Reflecting on a Transformative Year
As 2025 draws to a close, Ashlee Carter looks back on a year that has been nothing short of transformative for A Carter Solutions, LLC. What began as another chapter in her commitment to strengthening nonprofits and amplifying community impact became a year of unprecedented growth, deepened relationships, and expanded influence across the philanthropic landscape.
A Banner Year for Fundraising
The numbers tell part of the story. Through strategic grant writing and meticulous project management, Ashlee secured over $500,000 in philanthropic support from private foundations and corporations for her partner organizations. But behind those impressive figures lies a deeper narrative of countless hours spent understanding each client’s unique mission, crafting compelling proposals that resonated with funders’ values, and building bridges between those with resources and those doing transformative work on the ground.
Each successful grant represented more than just dollars raised. It meant youth programs could expand their reach, community health initiatives could launch new services, and organizations could strengthen their infrastructure for long-term sustainability. Ashlee’s ability to translate organizational vision into fundable proposals proved again and again that strategic storytelling, backed by solid data and authentic passion, creates opportunities for real change.
Expanding Her Reach as an Impact Philanthropic Advisor
In 2025, Ashlee took a significant step in her professional evolution by becoming an Impact Philanthropic Advisor through Daylight. This new role positioned her at the intersection of strategic giving and social impact, allowing her to work with donors who want to make a difference but need guidance on how to give most effectively.
As an advisor, Ashlee brings her years of experience working directly with nonprofits to help philanthropists understand the real needs on the ground. She helps them move beyond transactional giving toward transformational partnerships, ensuring that their charitable dollars create lasting change in the communities they care about. This dual perspective—understanding both the nonprofit seeking funding and the donor seeking impact—has made her an invaluable resource in the region’s philanthropic ecosystem.
Stepping Into Governance and Community Leadership
2025 also marked Ashlee’s transition into key leadership roles within the community. When she joined the board of the Sampson YMCA, she brought her strategic thinking and deep understanding of nonprofit operations to an organization that serves as a cornerstone of community health and youth development. As a board member, she contributes to shaping the Y’s long-term vision, ensuring that it remains responsive to evolving community needs while maintaining financial sustainability.
Her appointment as Secretary of the Staunton Farm Foundation added another dimension to her leadership portfolio. In this governance role, Ashlee ensures that the foundation operates with transparency and accountability, maintaining the trust of stakeholders while advancing the organization’s mission. The meticulous attention to detail that makes her an excellent grant writer serves her equally well in supporting effective board operations.
These board positions aren’t just titles on a resume. They represent Ashlee’s commitment to giving back to the sector that has defined her career, sharing her expertise to strengthen institutions that strengthen communities.
Building the Foundation for Future Success
Perhaps the most important work of 2025 wasn’t captured in any single achievement but woven throughout the entire year: the cultivation of relationships and partnerships that will bear fruit for years to come. Ashlee invested considerable energy in connecting with nonprofit leaders, corporate social responsibility officers, foundation program directors, and fellow consultants throughout the region.
She attended countless coffee meetings, joined community conversations, participated in sector convenings, and consistently showed up as a reliable partner and thought leader.
These weren’t networking activities in the transactional sense but rather genuine efforts to understand the landscape, identify opportunities for collaboration, and position A Carter Solutions as a trusted resource for organizations navigating the complex world of philanthropic funding.
Through these relationships, Ashlee has helped create a more connected nonprofit community where organizations learn from one another, funders gain deeper insights into community needs, and collaborative approaches to shared challenges become possible. She’s become known not just as someone who can write a winning grant but as someone who understands the broader ecosystem and can help organizations think strategically about their sustainability and growth.
Looking Toward 2026
As the calendar turns toward a new year, A Carter Solutions stands on solid ground with clear momentum. The foundation laid in 2025—the relationships cultivated, the trust earned, the expertise demonstrated, and the leadership roles assumed—positions both Ashlee and her clients for continued success.
The pipeline for 2026 is already taking shape, with several funding relationships established and new partnership opportunities on the horizon. The board positions will deepen Ashlee’s understanding of governance and long-term organizational strategy, insights that will enrich her consulting work. Her role as an Impact Philanthropic Advisor continues to expand her network and influence in the philanthropic community.
Most importantly, the organizations Ashlee serves are stronger, more sustainable, and better positioned to fulfill their missions. That’s the true measure of success for A Carter Solutions—not just the dollars raised or the proposals funded, but the lasting impact created in communities through the work of mission-driven organizations that now have the resources they need to thrive.
For Ashlee Carter, 2025 wasn’t just a successful year for her business. It was a year when her vision of connecting resources with purpose, strategy with heart, and philanthropy with genuine community impact became more fully realized. And 2026 promises to build on that foundation in ways both expected and yet to be discovered.
