Greenville Women Giving Awards Grants to Six Organizations at Annual Meeting
May 20, 2022 11:13AM ● By David Dykes
(Photo by Amy Randall).
By Donna Isbell Walker
Greenville Women Giving (GWG) awarded more than $500,000 in grants to six local nonprofits during its annual meeting May 19.
The recipients were chosen from a pool of 70 applications.
The 2022 grantees are:
Conestee Foundation: Lake Conestee Nature Preserve, $100,000 over two years to create a Nature Playscape, designed for children to engage with nature.
Greenville Literacy Association, $76,000 over two years to fund a full-time training and career counselor to help under-skilled adults.
Mental Health America of Greenville County, $76,495 to provide software licenses and laptops for its suicide prevention program, allowing counselors to work remotely while staffing the 24-hour hotline.
Phillis Wheatley Association, $65,000 to fund lighting and technological improvements to the Dwight Woods Repertory Theater at the Phillis Wheatley Center.
Rebuild Upstate, $100,000 over two years to preserve and improve owner-occupied homes for low-income families in Greenville County.
Thrive Upstate, $100,000 to fund two wheelchair-accessible vans to drive people with disabilities to jobs and community activities.
Since its inception in 2006, GWG has awarded 140 grants to 87 nonprofit organizations for a collective total of more than $7.6 million.
“It is so exciting to see that what began as a simple idea of collaboration, getting a handful of women together to make their charitable giving go farther, has turned into one of the United States’ largest and most successful women’s collective organizations in just 16 years,” said GWG Co-Chair Beverly Ward. “By working together, we are building a better quality of life for all residents of Greenville County.”
Grants are awarded to groups that work in GWG’s five areas of concentration: arts, education, environment, health, and human services.
The 500-member group was created as a special initiative of the Community Foundation. Members commit to donate $1,200 annually for three years in order to join.
Greenville County Council honored GWG with a proclamation declaring May 19, 2022, as Greenville Women Giving Day.
County Council representative Liz Seman, also a member of Greenville Women Giving, read the proclamation at the annual meeting.