Our Impact

Our Legacy of Impact

Here you’ll find how our actions have led to meaningful results. We focus on creating lasting change, as shown through these key initiatives.

Masonic Home for Children at Oxford

The Masonic Home for Children at Oxford, originally Oxford Orphanage, supported from the very beginning by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina, admitted 136 children the first year. The story of the children, their home, and the journey the state’s most historic children’s home has taken is today honored and remembered in a beautiful museum on campus. Over the years, the orphanage—renamed the Masonic Home for Children in 1994—has become the beneficiary of goodwill and love. Brothers hold fundraisers and special events to raise money and awareness of the MHCO kids and donate many thousands of dollars a year for their care. The state-licensed, nationally accredited home uses a family-living model that provides our children with individual living spaces, essentials needed for daily living, support if they have special needs, and a promise for full development and learning, from infancy to young adulthood. MHCO’s mission is fulfilled through the support of charitable giving. It is supported by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina and receives funding through the North Carolina Masonic Foundation, several grants, and countless generous donations from the Masons and friends around the state and the nation.

Whitestone

Legend has it that when a brother visited another in a county home for the elderly back in the 1900s, the brother found the conditions to be deplorable. Surely, he thought, the brothers of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina could do a much better job caring for aging brothers and their spouses. By 1903, a resolution to open such a home was adopted by the Grand Lodge and work began. In 1908, The Grand Chapter of North Carolina, Order of the Eastern Star agreed to help. In 1910, an agreement was reached between The Grand Lodge and The Grand Chapter to sponsor The Masonic and Eastern Star Home. In 1912, the cornerstone was laid and more than a year later, the first residents moved into the home. Established on 25 acres in Greensboro (on which it still sits today), the home boasted $5,000 in assets. Today, WhiteStone is a full-service facility, with a state-of-the-art Care and Wellness Center, independent and assisted living facilities, and a memory care unit. WhiteStone receives funding via the North Carolina Masonic Foundation and the Masonic and Eastern Star Home LLC.

North Carolina Masonic Foundation

The brothers attending the 142nd Annual Communication in Raleigh on Jan. 16, 1929, voted without hesitation to create a foundation, incorporated it the same day, and elected a full board of directors to get the work started. Grand Master John J. Phoenix told the assembly he had become convinced in recent years that there was a need for an organization designated to receive, protect, and grow bequests and other monetary gifts left to our Masonic charities.

Today, the foundation makes quarterly distributions to both the Masonic Home for Children and WhiteStone: A Masonic and Eastern Star Home. That funding covers much of the basic operating costs of the homes, and is supplemented by donations made by individual Masons, lodges, and legacy gifts from wills and estates. The foundation does much more: supporting and investing endowments and funds designated for distribution to more than 25 scholarships for college-bound students, including the Charles Cathey Scholarship fund. NCMF also oversees the Historic Masonic Properties Fund, which offers grants for the maintenance and preservation of historic lodges. It also contributes to the North Carolina Mason, the official news organ of the North Carolina Grand Lodge.