Welcome to ImpactNC 2018!

Welcome to the ImpactNC 2018 class blog!  We are excited to have you all join us in our work to use philanthropy for social change.  

Our class of 16 people and our two fearless leaders, Becca Bender and Lynn Blanchard,
have already seen some lively debates this semester.  Representing all four years at UNC,
various hometowns across the country, and different interests reflected in our different majors,
our team is a group that is ready to use philanthropy to create social change.  

Our fearless leaders, Becca and Lynn!

This year our focus area is educational impact through literacy programs in Eastern North Carolina.  
After researching dropout rates and the achievement gap in schools in North Carolina, we decided to
focus on organizations in or serving Eastern North Carolina because this area seemed to be in the
most need.  

Education is such a personal issue to each of us that we are all passionate about, so it was difficult
to decide on things like whether we should focus on rural or urban schools or on literacy or mentoring
specifically. However, so far we have always been able to come to a consensus and many of our votes
have been unanimous.

After a couple weeks of researching, debating, and deciding on our issue, location, and qualifications,
we are finally sending out our Request for Proposals.

Through this blog, we hope to shed some light on what’s really going on behind-the-scenes at ImpactNC,
through committee spotlights and updates on our progress as a class.