Joining forces: the combined Crossnore School & children's home looks forward to a second century--together.

• Author: Duckwall, Jane
• Position: GRAETFUL GIVING: N.C. nonprofits link the needy with helping hands.

Two organizations helping western North Carolina children in crisis for more than a century--one struggling to maintain an aging campus, the other looking for room to grow--have joined forces. In January, the merger between The Crossnore School, founded in 1913 as a boarding school for disadvantaged children in Avery County, and The Children's Home, started as a Winston-Salem orphanage in 1909, became official. Crossnore CEO Brett Loftis, 41, was tapped to lead the partnership.

"There are so many children who need a place to go. We can't provide all that here in the mountains," he says. "Crossnore has been full for several years, with a waiting list. The number of kids in foster care continues to go up, and we have a record high--almost 11,000--in the state. We don't really see that changing anytime soon."

Young adults such as Appalachian State University sophomore Alex Taylor still return to the 85-acre campus in Crossnore, a town of fewer than 200 people. Alex arrived as a 15-year-old runaway and stayed when he legally emancipated himself from his parents two years later. Now, during breaks from classes, there is still space for him and other college students who need it in a converted apartment building that now holds offices and recreational space.

Over the years, Crossnore and The Children's Home expanded their therapeutic and residential services to include outpatient therapy and day-treatment programs. Children come from all over the state, but primarily western North Carolina. Prominent Crossnore School alumni include U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx and Jack Wiseman, who went on to turn Avery County into a top Christmas tree producer.

Crossnore recently completed a $21 million capital campaign to increase its endowment and fund capital improvements. Donations included $1 million from former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and his wife, Donna. Crossnore ended 2015 with a $25.8 million endowment.

"To last another 100 years, we really tried to think what business plan would get us there," Loftis says. "A lot of it was about building an endowment that would keep us less dependent on government sources and really taking our own future into our hands."

As Crossnore's financial situation improved, The Children's Home struggled as a mission of the United Methodist Church. Its aging buildings needed expensive upgrades, and it couldn't subsist on the government funding it received for residential and outpatient programs. Expenses exceeded revenue by...