Some of the gifts you will read about below include the gift of healthier homes some of our most-needy citizens will receive due to the Healthy Homes initiative we facilitated in partnership with Highlands Cashiers Health Foundation and supported financially by the Dogwood Health Trust.
Likewise, the Advantage Andrews project, supported by the Duke Energy Foundation, is providing grants to small businesses as they recover from COVID impact.
What a privilege it has been to partner with amazing organizations across our region through our grantmaking, including the CHIP projects that will be announced in early January. Last, but certainly not least, I am thankful for the partnerships that are enabling our Now + Next Leadership Program to launch in 2022. Alumni of the program will be better prepared to advance our collective efforts toward solving our region’s most pressing health and well-being challenges.
What I hope you come to realize as you read these stories is how much we value the gift of partnership with each of you. Through partnerships, we have enjoyed another great year of progress toward improved health and wellbeing in Western North Carolina. We are proud of what we have accomplished and humbled that we are able to help facilitate innovative collaborative projects and leverage funds beyond our own grantmaking capacity.
We define “partnerships” very broadly at Nantahala Health Foundation:
– Our partners include our donors and other grant-makers who have invested in our work. We obviously couldn’t do what we do without you.
– Our partners include the organizations we have provided funding to or helped to facilitate other investments. You are the hands and feet that enable us to accomplish our mission.
– Our partners include the individuals who have taken time to participate in listening sessions, invited us to an event or a tour to learn about your work in the community, talked with us on the phone, completed an online survey, and even those that have applied for grants we were not able to fund.
These relationships help to inform our work by providing us with vital information about what is working and not working to improve the health and well-being for all who call Western North Carolina home.
As we continue to grow and better serve our region, broad-based public support is vital to our continued work. Generous financial support from individuals allows us to demonstrate the public support required to qualify for additional external investment and maintain the designation needed to support our grantmaking efforts.
The good news stories you’ve been reading from us for nearly three years are the direct result of our collective impact. If more stories of improved health and well-being are to be written, strong financial partnerships must be established, nurtured, and grown. That’s why I call upon you now to support the healthy future we all envision with a donation today.
Thank you in advance for stepping up to this additional level of partnership. We are thankful for each of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years.
