Bill and Peggy Britt Foundation $5M Gift to Prepare Future Public Service Leaders

The Bill and Peggy Britt Foundation made a $5 million gift to the UNC School of Government to help students, recent graduates, and emerging professionals discover, prepare for, and pursue meaningful careers in public service.

The gift established the Bill and Peggy Britt Legacy Endowment for Service and Public Leadership and provides immediate support for the School’s growing continuum of public service education and workforce development programs.

Together, the endowed and current-use support will help the School introduce students to public service careers, provide applied learning and fellowship opportunities, reduce financial barriers to participation, and prepare emerging leaders to serve communities across North Carolina.

“This extraordinary gift will help Carolina students become leaders serving communities across North Carolina,” said Chancellor Lee H. Roberts. “Bill and Peggy Britt understood how much strong leadership matters to our state. We’re grateful that their legacy will help prepare generations of Carolina students to carry that work forward.”

Igniting a spark for public service

The Britt Foundation gift provides momentum for the first of three School of Government priorities, “Spark #1: Grow the Public Service Workforce.”

Communities across North Carolina face a growing need for talented, well-prepared professionals ready to serve in state and local government, nonprofit organizations, and other public institutions serving local communities. The Britt Foundation’s investment will allow the School to strengthen the full pathway into public service—from the moment a student first imagines such a career to the point when an emerging leader is prepared to take on greater responsibility.

The gift will broadly support programs and opportunities that expand access to public service education, offer practical experience, develop leadership skills, and help students and emerging professionals build lasting careers serving their communities.

In keeping with Bill Britt’s life and service, the endowment will also create opportunities for veterans and military-affiliated individuals, people with demonstrated financial need, and others for whom additional support could open a door to public service.

Three key programs will benefit from the Britt Foundation's generous support immediately:

• The new Law, Government and Public Service undergraduate minor, which introduces Carolina students from across fields of study to the institutions, ideas, and careers that shape public life.
• Lead for North Carolina, which places talented recent graduates in fellowships with local governments, where they gain hands-on experience while helping communities address pressing needs.
• The nationally recognized Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, which prepares leaders for public service through rigorous education grounded in practical application, ethical leadership, and effective governance.

“The Britt Foundation has given the School the ability to do something truly transformative: build an enduring pipeline of talented people who are prepared, supported, and inspired to choose public service,” said School of Government Dean Aimee N. Wall. “This generous gift honors Bill and Peggy’s remarkable lives while helping North Carolina communities secure the leadership they will need far into the future.”

A story and legacy that will launch generations of public servants to come

The story behind the gift begins with Billy “Bill” Bernard Britt and his wife Peggy Garner Britt, both North Carolina natives. Bill was a veteran, public servant, and entrepreneur whose life reflected a deep commitment to leadership, service, and the development of others; Peggy, the first in her family to go to college, was widely recognized throughout her life for her ability to inspire and motivate others and her commitment to philanthropy.

Born in Rocky Mount in 1931, Britt served as a U.S. Army officer during the Korean War and continued his military service in the National Guard. He then began a career in North Carolina local government, serving as an assistant city manager in Raleigh, city manager in Sanford and Goldsboro, and then as town manager in Carrboro.

During those formative years working in local government, Britt pursued graduate study in public administration at UNC-Chapel Hill and took part in courses and benefited from resources offered by the Institute, now School of Government.

Those experiences helped shape Bill’s approach to leadership, organizational effectiveness, problem-solving, and service—principles he carried with him when he later applied his public administration experience to build several successful businesses.

Bill, who died in 2013, often reflected on the importance of his experiences in public service and at Carolina. Before her death in 2024, Peggy made certain that the trustees of the Bill and Peggy Britt Foundation understood what those experiences had meant to him, and how deeply he valued the Institute.

That expression of gratitude ultimately led the Foundation back to UNC-Chapel Hill and to an opportunity to extend the Britts’ shared legacy to future generations.

A gift at a defining moment

The gift arrives during an important period in the history of public service education at Carolina.

This year the MPA program celebrates its 60th anniversary, and the fall of 2027 will mark the 30th year the program has been with School of Government. The School is also approaching its centennial in 2031, marking 100 years since the Institute of Government was founded to improve the lives of North Carolinians by strengthening public institutions and the people who lead them.

The Britt Foundation gift connects those milestones to the future.

Nearly a century after the Institute of Government began serving North Carolina, the Bill and Peggy Britt Legacy Endowment will help ensure that future generations have opportunities to discover public service, prepare for it, and build lives and careers around it.

It is a fitting legacy for a couple who believed in the potential of people and in the extraordinary things that can happen when that potential is given the opportunity to grow.

Published October 13, 2026