Nearby Nearby Network is officially an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit. After months of paperwork, research, and groundwork, we are established, we are legal, and we are ready to get to work.

This is not a soft opening. This is us showing up.

What Nearby Nearby Network Is

Nearby Nearby Network is a nonprofit built around three pillars: community, independence, and resilience for rural and small town America.

We pre-identify trusted grassroots hubs in communities and equip them with verified community information and communication tools that work when cell service fails. Local businesses. Churches. Community centers. Veterans halls. The places where neighbors already show up for each other.

The goal is to have all of this in place before disaster strikes, so communities are ready when disruption hits and can coordinate their own needs.

This work shrinks the typical 72-hour information gap that follows a crisis. It gives responders real-time understanding of what each community needs, coming from the community themselves, so resources reach the right places faster.

Nearby Nearby Network is not an emergency response organization and we are not here to replace the ones that are. We are here to make sure the neighbors who are already showing up for each other are better supported, better connected, and more visible, so that when emergency responders and other nonprofit organizations arrive, they know exactly where to go and what is actually needed. And through all of it, the community keeps its voice. The information comes from them, the needs are defined by them, and the solutions are shaped around them.

Why This Matters and Why Now

This work did not start from a research paper or a grant opportunity. It started from lived experience.

When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, communities needed more than information. They needed help. They needed to be able to say what kind of help, where it was needed, and what the situation on the ground actually looked like. They needed the outside world to hear them clearly and respond to what was real, not what was assumed from a distance. Instead, that communication was scattered, delayed, or simply never made it out at all.

The people who filled that gap were not agencies or systems. They were neighbors. Local organizers. Community leaders who already knew their people and stepped up without being asked.

Imagine if those communities had been able to share that information immediately. The right help going to the right places faster. Resources reaching the people who needed them most instead of sitting unused because nobody knew where to send them.

That is what we are building toward.

The goal of Nearby Nearby Network is to be in place before the next disaster hits, in communities across the country, so that when disruption comes the foundation is already there. That takes time, funding, and the kind of sustained community trust that cannot be built overnight. But the vision is to get there first. That is what we are working toward.

America is 250 years old this July 4. There is no better time to invest in the communities that cover 97% of this country’s land, the rural and small town places that are too often the last to get resources and the first to be forgotten when systems fail.

The Grassroots Disaster Preparedness Listening Tour

Our first initiative is not a program rollout. It is a listening tour.

Starting July and running through August 2026, we are making eight stops across North Carolina, from the mountains of the west to the coast. Every stop is a public community conversation.

We will sit with people who have lived through and supported a disaster and ask the questions that actually matter. What did you need? What worked? What did not work? What did outside helpers get wrong? What is still broken today?

We will also share what we are building and why. Not to tell communities what they need, but to hear whether what we are building actually fits. Do the tools make sense for real people in real situations? Does the vision hold up when the people who lived through it look at it honestly? What would they change? What is missing? What matters most to them?

Across every stop, we are looking to hear from a wide range of voices. Agricultural communities who faced some of the longest recovery timelines. Businesses that are still struggling today. Businesses that stepped in and helped when it mattered. Organizations that showed up for their communities, even briefly. And the organizations that are still there, still doing the work, long after the cameras left. We also want to hear from those who supported from a distance and sent supplies. What worked when they tried to help? What got in the way? 

This is called the Grassroots Disaster Preparedness Listening Tour because that is exactly what it is. We are not arriving with answers. We are arriving with a direction and an open door. The communities we visit will shape what gets built and how.

The findings from this tour will shape how Nearby Nearby Network builds its grassroots resilience infrastructure across North Carolina, starting with communities that have already lived through what we are trying to prevent.

How You Can Help

There are two ways to support this work right now, and both matter.

Host a stop on the tour.

We are actively looking for host locations for our second Western North Carolina stop, Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, and two stops on the east coast to complete the tour. Eight stops. Eight conversations. Mountains to the coast.

If you have a space and a connection to your community, we want to hear from you. Hosting is one of the most direct ways to root this conversation in the places it matters most.

Reach out at [email protected]

Support the work financially.

Our first fundraising goal is $200,000. This is a starting point, not a finish line. Building the technology, bringing in the right experts, conducting the tour, collecting and analyzing what we hear, following up with communities, and beginning to implement communication systems that work when cell service fails will require sustained funding well beyond this first milestone. The full vision, a network that reaches rural and small town communities across the country, will take significantly more.

But every foundation starts somewhere. This first goal gets us off the ground, covers the costs of the listening tour, and begins building the infrastructure and conversations with experts that makes the rest of this work possible.

Every dollar, regardless of size, moves this forward.

If you believe in this work, you can support it here.

If you have skills in technology, cybersecurity, communications, disaster preparedness, marketing, or any other area you think could support this work, we want to hear from you. We are still in the early stages of understanding what we need and how to best move forward. As we gather information and shape the direction of this work, we will be sharing more about how people can contribute their time and expertise. Follow our posts and social media to stay connected as those opportunities become clearer.

This is the beginning of something that rural and small town America has needed for a long time. We are grateful to be building it.

NC registered 501(c)(3), FEIN 41-3087248, DLN 26053448010506