Below are organizations that we, as NCNG staff, know and trust. They are leaders in the field of philanthropy on equity and justice. In many cases, they are black-led organizations (we’ve added their names and twitter handles where available). They are members with us in the United Philanthropy Forum.
 
These are the organizations we turn to when we need guidance and information. If you’re not already following them on social media, we strongly encourage you to do so.
 
We are grateful to them for their work, dedication and support of the sector.

Several NCNG members have shared statements on equity and justice, to view those scroll down on this page.
 
ABFE – A Philanthropic Partnership for Black Communities
@ABFE
www.Abfe.org
Susan Taylor Batten, President and CEO @SBatten
 
CHANGE Philanthropy
@CHANGEPhil
https://changephilanthropy.org/

Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy
@EPIPNational
www.Epip.org   
Storme Gray, Executive Director, @Storme1913
 
Funders Together to End Homelessness
@funderstogether
http://www.funderstogether.org/
Amanda Misiko Andere, President and CEO, @AmandaAndere
 
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
@GEOFunders
https://www.geofunders.org/
 
Native Americans in Philanthropy
@NativeGiving
https://nativephilanthropy.org/
 
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy
@ncrp
https://www.ncrp.org/
 
Neighborhood Funders Group
@nfg_org
www.nfg.org
 
Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
@RJGrantmakers
https://racialequity.org/

“We Must be in It for the Long Haul” Black Foundation Executives Request Action by Philanthropy on Anti-Black Racism - Joint Statement on COVID-19 and Police Shootings from ABFE
 

Statements from NCNG Members

If you have a statement you would like us to include, please send it to info@ncgrantmakers.org.
 


Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation

Racism. If we don't acknowledge it, we can't change it.
 
Like others watching the video of the killing of George Floyd, we felt disgust and outrage. Just as we had viewing similar scenes time and time and time before.
 
What is important to keep in mind is that these are not singular acts or isolated moments. What happened last week on a street in Minneapolis was a window into a much larger injustice. Individuals and communities of color disadvantaged by a system that is unjust, biased, and broken.   
 
As an organization focused on health, we look at these events from the perspective of health equity. Achieving better health for all who live in North Carolina will be impossible if we don't first acknowledge this brokenness, and then - more importantly - do something about it.
 
Progress cannot be made without addressing the systemic racism and structural inequities that have been engrained within our society for generations. Policies and practices adopted over time have had destructive consequences, resulting in inequitable distributions of money, power, property, access, and resources - factors essential to creating fair opportunities for all lives, especially Black lives, to be healthy.
 
It's important to recognize, however, that systems don't create themselves. It is the decisions of individuals, of organizations, of governments - large and small - that created the unjust policies and practices still present today. And it will be the decisions of individuals, organizations, and governments that undo them.  
 
Though daunting and difficult, we believe that will happen. That change is possible. We see it every day in communities across the state. Stakeholders coming together. Residents giving voice and leading change. Institutions understanding the instrumental role they can play. We are witness to fair-minded people working together to bring about justice, to bring about health for everyone. If it can happen in a single community, it can happen across a nation.
 
But we all have a role to play. Responsibility falls on each of us to be the change. And we commit to continuing to be part of the solutions rising from the calls for action that echo out of the demonstrations enveloping cities across our state and around the world.
 
Today, though, we pause. We pause to simply say that we stand with, and in support of, those who bear the brunt of these injustices first-hand and those who are committed to fighting them.


 

Burroughs Wellcome Fund

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund as an organization maintains a core mission to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in science, education, and society. We will continue to use our voice for social justice and not be silent while the plague of racism continues to infest our society. The abuses and discrimination Black Americans suffer is a festering wound to a country that was founded on the values of human dignity, freedom, and justice.

