Grant Strategy and Funding Support for North Carolina Organizations

• Foundation for the Carolinas — The region's dominant community foundation, bridging both Carolinas through grants, scholarships, affiliate funds, and collaborative initiatives.

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• The Leon Levine Foundation — One of Charlotte's largest private funders, making 424 grants last year across health, education, and human services, now under successor leadership since founder Leon Levine's 2023 death.

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• The Duke Endowment — One of the nation's largest private foundations, funding child care, health care, higher education, and rural Methodist churches since 1924, including $5 million added to Hurricane Helene recovery.

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• John M. Belk Endowment — Creates pathways to and through postsecondary education for underrepresented students in North Carolina.

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• The Cannon Foundation — Funds healthcare, higher education, and human services capital and special projects, which draw about 90% of its funding.

• Dogwood Health Trust — A health-conversion foundation that approved $151 million across 632 grants in 2024, including more than $70 million for Hurricane Helene relief.

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• North Carolina Community Foundation — Statewide reach through 53 local affiliates, each running an annual application-based grant program with locally made decisions.

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• Golden LEAF Foundation — Tobacco-settlement funding aimed at rural economies, prioritizing agriculture, job creation, and workforce preparedness in eastern and rural NC.

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• Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust — Long-standing statewide funders based in Winston-Salem, in community/social justice and health/wellbeing, respectively.

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• The Albemarle Foundation  — A high-volume corporate funder of health, education, and environmental programs, making 1,166 grants last year.

• Triangle Community Foundation  — The region's anchor community foundation with over 800 funds, currently running Responsive Grantmaking project grants up to $20,000 and discretionary funding for housing affordability.

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• John Rex Endowment — A Wake County health-conversion foundation redesigning its grantmaking around racial equity to improve children's social-emotional health, investing about $3.7 million annually.

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• SECU Foundation — The State Employees' Credit Union's capacity-building funder, running $40,000 Mission Development Grant cohorts alongside Rural Opportunity, Disaster Response, and large capital challenge grants.

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• A.J. Fletcher Foundation — A smaller, relationship-driven Triangle institution funding human services and state-level policy change.

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• Burroughs Wellcome Fund  — Grants more than $40 million annually for biomedical research and STEM education, mostly to degree-granting institutions on behalf of individual researchers.