Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation (ZSR) is pleased to announce its Spring 2022 grant awards under its All For NC Framework for Grantmaking and Learning. Board of Trustees approved $2.76 million in grants for 119 organizations located across North Carolina.
The grants awarded support ZSR’s Framework for Grantmaking and Learning, which includes three major strategies, and which is guiding the Foundation as it strives to improve the quality of life for all North Carolinians.
“For more than 80 years, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has been a catalyst for positive change in North Carolina,” said Maurice “Mo” Green, executive director. “ZSR is committed to the people of North Carolina, and the grants awarded in 2022 will support local, regional and statewide organizations that share in our vision and core values.”
State-Level Systemic Change Strategy
The Foundation awarded State-Level Systemic Change Strategy grants totaling more than $370,000 to five organizations across the state. ZSR’s State-Level Systemic Change Strategy supports state, regional and local organizations, coalitions, or collaboratives that are working to achieve systemic change at the state level within and across the following priority areas: Advancing Public Education, Fostering a Healthy and Sustainable Environment, Promoting Social and Economic Justice, and Strengthening Democracy.
Organizations awarded State-Level Systemic Change Strategy grants in the Spring 2022 cycle are listed below:
Promoting Social and Economic Justice
Community Success Initiative - General operating support
NC Black Alliance - Life Without Parole Judicial Review Pilot Program
NC Council of Churches - Farmworker Advocacy Network project
Strengthening Democracy
Code the Dream - Upstate North Carolina Statewide Legislative Advocacy Platform project
Duke University - North Carolina Leadership Forum project
Community-Based Strategy
In addition, Trustees awarded more than $1.4 million in Community Progress Fund grants to 33 organizations across the state. ZSR's Community Progress Fund, which is a part of ZSR’s Community-Based Strategy, is designed to provide an infusion of short-term funding at the right moment and is intended to build on existing momentum to help move an issue, an idea or an organization forward.
Progress Fund grants awarded include:
1901 Building Group - Soul Earth Garden Park
Action4Equity - Winston-Salem Freedom Schools
African-American Heritage Foundation of Southeastern NC - Cedar Hill African-American Heritage Park Development
Benjamin and Edith Spaulding Descendants Foundation - George Henry White (GHW) Health and Education Memorial Community Center
Catawba County Hispanic Ministry - Todos Somos América
Centro Unido Latino-Americano - Vamos/We Go
E J Hayes Alumni Association - E J Hayes Alumni Center’s Roof Upgrade
El Futuro - Building Parent-to-Parent Engagement and Advocacy Capacity for Latinx Parents of Children with Learning Differences
FMBC of Magnolia Ministries - Food Pantry
Happy Roots - School and Community Garden Coordinator Position
HOLLA Community Development Corporation - NETworX Anson County’s Cohort and Community Garden
Hope Renovations - Women’s Trades Training Program – Spanish Pilot
Island CultureZ - Island Ecosystem Strengthened through Transportation/Grassroot Agricultural Cooperative
Little Tree Farm and Retreat - Racial Equity Cabarrus
Nehemiah Community Empowerment Center - Phenomenal Women in STEM Program
New Hope Community Development Group - Community Leadership Development, Capacity-Building, and Engagement
Port Discover - Discover Science
PTA NC Congress of Parents and Teachers - Reimagining Food Pantries: Front Porch Delivery Pilot Program
Region K Community Assistance Corporation - Project Restore
Rowan County Youth Services Bureau - LGBTQ Youth Resource and Support Services
Sandhills Cooperation Association - Innovative Action Center: Business Development and Job Creation
South Eastern NC Community Development Corporation - Rocky Mount Housing Authority: Enhancing Family Self-Sufficiency in Public Housing
Southeast Rocky Mount Community Collaboration of Churches - Leadership Development and Grassroots Change Program
Southern Vision Alliance - Chatham Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE)
Spaulding Family Resource Center - Spaulding Family Resource Center and Campus
StandUp-SpeakOut of NC - Empowering People Inspiring Community (E.P.I.C.) Program
Training to Work an Industry Niche - Professional Painting Pilot Program for Women of Color
Truth Foundational Ministries - Taking the Edge Off
Village of Help - Mobile Art Clinic
WeBuild Concord - Community Advisory Board Expansion
West Rowan Neighborhood Center Advisory Council - Reuse of Historic R.A. Clement Rosenwald School
Wilmington Area Rebuilding Ministry - Healthy Opportunities for All
Yadkinville United Methodist Church - Grassroots Community Kitchen
ZSR Trustees also awarded a two-year grant of $200,000 each year to the Neighborhood Funders Group for the Amplify Fund, a pooled fund bringing together funders at the state, regional and national levels to learn, collaborate and leverage resources toward power building and organizing for equitable development. Amplify aims to strengthen the ability of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income communities to build power and influence decisions about the places where they live and work. Amplify is working in North Carolina as well as several other states and Puerto Rico.
Exploratory, Visionary Ideas Strategy
ZSR Trustees awarded 20 Inclusive Public Art planning grants for $5,000 each, totaling $100,000. The Foundation’s investment in Inclusive Public Art is intended to help share stories of diversity, equality, inclusion and equity as they relate to the people and places of North Carolina, especially those whose stories are often untold. The planning grants were awarded to 20 semifinalists which are to use the funds for community engagement and to develop project plans for potential inclusive public art installations in North Carolina. ZSR is partnering with the Mellon Foundation in this Inclusive Public Art initiative.
Inclusive Public Art planning grants awarded include:
1901 Building Group
Asheville Creative Arts
Brunswick County NAACP
BUMP
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership
City of Washington
Coharie Intra-Tribal Council
Currituck County
Downtown Morehead City
Friends of State Historic Sites-Edenton
Highland Neighborhood Association
Hola Community Arts
Hope Center of Hendersonville
Interfaith Prison Ministry for Women
Island CultureZ
Marian Cheek Jackson Center for Saving and Making History
Museum of the Cherokee Indian
NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
St. Joseph's Historic Foundation
Tryon Palace Foundation
Wellness Capacity Grants
ZSR also awarded wellness capacity grants totaling $492,000 to 60 current grantees across North Carolina. These wellness capacity grants are intended to respond to the difficulties experienced by nonprofits that have left many nonprofit professionals stretched thin and burnt out at an alarming rate.