During this past weekend, images emerged that evoked memories of the episodes of inhumanity that blight history, but there were also images of kindness, compassion, and resilience. Nelson Mandela said, "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

Racism runs deep into society’s fabric. Science has been used as a tool to attempt to propagate a rationale for disparities among the races in health, wealth, education and the other foundational human rights. My own research has attempted to understand the adverse pregnancy outcomes for both Black American babies and mothers. The disparities are long-standing, multi-factorial and refractory, with racism a key driver that we must seek to overcome at every level.

Our role now is to act. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund will work to determine a course of action to leverage our resources to address racism in science and society. We intend to raise the voices of our community to address issues and concerns of science and social justice. For the past year, we have been working to bring Race: Are We So Different as a permanent exhibit in North Carolina and will continue to take action to address health, wealth, and education disparities based on race.

Clearly, given current events, this is not nearly adequate. We will do more.

From STEM educators to researchers, we will listen, we will engage, and we will provide support. We must bring together diverse voices to bring our country closer to justice, mutual respect, and unity.

I urge philanthropic leaders to join me in standing against racism and encouraging conversations about the racial inequities in our society.

I leave the final words to James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Louis J. Muglia, MD, PhD
CEO and President 
Burroughs Wellcome Fund

 

Invest Early NC

Invest Early NC,
 
The past week has been a painful and tragic reminder of the long-standing racial injustice present in our communities. As a collaborative focused on prenatal to age 8 systems change, we have much work ahead of us.
 
We know children’s mental health is based on safe, secure, nurturing environments. Let’s consider these events in the context of child development: What happens when a child feels unsafe in their environment due to the color of their skin? What happens when a child fears for their caregiver’s wellbeing due to police brutality or other forms of discrimination or racism? 
 
We know caregivers are a crucial piece to buffering the effects of trauma; however, when generations are traumatized and communities are perceived as unsafe, we know there can be lasting adverse social and emotional effects. As a funders collaborative, we must keep racial justice, empowerment, and equity as a bedrock of our work. Our engagement and learning will be strengthened if we collectively identify ways to reflect, learn, share, and grow to ultimately improve our connection with the communities we serve.
 
Please share with us your ideas and insights from your foundations, lived experiences, and communities – we are ready to listen and learn.
 
All our best,

Liz Winer, Invest Early NC Co-Chair
Cyndi Soter O’Neil, Invest Early NC Co-Chair
Amber Payne, Invest Early NC Project Director



John Rex Endowment

Racism is systemic in this community and this country, and it steals lives – whether from violence or silence – as well as livelihoods. At the John Rex Endowment, we acknowledge this fact, lament it, and express our deepest apology for ways in which we may inadvertently perpetuate it. Our commitment is to challenge ourselves daily to understand and to grow in ways that resist all forms of racism while we help lay the groundwork for a new and equitable society.

We are especially concerned about how navigating systemic racism negatively impacts the social, emotional and behavioral health and well-being of black and brown children. As families struggle to raise their children in this current environment, the alarms are sounding. The effects of what children are seeing and hearing in the media, on the streets and at home will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Our foundation’s mission is to ensure that children are safe, healthy and living to their full potential. We recognize this can never be accomplished through grantmaking alone. The only way to create an environment where all children and families thrive is to change policies so that all people are valued and systemic racism becomes a problem of the past. 

It’s our pledge to:

  • continue to listen and learn; 
  • embrace our equity journey as both individuals and an organization; and 
  • work with our grant-funded partners, advocates and government agencies who are providing leadership during this pandemic and civil unrest to advocate for policies that will advance positive change for all children, especially black and brown children and families.

We are in this for the duration as together we rebuild more equitable systems for our children.
 

Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust

At the Trust, we have watched as people across the country march in the streets to protest the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and hundreds of years of racial injustice—and felt the outcry ourselves. Racism and racist policies and practices have permeated every aspect of our society since this country was founded, and we believe that systemic change is the only way forward to ensure a just society for people of color who have been held back far too long. To the people experiencing racism and fighting for change, we see you, we hear you, and we support you.

