As I reflect on 2024, I want to thank our grantees and partners for your tireless work to help North Carolina communities thrive. We know this has been a challenging year: Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina and the surrounding region, and we endured an election that divided our state and nation.
We also know that many of us wonder how to persevere through these uncertain times. At the Trust, we acknowledge the heaviness of the moment—because we anticipate policy changes that will negatively impact people who are already being left behind. The Trust is nonpartisan—we do not take sides in elections. However, we do stand firmly on the side of our mission, vision, and values, which places us with people experiencing disparities and communities fighting for opportunities.
Policies and practices can and will have a major impact on who thrives and who suffers. And the Trust will continue working to close that gap.
This is a time for courage. I know I said this last year, and this year I say it with even greater urgency. The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust will continue taking action for those experiencing poverty, for communities of color working to shift policies that impact their lives, and for immigrant communities who feel threatened or overlooked.
Despite the shifting landscape, we remain hopeful for a stronger tomorrow. We see signs that North Carolinians are poised to foster new partnerships and bridge divides and work even harder to ensure all families have what they need to succeed.
We know the strength of North Carolina communities and residents, and we look forward to continuing to walk in partnership with you because our collective attention, ideas, and action are needed now more than ever.
Focusing on systems change and racial equity
At the Trust, we have long centered systems change and racial equity to achieve our mission of improving the health and quality of life of residents who are experiencing poverty in Forsyth County and across North Carolina. Data show that deep disparities—perpetuated by existing systems and policies—continue to be predictable by race and place, and that is unacceptable.
As we look toward 2025, we plan to raise our voices to address the harms of the past and dismantle the biases of the present, and to work for progress in the following ways:
Expanding Pre-K access across NC
North Carolina is experiencing a childcare crisis, and education funding is under threat at the state and national levels. Yet Pre-K programs have strong support from businesses, parents, nonprofits, and community leaders. In Forsyth County, in partnership with the PreK Priority, we have advocated for affordable, high quality Pre-K for all four-year-olds since 2014.
Forsyth County used American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to create a model cohort in 30 Pre-K classrooms. First year results show that investments in Pre-K educators and classrooms have a major impact on kindergarten readiness and teacher retention. After just one year of the two-year initiative, 72% of 4-year-olds were on par in literacy. Expanding and fully funding Pre-K access for all children is an opportunity for Forsyth County and for our entire state to invest in its future.
Working for health care access for all
Since 2012, the Trust has invested more than $20 million to increase enrollment in Affordable Care Act health insurance options and to expand Medicaid in our state. We celebrated when North Carolina finally expanded Medicaid in 2023. Today, we applaud the state for enrolling nearly 600,000 people in Medicaid and for receiving a national award for this work. Collaborative efforts and philanthropic investments in nonprofit advocacy around Medicaid expansion for more than a decade paid off, and we are much closer to ensuring all North Carolinians can access affordable, quality health care.
While we are proud of this huge policy win, we know we can’t rest on success. In the coming year, the Trust will continue to engage with the state and other partners to ensure Medicaid expansion is implemented equitably and meets the needs of new enrollees. And we will advocate for the full funding of Medicaid at the state and federal levels, so that everyone can experience better health outcomes.
Supporting a healthy local news ecosystem
During a time fraught with disinformation and a lack of trusted news sources, local news remains a trusted messenger. Nearly 60% of Americans say they have more trust in local news than national news to give them information useful to their daily lives.
However, many NC communities, especially rural areas, have become news deserts with the steady loss of local newspapers and radio stations.
We are excited to co-chair the NC chapter of Press Forward, a national funding collaborative dedicated to strengthening our democracy by revitalizing local news and information. And we’re excited to do this in partnership with the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the NC Local News Lab Fund and support organizations like NC Health News and Border Belt Independent.
Amplifying the power on the ground
Through our rural Healthy Places NC work and our local Great Expectations early childhood initiative, we’ve seen the power of small grassroots groups standing up for their communities around issues ranging from transportation to maternal and infant mortality.
- ABC2, Lincoln Heights, Sharon Missionary Baptist Church, West Marion Community Forum, and Hill Family Farm Education Center are creating community centers for recreation, resilience, and connection in rural regions of the state.
- In McDowell County, Centro Unido has been providing an array of services to Latinx residents and became a disaster relief lifeline for the community after Hurricane Helene.
- In Forsyth County, The Dream Team Foundation is coordinating a local coalition of stakeholders that are engaging youth and young adults who are not currently working or attending school to reengage these young people and to shift systems in ways that build connection and opportunity.
Many of these well-networked organizations are also integral to statewide systems work such as Medicaid expansion enrollment, the Healthy Opportunity Pilots (an effort to connect Medicaid recipients with social supports), and the opioid settlement fund. For example, grassroots groups around the state that are connected and trusted were a key reason Medicaid enrollment was so successful in 2024. In Beaufort, Edgecombe, and Robeson counties, community groups and directly impacted people are helping to shape how state opioid settlement funds are spent.
Amplifying the community power that already exists in North Carolina will ensure a diversity of thought and ideas around our most pressing problems. As we look toward 2025, we encourage other funders and statewide leaders to invest in the capacity of the people on the ground—they are the experts on the issues facing their communities. Their insights and experience will guide the most effective solutions and hold systems accountable to the needs of community.
Telling the truth leads to transformation
In 2022, the Trust celebrated our 75th anniversary and told the truth about the foundation’s wealth, which came from tobacco profits and inherited funds originally earned from the sale and labor of enslaved Black people. We announced we were divesting from tobacco and committing $100 million of our corpus to socially responsible funds focused on Eastern NC communities. Since then, we have continued to be self-reflective about the role the Trust and philanthropy has played in harming the very communities we were asked to serve.
This truth and repair journey has not just strengthened our work and grantee relationships, it has also strengthened our partnerships locally and nationally.
In November, I shared the stage with Edgar Villanueva, author of “Decolonizing Wealth”, at the Philanthropy Southeast conference. We offered ideas around how Southern funders could go on their own journeys of truth and repair to strengthen their work. If foundations genuinely want to help transform the communities we serve, we must start with ourselves.
We will continue to encourage other organizations and foundations to follow this sometimes-difficult path, because we know being truthful builds trust and committing to doing better ultimately leads to joy and transformation in the way we do our work.
We stand together
Moving forward, the Trust will be by the side of North Carolina communities fighting for equitable opportunities for all. No matter what’s happening in our state or the nation, we will not back down from working for our founder’s mission on today’s terms.
This is hard work and it’s also heart work. There are still miles to go, and the Trust will be with you every step of the way.
We hope in the coming weeks you can find peace, joy, and fellowship with friends, family, and community. Take care of yourselves and rest up because there’s important work ahead!
All the best,
Dr. Laura Gerald
President
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust
