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Dear Friends,

COVID-19 has shifted our world and the way we operate in countless ways. While the long-term effects of this devastating disease are still being realized, it is increasingly apparent that specific communities, including, but not limited to, immigrant communities, Latinx communities, African American and Black communities, and justice-involved individuals are disproportionately impacted by this global pandemic and the compounded economic and health challenges it has wrought.

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has continued to listen to the needs of North Carolinians and has been in conversation with nonprofit and philanthropic partners as well as other state and local leaders about how we can be most effective and responsive during this time. From these conversations, four areas have emerged as needing immediate support even as the pandemic continues to impact the lives of so many.

The Foundation has awarded a total of $650,000 over the past few weeks to organizations that are working to address the immediate impacts of COVID-19 in these four areas, while maintaining a vision for the future.

These include providing direct assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic to some of our state’s most vulnerable populations, including those who sustain much of our essential industries yet are ineligible for government assistance; supporting workers’ rights, safety and conditions given the dire conditions many individuals are working under that have been exacerbated by COVID-19; protecting and strengthening our democratic institutions by ensuring fair, safe and accessible elections this Fall; and supporting innovative, equitable educational opportunities while advancing racial equity, removing barriers and uplifting the strengths of all our students and communities.

The names of organizations and the projects to which this funding is going are:

Direct Assistance During the COVID-19 Pandemic
* Church World Service, Inc. for the Immigrant Solidarity Fund project
* Western NC Workers’ Center for the Rapid Response Fund project
* El Pueblo, Inc. for the Mutual Aid Fund for Immigrant Families project
* NC FIELD, Inc. for the Farmworker FoodBank and Emergency Relief Fund project
* Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina for the work of the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry for the Emergency Fund for Agricultural Workers project
* Hispanic Liaison of Chatham County for the Chatham Solidarity Fund project
* El Centro Hispano, Inc. for the COVID-19 Crisis Response Fund project
* Blueprint NC for the Black Leaders Organizing Collective’s Ella Baker project
* University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the Department of Family Medicine’s NC Formerly Incarcerated Transition (NCFIT) Program

Workers’ Rights, Safety and Conditions
* Western NC Workers’ Center to support the efforts to increase digital organizing and staff capacity project
* Hispanic Liaison of Chatham County to support the efforts to increase staff capacity to implement know-your-rights and community organizing project
* NC Farmworkers Project to support the Farmworker Advocacy Network efforts in poultry and meat processing facilities in North Carolina project
* NC Justice Center to support the NC Families Care Coalition’s Small Grants Program

Fair, Safe and Accessible Elections
* Blueprint NC for its projects convening voter advocacy and mobilization groups, which includes a diverse group of organizations providing leadership on voter protection and democracy work throughout the state and who are working collaboratively with each other, with the State Board of Elections and with a broad array of groups to conduct voter mobilization

Innovative, Equitable Educational Opportunities
* The Innovation Project (TIP) for its Solutions Creators Action Network, which includes TIP leaders and a diverse group of outside partners, who are committed to rethinking, reimagining and redesigning public education, with equity at the forefront with support from the State Board of Education and other local leaders

To read quotes from some of these grant recipients, read our full press release here ([link removed]) .

Earlier this Spring, the Foundation awarded $100,000 in direct assistance grants to six food banks ($15,000 each for a total of $90,000) that collectively covered the state and to the Diaper Bank of NC ($10,000). The Foundation also had provided $50,500 to the COVID-19 Response Fund of Forsyth County, which provides resources to 501(c)(3) organizations that support vulnerable populations.

There are many uncertainties that lie ahead, yet the Foundation remains hopeful that we will make it through better and stronger as a people and as a state. The road to recovery will be long, and we are committed to standing alongside the nonprofit sector and our nonprofit partners to ensure they have supports in place to serve the communities that they tirelessly work to assist each and every day.

Stay safe and be well.

Maurice “Mo” Green
Executive Director, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation

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