There are many ways we can collectively engage to work for the change that needs to occur. To do this work means addressing inherent tensions of power and inequity, privilege and disadvantage—in our nation, our state, and within our own organizational structure.

What does this mean for our work at the Trust? We are a 70-year-old foundation charged with improving the health and quality of life for people with low incomes in Forsyth County and around North Carolina. We are on a journey for racial equity, finding ways to put Kate B. Reynolds’ vision in today’s context.  In partnership with communities, we are working for thriving residents, equitable access to health care, and equitable health outcomes.

We began this process by listening to and learning from the communities we serve. We looked inward at ourselves and continue to expand our team and partners to include more people who share lived experiences with these communities. We looked outward and named specific goals and outcomes—rooted in systems change—to improve the health and quality of life for people with low incomes and people of color because we know racism and lack of access to quality health care, educational opportunities, and economic mobility are inextricably linked.

Together, we’re working for equity and changing systems in the following ways.

Local Impact in Forsyth County

Locally, we are pushing for a more inclusive economy in Forsyth County, a community with one of the worst economic mobility rates in the country, where African American and Latino residents in Forsyth County are more likely to experience poverty.  Research and community input tell us that we need to address the barriers to living-wage employment, lack of investment in effective public transportation, and poor coordination of community resources. We are focused on building the public will for an inclusive economy, increasing the education and economic advancement of parents with young children, launching the next generation by connecting young adults to jobs and educational opportunities, and improving the safety net.

We stand up for our youngest residents through our Great Expectations initiative to ensure all children are prepared for success in school and life by the time they leave kindergarten. We work to address unacceptable disparities: an infant mortality rate that is three times higher for African American babies, racial bias in child care, pre-K and elementary school settings, and fewer Latino students reading at grade level than in other parts of our state. These are issues caused by racist institutional practices, and we must change the local systems that perpetuate these disparities.

Health Improvement in North Carolina

Statewide, supporting racial equity and justice means fighting for equitable access to health care and equitable health outcomes. Inequities in health care access and outcomes are deep throughout North Carolina and are being magnified as we weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the CDC, people of color are more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19. Right here in Forsyth County, Latino residents make up more than 60 percent of COVID-19 cases but only comprise 13 percent of the population. Latinos are almost three times as likely to be uninsured; African Americans are twice as likely as whites to lack insurance.

That’s why we continue to fight for equitable access to quality health care and health insurance and call for the expansion of Medicaid in our state to close the coverage gap.

We also focus on the social drivers of health because we know that communities of color are more likely to lack access to affordable housing, healthy food, and transportation. We are working with health care systems to acknowledge these social drivers and engage with residents being impacted to understand how to address unmet social needs.

Throughout the state, we support grassroots groups led by people of color who are trusted resources and messengers for their communities, and we invest in communities and neighborhoods that have been marginalized far too long. Through our placed-based initiative Healthy Places NC, which invests in under-resourced rural communities, and locally here in Forsyth County, we are partnering with grassroots organizations working for the rights of African American, Native American, and Latino residents. We are investing in their leadership development and providing grants to build the capacity of their organizations to do long-term systems change work.

We believe that philanthropy has a role to play in this historic moment to fight racial injustice and reform the systems that have intentionally held people of color back. We can use our voice to call out racism and support systems change. We can use our power and privilege to have critical conversations about race, justice, and reform with other people in power. And we can transfer power to residents and communities that have too long been denied a seat at the table.

While we have made important changes at our foundation to work for racial equity, we also know we have more to do. Together, let’s work for a just society that stands up against racism and changes the system to ensure equitable health, educational, and economic outcomes for all residents. We can do better. We can do more. We must.

 

Laughing Gull Foundation

As a foundation based in the South, the Laughing Gull Foundation lifts our voices to join with others around the world in declaring that Black Lives Matter. The scourge of racism embedded in this country must be rooted out, and a new course must be charted. That is what the protests of today demand, and we stand with you.
 
