By Amanda Irwin
BGHNC
Boys and Girls Homes is launching the public phase of its four-year Making Futures Brighter Now and Forever Capital Campaign with an official goal of reaching $2.5 million for infrastructure, cottage improvements, transportation, program quality improvements at its Lake Waccamaw campus and its Endowment Fund.
Since 2023, the nonprofit has raised more than $1.7 million in an initial private capital campaign towards that goal, with about $773,000 remaining. The Campaign Committee hopes to complete its push by February 2027.
The organization needed to make improvements to its campus and to expand to meet the growing needs of its population of at-risk youth.
“We currently have more children living on campus than we have had in the last six years. More of North Carolina’s children are being sent to us, and we have a huge emphasis on keeping sibling groups together,” said Marc Murphy, President of Boys and Girls Homes. Currently, the campus has about 50 children living in its group homes.
“In North Carolina, 90 percent of sibling groups get separated when they come into care, and we’re keeping them together. That’s remarkable. At this time we have multiple sibling groups of four or more on campus. As a result, we’ve risen to meet that need because of your help in this campaign so far.”
Any gift of any size can impact the children of BGHNC. Recently, after a new alarm system was installed in one cottage, a child living there told a staff member: “I feel safer already.”
The money raised in the campaign so far has helped replace aging HVAC systems in campus buildings, which directly impacts how many children BGHNC can accept. Money from the Capital Campaign allowed BGHNC to complete its Equine Therapy offices, helping to launch and expand that program on the Home Farm.
Donors to the Capital Campaign gave to finish renovations to three cottages – Lions, Optimist and Kiwanis – allowing all those cottages to be open and feel more like a home and less like an institution for children healing from traumatic situations. Alumni of BGHNC have raised $280,500 for an alumni and events center that will pay homage to the organization’s past and make the campus a center of community activity.
With just $773,000 left to raise in the Capital Campaign, the organization is excited to be close to its final goal.
“What we need is not just support now, but support that will guarantee and honor our future,” Murphy added. “One of our biggest needs is to grow our BGHNC Endowment Fund so the organization can better sustain state and federal funding cuts as a permanent financial foundation for our critical work. This Endowment campaign is about more than money. It’s about building a secure foundation of safety for this true home for children.”
Information about the Making Futures Brighter Now and Forever Capital Campaign 2026 can be found here — https://boysandgirlshomes.org/impact/
