The UNC Health Care System created JRE and tasked us with advancing the original vision of Raleigh businessman and philanthropist John Rex: supporting “poor and afflicted” residents of Raleigh.
Our History
At John Rex Endowment, (JRE) we have supported and partnered with amazing nonprofits for more than 25 years. They’ve influenced who we are today as an organization and how we make informed decisions about our approach to advocacy and how we strengthen organizations that improve the social emotional health of Wake County children.
2000
2001
We began grantmaking with a priority of ensuring vulnerable Wake County children have access to care.
2008
To respond to growing concerns about childhood obesity and its impact on children’s health and well-being, we broadened our focus to promoting healthy weight among Wake County children.
2012
In 2012, we worked with Duke University to determine what our community needs most. Based on the assessment results, we focused our grantmaking on five goals:
- Healthy weight and active living
- Preventing injury
- Positive mental health
- Nonprofit capacity building
- Coalition effectiveness
2017
We conducted another community needs assessment, which we used to create our 2018 Strategic Roadmap.
2018
We launched our 2018 Strategic Roadmap, which included a five-year plan for the foundation.
2020
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we shifted how we fund to adapt to a trust-based philanthropy philosophy and to be more flexible in our approach.
2021
We released a new mission statement: to strengthen organizations that center racial equity and justice to improve the social emotional health of children living in Wake County.
In addition to grantmaking, we began using approaches such as bringing like-minded people together, collaborating and advocating to make an impact.
2022
In support of the updated mission statement, we awarded $900,000 to support racial equity capacity building projects.
2023
We updated our strategic roadmap to reflect what we’ve learned since we created the original roadmap in 2018 with an updated funding strategy, supporting movement-building efforts and exploring new ways to support organizations.
As part of this effort, we redefined our vision for the next 20 years: By 2038, Wake County will have a resilient, equity-centered ecosystem that is better equipped to improve the social emotional health of children
2024
We funded our first cohort of organizations focused on building the individual capacity of their organizations while also learning how to leverage each other’s mission to strengthen an ecosystem that supports the social emotional health of children in Wake County.