We are outraged and grieved by the murders of George Floyd, David McAtee, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery — and far too many other Black people —  killed at the hands of racism, violence, and injustice.

We are appalled by how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people of color disproportionately due to systemic racism in our health care institutions, environment, and places of work.
 
We join in solidarity with the protests and vigils across the country coming together in outrage, lament, and rebellion.
 
We denounce the ways that the philanthropic sector is complicit in racism, and we commit to the long-haul work of healing, justice, and reparation.
 
We commit to ongoing examination of our complicity in a system that perpetuates racist violence – ideologically, interpersonally, institutionally, and culturally.
 
We name that the accumulation of wealth that enabled the creation of the Laughing Gull Foundation could not have happened without systemic racism and white supremacy.

Our country’s failure to reckon with and make reparations for centuries of exploitation and dehumanization gives us (and others in philanthropy) an urgent responsibility and opportunity. We must acknowledge this rupture to humanity and work to repair the breach with all the means we have available. We must be guided by the leadership of people of color and those closest to the pain and impact of racialized violence in this country.
 
At LGF, we are listening to our grantees and others on the frontlines and adjusting our grantmaking based on their wisdom. Commitments we have made so far in 2020 include:​

  • Increasing our payout to support immediate needs in LGBTQ communities of color disproportionately impacted by COVID -19;
  • Making new grants to address the unconscionable impact of COVID-19 on people who are incarcerated and returning citizens;
  • Sustaining our practice of offering multi-year, general operating grants;
  • Continuing to spend out at least 10% of our assets as we have done in past years;
  • Joining a public call to commit to at least a 10% payout over the next three years; and
  • Remaining steadfast in our commitment to redistribute all of the assets of the foundation on a twenty-year timeline.


We will continue to listen and respond over the next months, and we look forward to being in conversation and collaboration with many of you. It will take all of us working together to achieve the change necessary to repair the breach.
 
In Solidarity,
Midge Coward (Board Chair) & Hez Norton (Executive Director)
On behalf of LGF Board & Staff
 


The Duke Endowment

“We must do better. We must be better.”
           
Those recent words from Cheri Beasley, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, speak to what’s in our hearts right now.

Like you, we recoiled in horror at the image of a police officer kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed and helpless George Floyd. 

Like you, we felt inspired by the sight of multi-racial crowds in cities across the Carolinas and the nation, raising their voices peacefully in protest of Mr. Floyd’s death, and against a shameful legacy of unequal justice imposed on generations of black and brown people in this country.

Our founder, James B. Duke, knew America couldn’t live out its full potential while systematically holding back an entire group of citizens based on skin color. That’s why, in creating The Duke Endowment 95 years ago, he committed part of his resources to help segregated black hospitals, support orphaned children of all races, and assist historically black Johnson C. Smith University as a named beneficiary.

The problem he recognized then remains with us now. While we all feel the pain of this moment, African Americans have been harmed most particularly. They feel its sting most acutely. 

We hear the voices of those calling for constructive dialogue and positive, lasting reform. We stand with you, and commit to being part of the solution. We will survey our own internal and external operations through a diversity, equity and inclusion lens, and identify opportunities to improve our work. 

We will also join other foundations and nonprofits across the Carolinas to lift these issues up, and to push for positive social change. 

The necessary conversations will be difficult at times. The actions taken won’t always draw unanimous agreement. But as we watch the waves of anger, sadness and pain pulsing through the country, we know the status quo is not acceptable.

Our work is rooted in an unshakable belief in the power and possibility of social change. We see evidence daily in the work of partners we support – organizations that are nurturing children, promoting health, educating minds and enriching spirits.

Mr. Duke directed us to improve life in the Carolinas. But we know we cannot truly improve the lives of all Carolinians without addressing the lasting, systematic harms people of color endure.

It took centuries to weave unjust policies and practices into the fabric of our society. It will take an entire nation, pulling together, to unravel them. 

We renew our determination to do our part.

Read the statement on our website here.



The Winston-Salem Foundation

To the Community:

Our hearts are heavy. The horrifying murder of George Floyd, along with other recent and continued acts of aggression against black people, are clear and vile injustices. Our board and staff stand firmly against these acts of violence, while also recognizing that they are symptoms of a much deeper problem that we must face as individuals, as an institution, and as a nation.

Not only are people of color targeted and unfairly discriminated against, but they are disproportionally affected across the board – in areas such as health, education, and wealth. These disparities cannot be denied and did not occur by accident. They are the direct result of centuries of laws, policies, and practices beginning with the removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands and the enslavement of Africans that have explicitly and implicitly deemed people of color as inferior, the effects of which are seen and felt today. While it is simple to say “I am not a racist,” it is much harder to address and dismantle the complex, built-in injustices of structural racism – and yet doing so is the only path forward.

The Winston-Salem Foundation is committed to centering the voices and lived experiences of people of color; we recognize that only by doing this can we improve outcomes for all. We know we have not always operated in this way, and we are committed to doing better and to serving as a stronger ally to our Black Philanthropy Initiative and to all our local communities of color.

Over the past three years, we have been working to develop and operationalize anti-racist values for the Foundation and to infuse a racial equity lens across all of our work. We acknowledge that we are not where we want to be as an organization, but we are committed to our racial equity journey now more than ever. Please hold us accountable as we pledge to learn more and to do better, both in our internal work as an organization, and within our community. People’s lives depend on our voice, your voice, all voices, speaking up at this critical moment, and for months and years to come, and we are committed to speaking out against the travesties that we witness.

This is a crucial moment in time, and our work will not waver going forward. We are fully committed to working with our community to rectify centuries of racial injustice and exploitation of our black and brown neighbors that we and so many others have inadvertently benefitted from. As a 100-year-old organization founded only 54 years after the abolishment of slavery, we have a moral and ethical responsibility to do so.


Scott Wierman, President

Randall Tuttle, Board Chair


Triangle Community Foundation

Good afternoon beloved community,
  
I have deeply reflected on the last few months of the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent, yet not unique tragedies of indisputable violence against the Black community. We know many of our black, indigenous, and people of color in our region bear the brunt of health, education, and economic disparity, as a result of years and years of systemic racism and a system devised to elevate some of us, while pushing others down.
 
As a Foundation, we share the grief and anger felt by so many in this time of unease and unrest sparked by the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others. We recognize it is wrong that it took another senseless act of violence to open the eyes of our nation to the devaluation of humanity for Black Americans.
 
Two years ago, as a part of our Strategic Roadmap, the Board of Directors specifically named equity as a value of Triangle Community Foundation and began implementing changes internally which will continue to lead us on a journey to address the most pressing issues facing our communities. We recognize that we still have a long way to go to demonstrate more meaningful impact, and our donors and nonprofits look to us for guidance on how that value shows up as an action in our region. Institutional change is ongoing and uncomfortable, and it should be.
 
As a Board, we strive to reflect the diversity of our community in our leadership and through the many diverse lenses of our community partners, advisors, and donors. Each perspective informs us how to fully invest and maximize the allocation of resources to our community. We acknowledge racism causes societal destabilization and creates negative outcomes for the health, education, and economic prosperity of our most vulnerable citizens. As a Foundation, we seek change and growth, and commit to living into our values.
 
We will continue to prioritize funding to organizations led by and serving People of Color, because we know that these communities have the least access to the resources and networks they need to thrive. We are dedicated to learning about and taking action to dismantle systemic barriers that continue the cycle of inequity in our region. We will continue to educate ourselves and engage our donors in conversation, amplifying voices that are marginalized along the way, as to why these racial and structural inequities exist, and how we can invest in promoting real change. Internally, we will examine our own structures and processes and determine how racism may show up, and what we need to do to change that.
 
The Black lives of our staff members, our board members, their families, and every single Black person in our community matter. We commit to learning alongside you and working together to make real change. While we do not know what the future holds, we are committed to strengthening the people and re-imagining a community with health, education, and economic parity. Let us all acknowledge the breach and our responsibility to fully repair the breach for humanity.

Respectfully,
 
Farad Ali
Board Chair, Triangle Community Foundation



United Philanthropy Forum

For Philanthropy: A Public Policy Call to Action #BlackLivesMatter

As we reflect on the events that have captured the nation’s attention the past couple of weeks, the Forum will continue to speak up and speak out about the current affairs of this country and the injustices that have continued to take place, many times at the expense of African American lives.

Every day for the past week or so, we have seen protests from around the world. From Minnesota to New Zealand, people are crying out to be heard, after being ignored for far too long. Specifically, Black people in America are tired, exhausted, and fed up.

The history of this nation is littered with these moments, Watts in 1965, protests in response to the assassination of Dr. King in 1968, protests in response to the Rodney King beating and subsequent acquittal of police in 1992 (preceded by the murder of Latasha Harlins in 1991), and now we are seeing a response to the many murders that have taken place in just the last five to six years in this country, many at the hands of law enforcement (Eric Garner in 2014, Laquan McDonald in 2014, Tamir Rice in 2014, Sandra Bland in 2015, Walter Scott in 2015, Philando Castile in 2016, Breonna Taylor in 2020, and George Floyd in 2020...and that’s just to name a few).

A recent news article states: 

“Unsurprisingly, the three largest states - California, Texas and Florida - have the highest total number of killings of Black people by police officers. Once these figures are adjusted for the population size and demographics, in nearly every state, African Americans face a significantly higher risk of being killed by police officers than white Americans.

In Utah, African Americans comprise just 1.06 percent of the population but they accounted for 10 percent of police killings over the past seven years - a disproportional rate of 9.21 times. In Minnesota, Black Americans are nearly four times as likely to be killed by law enforcement, with Black victims comprising 20 percent of those killed, despite comprising only 5 percent of the overall population.“

This is a defining moment in our nation’s history and the questions before us now are crystal clear: How can philanthropy help right these wrongs? Where do we want to be in this defining moment, on the sidelines or in the game? I argue the latter. And while there are some in our sector who have been doing the work for a long time, the time has come for all of us to suit up and get in the game so that we may institute real, systemic change.

To me, that change starts with public policy and advocacy.

Some sectors are already taking action. For example, earlier this week the CEO of AT&T called on fellow CEOs to “advocate for policy changes that work toward racial justice.”  He went on to say: “We owe it to [African Americans] to make sure that we’re speaking to this, that we’re asking our policy makers to step up, that we’re asking our political leaders to step up and recognize and just say it: We’ve got a problem.” Likewise, The Business Roundtable is making a similar call for civic action. Philanthropy must do the same AND see it through.

In the same vein of the AT&T CEO, and as a Black man and public policy leader in this space, I am calling upon our members and partners in public policy across the country to join with the Forum as we seek viable ways to impact social justice change via public policy. As the Forum seeks to partner with others in that work, I ask that you do so too and commit to using our collective voices to cultivate the change we seek.

What Does Public Policy Change Look Like? 

Philanthropy cannot remain silent in the face of racial injustice. We must use our privilege and platform to stand in complete solidarity with the Black Community and use our voices, resources, and influence to impact a reform agenda that puts an end to social injustice, police brutality, and systematic/structural racism.

To that end, this won’t be easy. We must plan, strategize, advocate, and mobilize. We must actively seek to work with member and colleague organizations leading on issues like these, and learn how to approach this work effectively and intentionally, internally and externally. 

