Dear Friends,

At this time last year, we looked back on a period of growth – for our organization, for our state, for the work we support.

In 2019, while we continued to evolve, we’ve also watched those changes begin to bear fruit, as momentum builds for developments that can enhance overall health for those living in North Carolina.

Closest to home, we welcomed Dr. John Lumpkin as the Foundation’s new president . He brings decades of experience in public health and national philanthropy, which you can read more about here . We promoted Katie Eyes to Vice President, Program and Strategy, and broadened Danielle Breslin’s leadership responsibilities to include a new focus on learning and evaluation. We are also in the process of expanding our program and evaluation teams through the addition of two new staff members.

More broadly, we’re excited to be part of an ongoing national and statewide shift elevating the view that health is inextricably linked to conditions in communities – and requires stakeholders from inside and outside of health care, including those most impacted by inequities, to develop practical, long-lasting changes to improve health.

Based on what we know already and what we are learning from our grantees and partners, we are exploring answers to the most important question we face: what will it take for North Carolina to become one of the healthiest states in the nation? For us that means we’ll be renewing or deepening our focus on the following:

• Continuing our long-time commitment to improving access to healthy, local food
  
  
• Continuing our work to address oral health through innovations that increase access and improve outcomes
  
  
• Continuing our support of community-centered health approaches and strengthening multi-sector partnerships to address long-standing inequities
  
  
• Fostering a new level of focus on early childhood development
  

As we move forward with these commitments, we’ll be actively seeking feedback from partners and stakeholders, and we’ll bring forward what we are learning, along with opportunities, in the year to come.

Even as we continue to hone our roadmap for the future, we’re enthusiastically engaged with, and investing in, community groups, nonprofits, and a network of other organizations to accelerate the pace of positive change today.

A few highlights from the past year include:

• Surpassing the 1,000th grant mark, a milestone of our 19 years investing in the health and well-being of North Carolinians.
  
  
• Welcoming 28 new grantees during our fiscal year that ended in June, while also managing a $30M portfolio of 75 active grants.
  
  
• Expanding Community-Centered Health by adding six new partnerships across North Carolina that support collaborations between health care, community organizations, and resident leaders to identify and address inequities that impact community health.
  
  
• Growing our commitment to the BUILD Health Challenge and their newly added communities – including collaborations in Gastonia and Greensboro we’ve supported for several years through Community-Centered Health.
  
  
• Investing in NCCARE360, Nonprofit Finance Fund, and others to prepare for the new financing models for human services organizations that accompany Medicaid Transformation and a broader shift to value-based health care.
  
  
• Supporting the NC Healthy Food Retail Task Force – and the publishing of its recommendations to broaden healthy food access in North Carolina – as well as the launch of the North Carolina Food Action Plan.
  
  
• Continuing our commitment to the network of food policy councils in North Carolina – the second-largest such network in the country behind California.
  
  
• Enjoying the continued success of long-time grantee Kids in Parks, as they celebrated the 10th Anniversary of TRACK Trails , and lending our voice to a national conversation about park prescriptions .
  
  
• Recognizing Be Active Kids^® as they marked their 20th anniversary supporting children birth to age five in child care and schools across North Carolina.
  
  
• Targeting investments in organizations led by people of color and the communities they serve through a pooled-funding initiative with our colleagues in the Triangle Capacity-Building Network.
  
  
• Increasing coverage of oral health issues impacting the state through ongoing support of NC Health News.
  
  
• Joining The Duke Endowment and the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation in committing $35M to support advances in oral health .
  

We know there’s a lot more work to do, both in focusing and prioritizing our work for the future and in making a difference right now for the people of North Carolina.

And we also know we can’t do it alone. This work requires the insights, talents, and resources of individuals and organizations across the state. We continue to be humbled and inspired by the experts we work with, the collaborations we are a part of, the groups we help support, and the people who work tirelessly within their own communities to make life better for everyone.

Through it all, as we harness momentum for change and put new plans into action, we’re inspired by the company we share and excited about what we can accomplish together.

Your friends at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation