Preservation North Carolina is a private, non-profit statewide organization whose mission is to protect and promote buildings, sites, and landscapes important to the diverse heritage of North Carolina.

Founded in 1939, Preservation North Carolina is North Carolina's only private nonprofit statewide historic preservation organization.  Its mission is to protect and promote buildings, landscapes and sites important to the diverse heritage of North Carolina.  It enjoys a national reputation, having been cited by the National Park Service as "the premier statewide preservation organization of the South, if not the Nation" and the National Trust for Historic Preservation as "the model organization of its kind."

Through its award-winning endangered properties program, Preservation NC acquires endangered historic properties and then finds purchasers willing and able to rehabilitate them.  It has saved more than 600 endangered historic properties, generating an estimated $150,000,000 in private investment.  Among its other activities are the operation of two major museum properties (the Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington and Ayr Mount in Hillsborough), awards, workshops, publications, legislative advocacy, and public education.