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Chair/President's Message

excerpted from the 2009 Annual Report

To the people of North Carolina —

As the Foundation looks at the past year, we are proud to say that we were able to provide substantial funding for promising projects during the most challenging economy since the Great Depression.

At the Golden LEAF Foundation, we are unwavering in our determination to provide support for projects especially in tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and rural North Carolina communities that will help to grow jobs, strengthen communities, and build the knowledge, talent, and skill of North Carolinians.

In 2009, the Foundation replaced the Annual Grants Cycle with the Open Grants Program to allow for acceptance of year-round proposals, ensure faster decisions from the Golden LEAF Board, and reduce administrative burden for our grantees. 2009 Golden LEAF grants fostered $650 million in new investment and created and retained more than 4,300 jobs.

The Golden LEAF Board invested heavily in new initiatives to deal explicitly with the tough times we face. This year we:

• Helped small businesses get access to capital, through a $5 million grant to the Self-Help Credit Union that will leverage $25 million in loans;
• Moved North Carolinians to work through the Golden LEAF Opportunities for Work (GLOW) program to pay for specialized equipment and other costs at 23 community colleges to train workers for available jobs; and
• Attracted more aerospace jobs through investments in training initiatives in areas of the state primed to grow in this sector, and in aerospace education at the middle school through university level.

The Board also continued to strengthen current initiatives by:

• Sustaining its commitment to Tier One counties across North Carolina with funding for 30 grants in 11 counties through the Community Assistance Initiative;
• Awarding more than $3 million for over 200 scholarships for children from rural counties to attend North Carolina’s colleges and universities;
• Working in partnership with the NC Rural Center and the Health and Wellness Trust Fund to provide resources to expand rural health care jobs and investment; and
• Cutting the Foundation’s administrative budget by more than 20% to allow more resources for grants.
  

And we made grants to help make North Carolina’s application for federal Race to the Top support a national finalist and organized efforts to land the F-35 military expansion in North Carolina.

In 2010, we’ll do more.

Look for our investments in broadband across North Carolina, for our grants to promote innovation in school technology and curriculum, and our laserlike focus on jobs, investment, and help for the most distressed parts of our state.

While we’re still not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, we’re looking to our partners to help find creative and meaningful ways to diversify our economy and provide long-term economic successes in tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and rural communities.

We look forward to new and continued partnerships for the betterment of North Carolina.

Sincerely,

Edgar M. Roach, Jr. Board Chairman

Dan Gerlach President