As 2025 winds down, I want to express deep gratitude to our grantees and partners who continue the hard work of helping residents and communities thrive. You are committed to serving North Carolina residents while enduring an ever-shifting landscape of funding cuts, policy changes, and threats to Black and immigrant residents aimed at increasing disparities across the board.
We know this year has not been easy, and we see your tireless efforts to stand up for a future that honors everyone’s humanity and offers a just world for all.
At the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, we know philanthropy can never fill the gap created by massive federal cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, public health, and other programs that provide people with the health, education, and economic opportunities they need to be whole. That said, we are in it for the long haul. The Trust will continue to invest in long-term work to shift systems that are marginalizing people and examine how we can do more to respond to the many crises in front of us.
As we prepare for what is hopefully a restful and rejuvenating holiday, I want to share how we are thinking about surviving (and even thriving) in this moment and how we can plan for the challenging work ahead.
- Remain mission focused. The shock of so many funding cuts, threats, and attacks at one time is enough to make anyone tune out. But the people we serve who have been marginalized by race and place for far too long don’t have that luxury—and neither should we. While we can’t address every threat, we can stay clear-eyed about our organization’s mission, and focus, focus, focus.
- Work together. Systems change is a team sport, and we all have a critical role to play. We are better when we work together—that is how we find support and inspiration in these difficult times.
- Restitch the fabric of local community. While we cannot control every decision at the federal level, we do have agency and voice in our local communities. Identify where your efforts can make an impact in your neighborhood or town. Spend time with your family, neighbors, and colleagues. Listen to and learn from each other. Take care of each other. That is how we begin to work across differences and see each other’s full humanity, at home in our communities.
- Rest up and be well. We are living in unprecedented times, and this is long, hard work. Try not to burn yourself out in one battle because we need each and every one of us for the fight ahead. Take time this holiday season to focus on your health and well-being. In the New Year, let’s rekindle the fight for our communities and state.
When we come back together in 2026, the work will still be here, and I guarantee it will still be hard. However, by working together, I believe we can create a brighter future for our state. One where we do not “other” those who are different from us. One where racism, classism, and sexism don’t determine who gets to live a healthy, happy life. One where we all have access to the basic human rights of good health, quality education, and economic opportunity.
Happy holidays from our Trust family to yours.
We look forward to sharing more in 2026 and collectively doing more to meet this challenging moment. Let’s advocate together for a just, equitable world where each of us will not only survive, but thrive.
With gratitude for all you do,