Discovering a New Chapter: We’re Now a Non-Profit!

High Point Discovered board members sit around conference room table.

It all started in 2016, when our founder, Christi Barbour, was sitting at her table with her family discussing a problem she had discovered. Despite many delicious restaurants, talented creators, and amazing individuals located in High Point, the messages surrounding our city weren’t doing it justice. When faced with that problem, Christi and several of her close friends and family members set out to create a solution, and High Point Discovered was born. The rest is history.

Four years later, and this little grass roots social media project has turned into a community and a movement. There are thousands of you out there who we get to meet, hear from, and collaborate with! We tell our city’s stories for you to enjoy, and in return, your stories are the ones we love to tell. Together, we have discovered so much more about each other, our community, and the City of High Point than we ever dreamed possible.

People stand at a table at the High Point Farmer's Market that has signs saying "High Point Discovered" and "See the Good."

A team of people from High Point Discovered and Captivate Media stand together on walkway holding cameras.

Each one of you has made High Point Discovered possible, which is why we are thrilled to announce that as of this year, High Point Discovered is an official 501(c)(3) non-profit! Now you may be asking, why does that matter and what does it mean? Until this year, High Point Discovered was funded through the generosity of local business, Barbour Spangle Design. As our founding organization, BSD graciously gave to ensure we had team members to produce and create stories and social media posts that we could share with our community for free.

Now, as our own non-profit organization, we have the resources to bring even more content, more stories, more ideas, and more support to High Point businesses and individuals! Our mission hasn’t changed, but the amount of content and the kind of content we can create will just keep getting better. It also means we can now launch quite a few other exciting projects. One that we are most excited about is the launch of our newly designed website highpointdiscovered.org which will be debuting at the end of the month on August 31. (Stay tuned for many more projects coming… including videos, podcasts, online shops, and more!)

Christi Barbour stands before a crowd at the High Point Country Club speaking about High Point Discovered.

We are also excited to announce that our HPD family keeps growing. In addition to our editorial team who keeps content coming to you each day, we are now joined by our community Board of Directors. These eight men and women volunteer their time and talents, simply because they believe in the mission of High Point Discovered and are passionate about seeing it flourish (look out for an article coming soon to introduce you to our new board members!).

It also means that we will continue to run our operations based on the generosity of our community. From our visionary partners who pledge to our HPD friends and family who graciously give, our community’s support allows us to tell our city’s stories at no cost to our readers. This also guarantees that we remain unbiased and authentic in our storytelling. Instead of asking businesses or individuals to “pay-to-play,” we get to tell their stories simply because they have stories worth telling!

High Point Discovered team members sit on benches outside, one woman sits writing in a notebook, and two others sit opposite smiling and talking.

A table at the High Point Farmer's Market sits with a High Point Discovered cut out.

High Point Discovered board members sit around a conference room table.

Most importantly, during a year of a lot of change, difficulty, and anticipation, High Point Discovered’s mission has stayed the same: With our unique and unapologetically rose-colored perspective, we tell stories that empower those who are changing our city for good, inspire others to do the same, and cultivate a sense of pride. We are High Point’s storytellers.

In the midst of uncertain times and in the face of a shifting future, our goal is to continue to bring you messages of joy, fun, excitement, innovation, creativity, community, and hope. We believe that our city will continue to work together to create a home for all our residents, and we want you to be part of it with us. All you have to do is keep seeing the good around you, keeping asking questions and listening to people’s stories, and as always, keep discovering the high points of our community.

Keep discovering our High Points,

The HPD Team

Photography by Maria West Photography

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