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Children’s Home Society of North Carolina receives $8 million donation

Children’s Home Society of North Carolina’s headquarters located in Greensboro, NC. Photo courtesy of the Children’s Home Society of NC.

A Greensboro-based nonprofit that works to help children and families is getting a major donation. The Children's Home Society of North Carolina says it's the largest gift in its 120-year history.

Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who is divorced from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $8 million to the organization.

Officials with the Children's Home Society of North Carolina say the gift came as a surprise and it couldn't have come at a better time. The organization just launched a five-year strategic plan.  The focus is continuing to help children find their permanent, safe, and loving families.

Children's Home Society of North Carolina Vice President of Philanthropy Kristen Brown Smalley says the gift will also help them expand on work to help keep families together. That includes the intensive family preservation program, which provides education, counseling, and other resources.

“We have had a fantastic success rate with that program," says Brown Smalley. "A year after service, we have 97% of the families are still together and intact and so we figure that that is about 1,500 children each year who don't go into foster care.”

The Children's Home Society of North Carolina serves more than 15,000 children and families each year. Brown Smalley says one of the biggest needs right now is recruiting more foster families.

Billionaire MacKenzie Scott has also donated large gifts to other nonprofits in the region over the past couple of years, including $10 million to the United Way of Greater Greensboro and $30 million to Winston-Salem State University.

Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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