All For NC: Framework for Grantmaking and Learning

All For NC is a framework to guide our grantmaking and learning. The framework builds on ZSR’s core values and reflects our commitment to partnering with North Carolinians at the statewide and local levels to drive positive and sustained change.

Our Strategies

We invest in three primary strategies: State-Level Systemic Change, Community Progress Fund and Special Projects.

1. State-Level Systemic Change Strategy

We fund organizations working to change policies, power structures and other root causes of challenges so all North Carolinians can thrive. Many of our State-Level Systemic Change partners are working locally or regionally, but all are connected to statewide efforts to transform unjust systems. 

We invest in four main issue areas, but since these issues intersect, we also support organizations working across them:

• Strengthening Democracy
• Fostering a Healthy and Sustainable Environment
• Advancing Public Education
• Promoting Social and Economic Justice

2. Community Progress Fund

We fund community-led efforts that improve the quality of life for North Carolinians at the local level. Organizations use grants to meet direct needs, test ideas and expand promising efforts to improve their communities.

This strategy is designed to be responsive to local communities and build on their unique strengths, opportunities and momentum. It is intentionally broad because we aim to be responsive to communities’ diverse needs across NC.

3. Special Projects

We invest in special projects that have great potential to improve the quality of life for all North Carolinians. We aim to be flexible and take risks to meet NC’s most pressing needs and fuel its most promising ideas. 

Investments in this strategy are not wedded to pre-defined grant cycles or applications; instead, information and applications become available as new projects are announced.

One such special project is the Inclusive Public Art Initiative, which invests in public art projects that share under-told stories of North Carolinians, sparking new conversations and highlighting our common humanity.

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Our Commitments

ZSR has three enduring commitments.

1. Using a racial equity lens.

We want to see a North Carolina where racial and ethnic identity does not predict life outcomes. At the same time, we know that many of our institutions and systems were set up to benefit some North Carolinians and not others, and systemic disparities are particularly evident around race. 

For decades, ZSR has engaged in activities to promote diversity, equity and inclusion across the state, among our grant partners, and within our own walls. Because our mission is to improve the quality of life for all North Carolinians, and because strong racial disparities in quality of life indicators persist, we must sharpen our lens around racial equity in particular. 

We acknowledge the impact of structural racism and seek to support strategies and systems aimed at mitigating its effects on society. 

We work to operationalize and apply a racial equity lens to every aspect of our work, recognizing that this is a long-term and ever-evolving journey.

2. Being a learning organization.

Listening and learning are core to our work. The challenges and opportunities facing North Carolinians are complex, and the state is everchanging. The strategies we and our grant partners use to help North Carolinians must be adaptable and flexible to meet people’s needs at any given time. 

By listening to North Carolinians’ diverse perspectives, we strengthen our ability to support those needs. We actively seek to learn with, from and alongside our partners, and we embrace opportunities to adjust our practices together, in response to what we learn.  

To engage in learning in an ongoing, evolving way, we embrace learning models that allow us to focus not simply on outcomes, but also on how and why those outcomes occurred and what meaning can be gleaned from that analysis. We also believe that expected outcomes (for us and for our grant partners) have to evolve as circumstances change. This approach to learning allows ZSR to embrace unforeseen changes and new opportunities that arise and adjust accordingly.

3. Augmenting our participation in our hometown of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County. 

ZSR was founded in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County (WS/FC) and is proud to call it home. 

We strive to be involved as active members of our community — joining the important conversations that are going on right now, or that are yet to happen, and contributing our own knowledge, experience, voice, connections and leverage to forward-thinking change that is aligned with our mission and core values.

We work to engage with all aspects of the WS/FC community, including business, religious, philanthropic, educational, civic, neighborhood, governmental, media, arts and culture, health care and more.

We encourage WS/FC organizations to apply for funding under any of the strategies outlined above, and we may also invite organizations within WS/FC to apply for funding as we deepen our engagement here at home.