$25 million leap for kids’ mental health: J. Frank Harrison III directs transformational gift to behavioral health center at children’s hospital

J. Frank Harrison III’s long-standing commitment to faith-driven generosity and community well-being stands at the center of the transformational $25 million gift establishing a Behavioral Health Center at NC Children’s. This latest act of giving extends a deeply personal philanthropic journey shaped by family legacy, loss, and a conviction that business exists to serve people.

For Harrison, the NC Children’s gift reflects his belief that children’s mental and emotional health is foundational to the future of the communities he has spent decades trying to strengthen. By helping create a comprehensive behavioral health hub for young patients and their families, he is aligning personal values—care, dignity, and hope for the most vulnerable—with a high-impact institutional partnership in his home state.

Harrison is the fourth-generation leader of a family whose connection to Coca-Cola in the Carolinas dates back to the early 1900s, and he has often described himself not as an owner, but as a steward of resources entrusted to him. A deeply committed Christian, he has consistently framed his life’s work around the purpose “to honor God in all we do,” insisting that influence and capital must be used in ways that tangibly strengthen families and communities rather than simply grow the bottom line.

His philanthropy has also been shaped by profound personal loss. In 2008, Harrison and his late son, James Franklin Harrison IV, co-founded With Open Eyes (often known simply as Open Eyes), a ministry focused on equipping indigenous leaders to serve people in some of the world’s hardest places, including war-torn regions of Africa such as Sudan. After his son died while serving there, Harrison deepened his involvement, continuing to support and visit the work on the ground, where spiritual care, humanitarian aid, and leadership development are interwoven.

That same concern for the whole person has marked Harrison’s advocacy for corporate chaplaincy, where he has been a national champion of bringing chaplains into the workplace to walk alongside employees facing marital strain, addiction, grief, and mental health crises. For years, he has invested in ensuring that thousands of team members and their families have access to someone who will listen, counsel, and care in moments of quiet struggle or overwhelming crisis, a model that reflects his conviction that emotional and spiritual needs deserve the same attention as physical ones.

Over time, the arc of Harrison’s philanthropy has increasingly emphasized children, families, and faith-based initiatives—supporting efforts such as Open Eyes, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, youth and church ministries, and community organizations in North Carolina and beyond. The NC Children’s Behavioral Health Center now stands as a defining expression of that trajectory, directing substantial resources toward the next generation so that children across the state can receive world-class, compassionate mental health care close to home, and families can find hope at moments when they are most vulnerable.