We will do everything we can to support the work of our members who have been less engaged in advocacy and public policy in the past because this is a moment for all of us to lean into this work.

The Forum has sought to use an equity lens to guide our work in public policy. While we will continue to do so, going forward we recognize that we need to be more explicit in our approach to racial equity, by spelling out specifics in our work and public policy agenda. We look forward to engaging with you, our members, our Public Policy Committee, Board and national partners as we devise a way forward. 

This is just the beginning, let’s get to work!

Matthew L. Evans 
Director of Public Policy 
United Philanthropy Forum
Follow me @_MLEvans

 


Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation

June 11, 2020
 
This is an open note to all North Carolinians:
 
To be clear, deep-rooted racism has shaped our country’s and our state’s institutions, systems, structures and laws from the beginning and continues to perpetuate these injustices to this day.  As Americans, we aspire to form a more perfect union and must come together to reimagine a country where fairness and justice prevail, especially for communities of color.  Recent events, including the utterly tragic death of George Floyd, a native of North Carolina, at the hands of law enforcement, compounded with the COVID-19 pandemic that is disproportionately impacting people of color, have highlighted vast endemic disparities and racial injustices that communities of color, particularly Black and African American communities, continue to endure.
 
Law enforcement is one aspect of our society that is perpetuating racism and that must be held accountable, and those who now arouse the conscience of our communities and our nation over these injustices, are in reality expressing the highest respect for the law and holding those accountable who are currently charged with its enforcement.  Police brutality is systemically and disproportionately impacting Black and African American communities across the nation and is, and has been, responsible for the senseless deaths of a string of individuals in recent history.  And yet, law enforcement is but one example of many aspects of our society indicative of a larger societal problem that unnecessarily limits the ability of people of color to live fully productive lives and, therefore, to realize our state’s and this country's true potential.
 
The core values of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation (ZSR) embrace equity, dignity, fairness and justice.  We support the dismantling of systems and structures that limit opportunities for individuals, groups and communities to reach their full potential.  We strongly believe that a person’s racial identity should not be a predictor of one’s life outcomes.  Our Foundation condemns acts of violence toward individuals and communities of color and stands in solidarity with our grantee partners who have been actively working to address systemic and structural racism for many years as they continue to work towards equity and justice.
 
We challenge all North Carolinians to act in a similar fashion and to join us in reimagining our future.  The need for sustained structural change is not new, but if we are to succeed in realizing the full potential of North Carolina as a place where everyone can thrive, we must work urgently, now more than ever, both individually and collectively to dismantle racism.
 
While ZSR recognizes that this work must address every sector of society, in light of recent events related to law enforcement, ZSR is immediately awarding $200,000 to support the efforts of grassroots, community-based organizations, including several current grantees, in the areas of criminal justice and law enforcement accountability, equity, and transparency, particularly related to the treatment of Black communities.  These organizations are:

  • Alternate ROOTS, Inc. for the work of SpiritHouse
  • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of NC Legal Foundation, Inc.
  • Beloved Community Center of Greensboro, Inc.
  • Blueprint NC for the North Carolina Statewide Police Accountability Network (NC SPAN)
  • BYP100 Education Fund Durham Chapter
  • Carolina Justice Policy Center (CJPC) for its Emancipate NC project
  • Forward Justice
  • YWCA of Asheville and Western NC, Inc. for the Racial Justice Coalition (RJC)

To the people of North Carolina and all of the United States of America . . . we can and we must do better, together.
 
Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation
 
Executive Director

Maurice O. “Mo” Green
 
Trustees
 
Nancy Bagley
Piper Neal Beveridge
Anita Brown-Graham
Angela Bryant
Daniel G. Clodfelter
Ilana Dubester
Mary Mountcastle
Anna Warburton Munroe
David L. Neal
Jane S. Patterson
W. Noah Reynolds
Virgil L. Smith
Lloyd P. “Jock” Tate, Jr.

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