PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Dear Rural Partners,
The rapid pace of change continued to be a central theme again this year as the world opened back up and people were eager to find a new post-pandemic sense of normalcy. This same sentiment was reflected at the North Carolina Rural Center as we returned to rural communities more often and looked for ways to connect more intentionally with our partners.
We stayed busy and covered a lot of ground in every facet of our work.
Plus, we had the opportunity to celebrate a few milestones.
Our small business lending arm Thread Capital celebrated its fifth anniversary. In that time, Thread has helped hundreds of small businesses in North Carolina by making more than 1,600 loans totaling more than $84 million. Thread, along with CornerSquare Community Capital and our State Small Business Credit Initiative, is continuing the legacy of micro-lending that started at the Rural Center more than 30 years ago and we’re pleased they are all doing well.
Our Faith in Rural Communities program also turned five this year. Thanks to The Duke Endowment and other supporters, by the end of the fiscal year our team had worked with nearly 450 people at 55 rural churches to build out faith-based projects that serve their communities in ways they never thought possible. We were able to distribute almost $400,000 in grants to help them in addition to our training and mentoring.
Congratulations to our team, our funders and, most importantly, our partner churches for what they’ve accomplished. In this new fiscal year, a $1.25 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to serve 40 rural churches of color in addition to our already planned work will keep this program strong and growing.
Lastly, I want to recognize our regional leadership training program – Homegrown Leaders. Homegrown Leaders has now served every county in the state after a successful class in central North Carolina this spring. Homegrown Leaders now has 352 graduates representing all 100 counties of North Carolina and continues to expand its reach.
We had other causes for celebration as well.


Patrick Woodie
President & CEO, NC Rural Center
2023 BOARD + STAFF
NC RURAL CENTER

BROADBAND IMPACT
Building partnerships in 33 rural counties from the northeast to the state’s western tip
Broadband initiative pushes service down country roads
THREAD CAPITAL
Brothers use shellfish loan to expand family fishing tradition from Ecuador to rural NC

CORNERSQUARE

Lifelong dream leads couple to open Morganton funeral home
NC RURAL CENTER
Medicaid expansion, small business wins highlight successful year for rural advocacy
The NC Rural Center’s Rural Counts Advocacy Team brings the voice of rural to Raleigh, and we are pleased with our success as we look back at the past year
In Fall 2022, we updated the 2023 Rural Counts Advocacy Agenda and the North Carolina New Small Business Plan. These agendas offer innovative, fiscally sound, nonpartisan policy solutions and initiatives to address rural North Carolina’s most pressing economic development challenges and improve the quality of life for our state’s rural people and places. Moving forward, we will develop the Rural Counts Platform, an evergreen iteration of the Rural Counts Agenda that will be rooted in unbiased data and research and that will guide our policy positioning across multiple concerns.

FAITH IN RURAL COMMUNITIES

FAITH IN RURAL COMMUNITIES IMPACT
Worked directly with 64 partner churches, more than 500 parishioners in the past five years
$400,000 invested directly in church-led, community-based projects
Faith in Rural Communities
Our Faith in Rural Communities Program celebrated its five-year anniversary in 2023. In that time, they invested more than $400,000 in 55 rural churches, worked directly with 450 parishioners and reached thousands more with projects that have transformed their communities. Learn more about that work in this video.
RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
Leadership & Engagement
Since its inception in 1987, the NC Rural Center has recognized the vital importance of local leadership to the success of our state’s rural areas. The Center’s flagship leadership program, the Rural Economic Development Institute (REDI), has trained over 1,500 rural leaders.

REDI/HOMEGROWN LEADERS IMPACT
1,550 leadership alumni over the life of the programs
1,860 total training hours in fiscal year 2023
THE NUMBERS

121
TOTAL
NUMBER OF
LOANS MADE
$15,013,000
TOTAL AMOUNT OF LOAN FUNDS DISTRIBUTED
$124,000
AVERAGE LOAN SIZE
10%
WOMEN
25 LOANS
21%
BLACK OR
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
12 LOANS
4%
LATINO OR HISPANIC
5 LOANS
6%
VETERAN
7 LOANS
45%
RURAL
55 LOANS
46%
VERY SMALL BUSINESS
56 LOANS
LIFE OF THE PROGRAM
1,008 TOTAL LOANS
$131,153,101 TOTAL LOAN VALUE
Fiscal Year 2023

91
TOTAL
NUMBER OF
LOANS MADE
$2,084,700
TOTAL AMOUNT OF LOAN FUNDS DISTRIBUTED
$22,900
AVERAGE LOAN SIZE
64%
WOMEN
58 LOANS
69%
BLACK OR
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
63 LOANS
11%
LATINO OR HISPANIC
10 LOANS
8%
VETERAN
7 LOANS
42%
RURAL
38 LOANS
78%
CDFI ELIGIBLE
56 LOANS
LIFE OF THE PROGRAM
1,648 TOTAL LOANS
$85,693,362 TOTAL LOAN VALUE
December 2023

101
TOTAL
NUMBER OF
LOANS MADE
$14,390,000
TOTAL AMOUNT OF LOAN FUNDS DISTRIBUTED
$142,500
AVERAGE LOAN SIZE
45%
WOMEN
45 LOANS
44%
BLACK OR
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
44 LOANS
4%
LATINO OR HISPANIC
4 LOANS
8%
VETERAN
8 LOANS
25%
RURAL
25 LOANS
69%
VERY SMALL BUSINESS
68 LOANS
LIFE OF THE PROGRAM
234 TOTAL LOANS
$33,776,526 TOTAL LOAN VALUE
Fiscal Year 2023
FINANCIALS
This selected financial data is presented in summary format to provide information regarding the financial performance of the Rural Economic Development Center, Inc. (REDC) in a manner that is meaningful and useful to the widest range of readers. This information was derived from the audited consolidated financial statements. Interested parties should review the Form 990 of REDC and Thread Capital, Inc. for more detailed information.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to our 2023 Funders and Supporters






INVESTORS
Your support makes a huge impact!