Senior Resources wins Outstanding Philanthropic & Fundraising Executive awards

The Association of Fundraising Professional Central South Carolina Chapter has awarded Senior Resources, Inc. Outstanding Philanthropic Large Nonprofit and Outstanding Fundraising Executive Large Nonprofit for the 2020 AFP Honors National Philanthropy Day Awards.

Becky Morrison, United Way of the Midlands, AFP Chapter President, Andrew Boozer, Executive Director, Senior Resources, Inc., Connelly-Anne Ragley, SC Department of Social Services, Vice President Senior Resources’ Board of Directors, Kate Mayer, Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network, AFP Chapter Board Member

Senior Resources was awarded the Outstanding Philanthropic Large Nonprofit for our commitment to meeting the nutritional needs of all senior citizens, no matter their income level, when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020. The most vulnerable in this pandemic, senior citizens faced tremendous food insecurity prompting an increase in calls for help by over 500% this spring. At Senior Resources, we sprang into action and implemented an Emergency Senior Nutrition Program, to help feed seniors in Richland County five free meals per week at four locations throughout the county. Due to the growing demand for nutritional services, Senior Resources partnered with 15 other agencies and expanded our program statewide in April. The program provided over 340,000 meals in three months. To fund the program, Senior Resources raised $2.5 million, nearly doubling the budget of our organization in just 12 weeks. Our commitment was to provide any food insecure senior citizen the services they needed during a time that they were most vulnerable.

Andrew Boozer, Executive Director at Senior Resources was awarded the Outstanding Fundraising Executive Large Nonprofit for his outstanding leadership not only at Senior Resources, but through his development and implementation of the Emergency Senior Nutrition Program. He secured corporate, group and individual donors to provide financial security for this program. His guidance and vision in the midst of a crisis enabled his staff and volunteers to safely navigate the roll-out of an emergency program all while protecting themselves during the pandemic.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina won Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation and was nominated by Senior Resources, Inc. and the University of South Carolina for their commitment to addressing food insecurity in South Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic. A joint collaboration between BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation enabled Senior Resources to expand our Emergency Senior Nutrition Program to 14 additional counties in the state to provide over 245,000 meals to 10,000 seniors from May to June. In addition, BlueCross BlueShield of SC’s funding to the USC School of Medicine’s FoodShareSC program, provided over 70,000 fresh food boxes that were distributed to vulnerable citizens across the state.