How did your foundation begin?

Central Carolina Community Foundation, the Midlands’ leader in collaborative philanthropy, was established in September 1984 by a group of civic-minded business leaders and a $25,000 grant from United Way of the Midlands. Since our founding, we have grown to over $200MM in assets and have awarded over $232MM in grants and scholarships.

What is the mission of the foundation?

Our mission is to promote, facilitate, and increase philanthropy to create a sustainable impact within our community through responsible giving. We focus on boosting livability, equity, and vibrancy across our 11-county region through strategic grantmaking and engagement.

What differentiates your foundation from other specialists in the field?

Our team has a deep understanding and knowledge of organizations specific to our region allowing us to provide personalized grant recommendations that align with our fundholders’ interest areas. Our foundation is the region’s philanthropic collaborator. We bring together the financial resources of families, individuals, and organizations who care about our region and then invest those resources back into our community. We do this by building trusting and enduring relationships among fundholders, donors, nonprofits, and the community.

The fees we charge are not distributed to shareholders — the for-profit model. Our fees are reinvested in our region through the work of our staff, our programs and initiatives, and our grants.

How has the Columbia community benefited from

your foundation?

Our foundation has created a new reality of collaborative philanthropy through our initiatives and grants.

Since its launch in 2014, Midlands Gives, our 18-hour online day of giving, has united donors, corporations and firms, and media companies and raised nearly $20MM for hundreds of nonprofits across our region. The One SC Fund housed at our foundation has provided more than $10.4MM in disaster recovery grants across our state since its founding in 2015.