$541,218 Awarded at Greenville Women Giving’s 9th Annual Meeting Total Grants Surpass $3.6 Million

A Special Initiative of The Community Foundation of Greenville

GREENVILLE, SC – Greenville Women Giving, a local women’s philanthropic organization, presented eight grants totaling $541,218 to selected Greenville County non-profit organizations at its ninth annual meeting on May 6, putting its nine-year total of awards given at $3.6 million.

The meeting was held at the Peace Center’s Gunter Theater, and sponsored by the Greenville Health System and the Community Foundation of Greenville. Providing opportunities for children and serving special needs populations were the broad themes of the 2015 grants. The charities receiving grants were:

• Blue Tent, Inc. ($50,000) to support both a week-long summer camp and year-round programs providing outreach to abused and neglected children
• Center for Developmental Services ($65,272) for repair and replacement of HVAC units, the generator, pool filtration, and elevator maintenance for the facility which houses six agencies
• Frazee Center ($53,246) to create an in-house mental and emotional health counseling center for disadvantaged students and their families
• Generation Group Homes of Greenville ($87,000) to renovate the Homes’ original building, housing teenage boys emerging from the cycle of sexual abuse
• Harvest Home Food Bank ($100,000) for repair of the warehouse freezer and electrical system; the agency stores and provides food for the hungry through 100 non-profit partners
• Mill Community Ministries ($61,000) to fund stipends for at-risk youth and their adult supervisors, and educational activities for the Mill Village Farms program
• Safe Harbor ($49,700) to fund a strategic outreach plan, emphasizing the role men can play in ending domestic violence against women and girls
• Taylors Free Medical Clinic ($75,000) to expand their existing facility helping the medically underserved in the Taylors/Greer area

Founded nine years ago as a special initiative of the Community Foundation of Greenville, GWG is an organization of women whose purposes are both educational and philanthropic. Like similar successful groups in cities such as Charlotte and Asheville, GWG sponsors year-round educational opportunities for its members and guests, designed to inform about specific Greenville community needs. Members contribute $1100 annually to a collective pool that is distributed to local non-profits, following a membership-led grants review process and vote. GWG has also received generous grants from the Community Foundation of Greenville and other donors, including Greenville Health System.

Accomplishing together what most cannot do individually, the group focuses on funding high-impact ($40,000-$100,000) initiatives in the areas of education, health, human services, arts, and environment. Past grantees have included Pendleton Place, Greenville Free Medical Clinic, South Carolina Children’s Theatre, Conestee Foundation, and Greenville Literacy Association.

Thanks to GWG members’ generosity, total grant amounts have increased each year since the group’s founding. GWG currently has 440 members and is open to all women who commit to the annual contribution. For information about membership, upcoming events, and grants please visit the organization’s website: www.greenvillewomengiving.org.