Community Centered
Segra Gives Back through Funding,
Partnerships, Service
By Mike Farrell
Giving back to the communities in which it provides service has been a Segra hallmark throughout its 126-year history, and the Charlotte-based company isn’t about to let up now.
Just in the past year, Segra’s community building efforts have ranged from helping to raise more than $12 million for pediatric cancer research as a V Foundation key sponsor, teaching middle school girls how to decipher binary code through its work with the Dottie Rose Foundation and teaming up with ISPs like Open Broadband to offer affordable high speed internet service to needy homes.
“It’s always been part of our DNA to give back to the communities we serve and to invest in our people,” says Segra CEO Kevin Hart. “Investing in our people allows us to give them time, efforts and resources to go help those charities that matter the most to them.”
But the company does far more than write checks. At the Dottie Rose Foundation, Segra helped the organization purchase 50 “bling boxes” to give to middle school girls in the Charlotte area so that they can learn and write binary code.
“I think the power of the example that Segra is making is that they’re not only financially supporting, because as a nonprofit, we need that, but they’re also giving their time,” says Dottie Rose Foundation founder Dr. Sharon Jones. “And that is as valuable as the money.”
Now in its sixth year, Dottie Rose has seen about 800 girls go through some or all of its programs. And though some are picking a career in computer science—everyone in its first class of graduating high school seniors picked the curriculum as their college major—skills learned through the programs translate well to other disciplines.
At Open Broadband, Segra provides the fiber backbone that has allowed the telco to reach more than 4,000 homes in the area with low-cost fixed wireless broadband. Segra’s relationship with Open Broadband began in North Carolina and has expanded to South Carolina. “So everywhere we go, our first look is Segra because they’re just such a great partner for us,” says Open Broadband co-founder and CEO Alan Fitzpatrick.
Segra initially helped Open Broadband bring high-speed service to rural areas, but that has expanded to some urban markets as well. Fitzpatrick says while one of Segra’s goals is to make money on its projects, that’s not the first concern.
“They truly are a partner wanting us to help solve the problem,” Fitzpatrick explains. “Obviously Segra is in it to make money, but that’s not the conversations that we have. …It’s very collaborative and partnership oriented.”
Segra’s relationship with US Ignite in creating a Smart City in Greensboro, N.C., is another example of that collaborative mindset. Segra started working with US Ignite in 2020 and has supported infrastructure and innovation developments in and around the city’s South Elm Street Corridor, part of US Ignite’s Innovation District Working Group.
“This is Segra recognizing what’s good for the community may ultimately be good for Segra, but it’s not the primary motivation from day one,” says US Ignite chairman Bill Wallace.
