Written by Jennifer Fitzgerald | Most Individual photos by Anthony Harden
Ten leaders of some of the area’s top nonprofits sat down with Capital at Play to discuss how their work is real business.
Three years ago, Capital at Play published an article in the November 2015 issue titled “Nonprofit North Carolina: Metrics and Accountability in Philanthropy.” The following November we published a follow-up, “Nonprofits & Revenue Streams,” and in each instance the response was hugely encouraging. It told us that, despite our magazine’s explicit mandate to cover the private business sector, our readership still has an interest (vested or otherwise) in learning more about the activities of nonprofits here in Western North Carolina.
And with November being Nonprofit Awareness Month (go to the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits website, NCNonprofits.org/npaware, for details), we want to remain proactive on the topic, if only for one month per year. As these annual reports—including our latest one, which appears on page 29—have clearly demonstrated, the nonprofit sector is a major economic driver for the region, and there’s no reason to think that trend is going to slow in the future.
This year, we have even decided to expand our nonprofit coverage beyond a lone report or summary. In the pages that follow, you’ll read mini-profiles of ten area nonprofit heads in which they discuss their backgrounds and upbringings, what drew them to the nonprofit sector in the first place, as well as to their nonprofits’ core missions, their greatest challenges and, greatest rewards, and of course, the core activities their nonprofits are engaged in. Our hope is that, by putting a human face upon some of the organizations that work to make this a better region for all of us, you will be inspired to support them and others like them in some meaningful way. This could be financially (many nonprofits that depend heavily on government funding as a key revenue stream are experiencing severe shortfalls due to government cutbacks), or through volunteerism, or simply by helping to spread the word to your friends and neighbors about nonprofits and what they do. —The Editors
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THANK YOU to the nonprofits for working with us on these profiles (click on the links to view the individual profiles):
Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry
Reverend Scott Rogers p. 36
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Asheville Buncombe Youth Soccer Association
Michael Rottjakob p. 38
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Asheville Community Theatre
Susan Harper p. 40
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Blue Ridge Food Ventures
Smithson Mills p. 42
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Brevard Music Center
Mark Weinstein p. 44
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The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina
Elizabeth Brazas p. 46
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Paws, Prayers, & Promises
Dana Mayer p. 48
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Pisgah Legal Services
Jim Barrett p. 50
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Two Rivers Community School
David Rizor p. 52
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Veterans Healing Farm
John Mahshie p. 54
The full article continues below. Click to open in fullscreen…
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