How We Work
Working for Equitable Outcomes
We support thriving North Carolina communities by working for equitable health care, education, and economic opportunity.
We invest in systems change efforts, partnering with grantees and committed colleagues to help residents and communities achieve long-term success.
We work locally and around the state.
We focus 75 percent of our assets statewide on health improvement and 25 percent locally on quality of life issues in Forsyth County.
We invest for impact.
Partnering with community, we work to address root causes of systemic issues and center racial equity. Together, we work to increase equitable access to opportunities and services; achieve equitable health, education, and economic outcomes; and help residents and communities thrive.
Our Vision
Thriving Communities
We work to support the success of rural and urban communities around the state and in Forsyth County.
Thriving Residents
We focus on improving lives for: babies and their mothers; young children, youth, and young adults; elderly adults; people of color; and people with low incomes.
Equitable Access to Health Care
We support equitable and affordable access to health insurance coverage and public benefits. We target health coverage enrollment outreach to underserved, under-enrolled rural and immigrant communities and communities of color.
Equitable Health Outcomes
To have the greatest impact, we focus on two areas—the performance of the health care system and the social determinants of health that impact well-being outside of the health care system.
INVESTING IN IMPACT
Our Approach to Grantmaking
At the Trust, we invest for impact.
We invest our grantmaking dollars to support systems change efforts, by recognizing the power that already exists in community and supporting their efforts to improve health, education, and economic outcomes.
We collaborate with communities with low incomes, communities of color, and foundation and system partners to increase our collective impact as we work for change.
LEARNING AND IMPACT
Data Informs What We Support
Data informs our strategy and grantmaking decisions.
Working alongside impacted communities to collect and evaluate data allows us to further understand an issue.
Activating Change With Our Values
We start by listening.
We know that community members are the experts on what they need to live happy, healthy lives.
We believe in communities.
We invest in the power of residents and build the capacity of communities to identify challenges and opportunities and move them forward.
We engage unlikely partners.
Everyone should see themselves as part of the solution if we are going to truly improve health, education, and economic opportunities for all.
We employ a place-based approach.
We partner with residents, local organizations, and agencies to impact day-to-day lives and, ultimately, change systems.
We believe racial equity is essential to everything we do.
We work to foster racial equity in all of our efforts—and ensure organizations, programs, and systems are listening to and serving residents and communities that historically have been left behind.
We focus on outcomes.
We identify the outcomes we want to achieve to make change, set goals, determine actionable strategies to meet each goal, and open funding opportunities in support of these outcomes.
We support scale and sustainability.
We assess how many people can be served by a specific grantmaking approach, and support programs and initiatives to be sustainable well beyond the length of a grant.
Amplifying Our Impact
We advance our efforts through action in the communities we serve.
Grantmaking
We invest our grantmaking dollars to have a greater impact, to increase power and capacity in communities that have been marginalized, and to change systems that have denied opportunities to people of color and people with low incomes.
Convening and Facilitating
We bring together community groups, partners across the state, and other funders and collaborators to learn from each other and broaden our impact.
Capacity Building
We enhance community capacity through leadership development, network building, communications, and outreach, so local organizations can implement the changes they identify.
Communications
We employ strategic communications to amplify our work on the ground and reach the right audiences with the right messages to move communities to action.
Evaluation and Learning
We continuously measure our investments to identify successes and challenges, and then evolve them based on what we’re learning.
Funding Opportunities
The timing of our cycles has changed from fixed to rolling. Find out what we’re funding now.