“When you say ‘champions for children,’ to me it means recognizing that every child in this county deserves an opportunity to thrive,” says Jimmy Talton, who is Senior Vice President at CAPTRUST Financial Advisors in Raleigh and is serving his second term as endowment board chair. “If we don’t use our voices and contacts and decisions to guarantee this for our children, who will?”
Talton, long active on the volunteer fundraising side with nonprofits such as Communities in Schools (CIS), welcomed the opportunity to join the Endowment board and see another facet of the nonprofit sector: awarding funding to nonprofits in line with a grantor’s mission.
“The nonprofits who apply to us for funding have amazing stories and do incredible work in Wake County,” Talton says. “I’m privileged to learn their stories and then witness the impact of the grants that we make to support their work.”
His dream for John Rex Endowment’s future is simple: “I hope we’re still doing what we’re doing now, in the next five to 10 years, but with even more ability to have a bigger impact. Wake County is seeing enormous growth, but we can’t lose sight of areas like southeast Raleigh and East Wake where some children still need strong advocates. I hope we’ll be making more grants and having more impact on expanding policies in the county that ensure children’s mental, emotional, and physical health.” [09/2019]