This nonprofit is featured in the WALTER Guide to Giving 2026, a curated guide to Raleigh and Wake County organizations that depend on holiday-season support.

North Carolina is rich with beautiful, interesting people, places, and cultures. Its history is as diverse as our landscape, from the rugged Blue Ridge Mountains to the untamed Outer Banks to the rural communities and cities in between. When thinking of those places, what special buildings come to mind? The rustic cottage where you fell in love with the ocean? The light-filled Rosenwald School your mother attended as a young girl? Maybe the Victorian house in Oakwood that makes your head swivel every time you drive by?

Places like that exist, in part, because of Preservation North Carolina. When these reminders of the past are lost to neglect or development, so are the stories of the people who built them, lived there, and worked in them.

Headquartered in Oberlin Village, Preservation North Carolina is the only statewide nonprofit protecting historic buildings and landscapes that make North Carolina special, from Raleigh’s Mid-Century Modern masterpieces to the Bellamy Mansion & Slave Quarters Museum in Wilmington, their stewardship educational site.

As a nationally recognized trailblazer since 1939, Preservation North Carolina permanently protects historic places through legally binding preservation covenants and easements — the gold standard for demolition prevention in NC — in two ways:

• Rescuing at-risk buildings and finding preservation-minded buyers to rehabilitate them. One example: The Dodd-Hinsdale House, which was saved in 1995 and now serves as Second Empire Restaurant and Tavern.
• Helping private owners place preservation easements on historic properties. One example: Annie Laurie Snow Williams was able to protect her beloved Hayes Barton home and garden at age 98, so it will never be demolished or subdivided.

Today, Preservation NC protects over 900 historic properties on more than 4,000 acres across 84 counties, driving economic growth, environmental sustainability and cultural revitalization. Your donations make this work possible and help broaden its reach, especially in high-development areas like Raleigh.

Join Preservation NC in protecting North Carolina’s special historic character!

Sponsored by Esther Hall. presnc.org/support

Keep exploring the Guide to Giving: Next up, Refugee Hope Partners — or see all 18 nonprofits.

A version of this article originally appeared in the November 2026 issue of WALTER Magazine.