We started with a belief.
No one should have to navigate hardship alone. That belief is why Grata Connects exists. It's why we've built programs that move in 72 hours, partnerships that span our region, and a mindset that honors the resilience of those in need and treats them with dignity and respect every time.
The conversations that started it all.
For five years, I owned and operated a business at CarrMill Mall in Carrboro. Every day, I had a front-row seat to the lives of people in need; people asking for money, food, shelter, and clothing. Anything that would allow them a moment of comfort and dignity, no matter how small.
What I witnessed didn't make me look away. In August 2023, I started having conversations, hundreds of them with local leaders, community members, and people living on the street or facing eviction. The same truth came back from every side: the resources exist. The need exists. The system connecting them does not.
So we set out to build the connection layer the system is missing.
In January 2026, I closed the business to do this full-time. Grata Connects is what came next; a board, a network of partners, dozens of UNC students, and a community of neighbors who refuse to let anyone fall through.
— Jay Radford, Founder & Executive Director
Principles that keep the work grounded.
Gratitude
Every interaction starts here. For the people who trust us, fund us, and work alongside us.
Kindness
It is crucial to work from this place for any success, and it is missing by all involved too often.
Patience
When each side slows down enough to listen and understand the other, the outcome is more thoughtful and effective.
Respect
When mutual respect is present, communication becomes clearer, trust strengthens, and the support provided is more effective.
Focused. Efficient. Built for impact.
Every nonprofit has administrative costs. Grata Connects operates with an entrepreneurial mindset, keeping overhead well below the industry average for organizations of this type in our region.
No office. No unnecessary layers. No wasted movement. The focus is simple: keep resources moving to the people who need them as directly and efficiently as possible.
We are real people who really care, a lot.
Jay Radford - Founder & Executive Director
"I live with complex PTSD. I know what it means to exist in a body that rarely feels fully safe. I also know something else: I have survived 100% of my worst days. The people Grata Connects serves carry that same truth. They are still here. They are still showing up. That understanding is not a policy at Grata Connects. It is the foundation everything else is built on."
We Dare Greatly, everyday and invite you to join us.
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly."
— Theodore Roosevelt, Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910