We believe...Everyone Can Help Out

No force has the potential of doing more good in a community than that created among people who feel meaningfully connected to one another.  This is social capital - connections among people, based on trust, which enhance cooperation for mutual benefit. 

Academic research shows that when social capital is high, people in communities work better together, neighborhoods are safer, schools are more effective, healthy and mortality improve, government runs more smoothly, and resources are more equally shared. 

That's why in 1999 The Winston-Salem Foundation created the ECHO Fund - Everyone Can Help Out.  The Foundation committed a minimum of $2.5 million over 5 years to be used for grants to organizations that increase our community's stock of social capital. 

The final ECHO grant was awarded in June 2005, but the Foundation's commitment to building social capital remains strong. In 2003 the Foundation created the ECHO Council, which it officially launched in November 2005.  The ECHO Council, which has been charged by the Foundation to work as a promoter, incubator, facilitator, and advocate for social capital models diverse and inclusive leadership and is working to create a culture of the common good where decisions are made to benefit the many rather than the few.

Each year of the ECHO fund, The Winston-Salem Foundation presented ECHO Awards to a number of individuals and informal groups that were "caught in the act" of building social capital.  Each ECHO Award winner received a gift of $1,000 to donate to a charitable organization of their choice. In 2006, the Foundation and ECHo Council jointly selected and presented the ECHO Awards.