National Cigarette Manufacturer Settlement Agreement – A major settlement (Master Settlement Agreement) between 46 states and cigarette manufacturing companies was reached.
North Carolina's leadership created the Golden LEAF Foundation to administer one half of the NC MSA monies back into the state's economically distressed, tobacco-dependent and rural communities.
Golden LEAF awarded its first scholarships for rural students to attend NC colleges and universities. Total investment in scholarships is $46 million as of February 2018.
Golden LEAF awarded grants to help create a consortium to assist with workforce development requirements in the biotech and life science industries. Grants were awarded to NCSU, NCCU, and the NC Community College System.
Golden LEAF reacted to a need to work directly in Tier 1 counties in North Carolina and through a process established the top priorities for these counties and awarded grants to help move the needle for economic progress.
This initiative helped secure $78 million in federal funds and leveraged other private and public resources to bring high-speed broadband fiber to 69 counties across North Carolina.
This initiative is an expansion of the Community Assistance Initiative – expanded to all regions in the state – to identify those projects that are ready for implementation and have the potential to have a significant economic impact. Total investment in this initiative is $38.8 million, as of February 2018.
This initiative was developed to help ready large sites to attract major employers to rural, tobacco dependent, or economically distressed areas of North Carolina through providing infrastructure grants.
Through appropriations from the North Carolina Legislature from the Disaster Recovery Acts of 2016 and 2017, Golden LEAF was tasked to make grants to local governmental entities and 501(c)(3) nonprofits working to recover from the 2016 natural disasters, especially Hurricane Matthew.
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