, as it’s essential for healthy communities.
- Trusted news sources can hold leaders accountable and give residents places to get information that impacts their day-to-day lives, but news deserts (particularly in rural areas), corporate closures, and the recent defunding of public media make this more challenging every day.
- We are funding organizations such as NC Health News, Enlace Latino NC, Border Belt Independent and the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund, and we are learning from other funders and news innovators around the country as the co-chair of Press Forward North Carolina.
We advocate for the resources needed to keep NC’s economic engines running and residents thriving.
- We will continue to fight for the full funding of Medicaid and SNAP benefits because we know low-income residents and rural communities will feel the negative economic impacts the deepest if these programs are cut.
- We are investing at the state and local levels to strengthen formal and informal childcare so that parents have affordable, accessible options when they go to work.
- Locally, we have invested in Forsyth Technical Community College to help parents access the resources they need to finish their degree programs.
- We are helping to convene and coordinate organizations in Forsyth County that are supporting youth to get connected to school and work.
- We are deeply concerned about how cuts to the Department of Education will impact our children, and we will continue to advocate for high quality public education and universal PreK in our community and state.
We will not back down.
As I enter my 10th year as president of the Trust, I know there is no time more important than RIGHT NOW to interpret our founder’s vision on today’s terms. That means with all our might, we must stand up for what’s right and prevent these cuts from causing further harm to the health of North Carolinians.
This is a time for action.
As local and statewide leaders and change makers, I urge us to cultivate a shared sense of responsibility that resists harm and drives progress.
- We must all work to preserve Medicaid and SNAP food assistance. There are two years before some cuts take effect, and the time is now to fight them.
- We must support high-quality PreK for all children and reform the public education system, not destroy it. North Carolina recently joined with 24 states to sue the federal government for withholding $165 million in education funding for our state, and that funding has now been restored.
- We must continue to amplify the voices and power of people most impacted by these cuts. No matter how defeated we might feel at moments, sharing stories creates healing and action.
- And we must turn the listening and sharing into action and work together as a community today, tomorrow, and then come back on Monday and do it again.
Together, as a community of foundations, non-profits, and local government, we must be allies to the people most impacted by disinvestment. We must use our voices and our resources to stand up for justice, so everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Dr. Laura Gerald
President
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust