Hampton County Grants for Nonprofits

Global Impact Cash Grants

Cisco welcomes applications for Global Impact Cash Grants from community partners around the world who share our vision and offer an innovative approach to a critical social challenge.

We identify, incubate, and develop innovative solutions with the most impact. Global Impact Cash Grants go to nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that address a significant social problem. We’re looking for programs that fit within our investment areas, serve the underserved, and leverage technology to improve the reach and efficiency of services. We accept applications year-round from eligible organizations. An initial information form is used to determine whether your organization will be invited to complete a full application.

Social Investment Areas

At Cisco, we make social investments in three areas where we believe our technology and our people can make the biggest impact—education, economic empowerment, and crisis response, the last of which incorporates shelter, water, food, and disaster relief. Together, these investment areas help people overcome barriers of poverty and inequality, and make a lasting difference by fostering strong global communities.

Education Investments

Our strategy is to inclusively invest in technology-based solutions that increase equitable access to education while improving student performance, engagement, and career exploration. We support K-12 solutions that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as well as literacy. We also consider programs that teach environmental sustainability, eliminate barriers to accessing climate change education, and invite student engagement globally to positively affect the environment.

What we look for:

• Innovative early grade solutions using the internet and technology to bridge the barriers preventing access to education for underserved students globally.
• Solutions that positively affect student attendance, attitudes, and behavior while inspiring action by students to improve learning outcomes, whether they participate in person, online, or in blended learning environments. 
• Solutions with high potential to replicate and scale globally, thereby increasing the availability of evidence-based solutions that support student-centricity, teacher capacity in the classroom, and increased parental participation to help students learn and develop.

Economic Empowerment

Our strategy is to invest in early stage, tech-enabled solutions that provide equitable access to the knowledge, skills, and resources that people need to support themselves and their families toward resilience, independence, and economic security.

Our goal is to support solutions that benefit individuals and families, and that contribute to local community growth and economic development in a sustainable economy.

We target our support in three interconnected areas:

• Skills development to help job seekers secure dignified employment and long-term career pathways in technology or other sectors, including environmental sustainability/green jobs.
• Inclusive entrepreneurship with small businesses as engines of local growth as well as high growth potential start-ups as large-scale job creators nationally and internationally, in technology or other sectors, including environment sustainability/green businesses.
• Banking the unbanked through relevant and affordable financial products and capacity building services.

Cisco Crisis Response

We seek to help overcome the cycle of poverty and dependence and achieve a more sustainable future through strategic investments. We back organizations that successfully address critical needs of underserved communities, because those who have their basic needs met are better equipped to learn and thrive.

What we look for:

• Innovative solutions that increase the capacity of grantees to deliver their products and services more effectively and efficiently
• Design and implementation of web-based tools that increase the availability of, or improve access to, products and services that are necessary for people to survive and thrive
• Programs that increase access to clean water, food, shelter, or disaster relief and promote a more sustainable future for all
  • By policy, relief campaigns respond to significant natural disaster and humanitarian crises as opposed to those caused by human conflict. Also by policy, our investments in this area do not include healthcare solutions.

Climate Impact

Our strategy is to invest US$100 million in Cisco Foundation funds over the next decade to help reverse the impact of climate change, working toward a sustainable and regenerative future for all.

The commitment includes both grant and impact investment funding for early-stage climate innovation. Both categories of support will be focused on bold climate solutions, and the grants side will also concentrate on community education and activation. Grants will go to exceptionally aligned nonprofit organizations, while impact investments will go to highly promising for-profit solutions through the private sector and climate impact funds.

Funding comes from the Cisco Foundation and will focus on:

• Identifying bold and innovative solutions that:
  • Draw down the carbon already in the atmosphere
  • Regenerate depleted ecosystems and broadly support the transition to a regenerative future
• Developing curricular initiatives to spur community engagement that can lead to measurable behavioral change and collective action

We will prioritize organizations that can achieve, measure, and report outcomes such as:

• Reduction, capture, and/or sequestering of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions
• Increased energy efficiency and improved mapping and management of natural resources, such as ecosystem restoration, forest treatments, reforestation, and afforestation that also will help repair our water cycles
• Transition to inclusive, just, coliberatory, and regenerative operating models, ways of being, and ways of organizing economies
• Creation of, and increase in, access to green jobs and job training
• Changes in community and individual behavior that lead to carbon footprint reduction, community climate resilience, and localized roadmaps to a sustainable shared climate future for all

Charitable Contributions

Costco Wholesale’s primary charitable efforts specifically focus on programs supporting children, education, and health and human services in the communities where we do business. Throughout the year we receive a large number of requests from nonprofit organizations striving to make a positive impact, and we are thankful to be able to provide support to a variety of organizations and causes. While we would like to respond favorably to all requests, understandably, the needs are far greater than our allocated resources and we are unable to accommodate them all.

Warehouse Donations:

Warehouse donations are handled at the warehouse level - please consult your local warehouse for up-to-date information regarding their donations contacts and review process.

Grant Applications

If the request is under consideration, you may be contacted by staff for any additional information needed. Applications are reviewed within 4-6 weeks, and decisions are made based on several factors, including: type of program; identified community need not otherwise available; indication that evidenced based data will establish measurable results of intended outcomes; community collaboration; broad base of financial support; project budget and operating expenses.

About Us

Founded in 1974, Coastal Community Foundation works with people and organizations who want to make a lasting difference through philanthropy. We are rooted in the community from 40+ years of experience in the Lowcountry. Our proactive approach to donor services, fund flexibility and opportunities to engage with the community make us the partner of choice for hundreds of donors in coastal South Carolina.

Southern Lowcountry Grants

Competitive grant programs are for organizations serving Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties. Unless otherwise specified, organizations are allowed and encouraged to apply for general operating support.

The Beaufort Fund

CCF’s largest grantmaking program in the Southern Lowcountry has three categories intended to suit the needs of small, large and first-time applicants.

Since it was established in 1998, The Beaufort Fund Grant Program has distributed more than $11 million in the Southern Lowcountry region across Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties. Applications are accepted in three categories, a structure intended to suit the needs of small, large and first-time applicants. This approach allows the selection committee to evaluate organizations that are similar in fiscal scope, life cycle and programmatic impact within each category.

Grant Categories

Requests for each of the following categories may be for programmatic or general operating support:

Genesis Grant

This grant supports strategic growth and/or expansion to increase the impact of a program that has already been proven successful. This grant may also support a project that addresses a community need in a new or creative way. Applicants may request up to $10,000 of support from this category.

Operational Grant

This grant is only available to organizations that have applied to The Beaufort Fund previously. Nonprofits may request up to $25,000 of support from this category.

First-Time Grant

This grant is only available to nonprofits that have not applied to the Beaufort Fund previously or have not received funding in the last five years. Nonprofits may request up to $15,000 of support from this category.

The Sidney Stern Memorial Trust is devoted solely to the funding of charitable, scientific, medical and educational organizations.

The Board endeavors to support soundly-managed charitable organizations that give service with a broad scope, have a substantial effect on their target populations, and contribute materially to the general welfare. The Board does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

Background

Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation seeks to dramatically improve the lives of underserved communities across the globe by supporting scalable, innovative, and impact-first solutions that leverage existing systems and stakeholders. Our goal is to find social entrepreneurs with dynamic products or services that have a proven ability to positively impact the lives of underserved people, and nurture those organizations at the early stages by providing capacity, capital, and community.

Our application process is designed to be open and accessible, and we accept applications year round from across our priority geographies and sectors. Borrowing from our venture capital legacy, we find exceptional entrepreneurs and provide them with: 

Capacity

• The core of DRK’s model is deep and extensive operational and technical support for each portfolio organization, both through dedicated hands-on Board service and specialist capacity-building resources for fundraising, board and organizational development, leadership, financial support, and scaling strategy,

Capital

• DRK provides up to $300,000 USD in either unrestricted grant funding or investment capital over a three-year period, and

Community

• DRK convenes our portfolio and alumni annually, facilitating connections and community. 

What We Fund

DRK Foundation funds early-stage social impact organizations solving the world’s biggest social and environmental problems using bold, scalable approaches.

What stage of growth does DRK Foundation typically fund?

Early stage: Organizations who are early stage, which we define as post-pilot and pre-scale. This typically means: 

• Your program, product or service is already being used in the market or in the field, 
• You have early indication that your model is having its intended impact on the beneficiary populations,
• Your organization is relatively young (ideally between two and five years old, although we will consider both younger and older organizations).

Venture funding: In the case of for profits, we typically support Seed to Series A organizations, and never lead rounds; we also generally but not exclusively refrain from participating in financings exceeding a $15M USD post-money valuation.  

PNC Foundation

Strengthening and enriching the lives of our neighbors in communities where we live and work.

Vision & Mission

For decades, we have provided resources to seed ideas, foster development initiatives and encourage leadership in nonprofit organizations where imagination and determination are at work enhancing people's lives everyday.

The PNC Foundation's priority is to form partnerships with community-based nonprofit organizations in order to enhance educational opportunities, with an emphasis on early childhood education, and to promote the growth of communities through economic development initiatives.

Foundation Grant

The PNC Foundation supports a variety of nonprofit organizations with a special emphasis on those that work to achieve sustainability and touch a diverse population, in particular, those that support early childhood education and/or economic development.

Education

The PNC Foundation supports educational programs for children and youth, particularly early childhood education initiatives that meet the criteria established through PNC Grow Up Great. Specifically, PNC Grow Up Great grants must:

• Support early education initiatives that benefit children from birth to age five; and
• Serve a majority of children (>50%) from low- to moderate-income families; and
• Adhere to all other standard PNC Foundation guidelines, as outlined on the PNC Foundation website, applicant eligibility quiz, as well as the Foundation policies and procedures; and
• Include one or a combination of the following:
  • direct services/programs for children in their classroom or community;
  • professional development/workforce development for early childhood educators;
  • family and/or community engagement in children’s early learning
• Additional considerations:
  • The grant focus should include math, science, reading, vocabulary development, the arts, financial education, or social/emotional development.
  • The grant recipient, or collaborative partner, should have early childhood education as an area of focus. If the organization’s focus is beyond birth to age five, the specific grant must be earmarked for birth to age five.
  • Incorporate opportunities for PNC volunteers in classroom or non-classroom-based activities.

Economic Development

Economic development organizations, including those which enhance the quality of life through neighborhood revitalization, cultural enrichment and human services are given support. Priority is given to community development initiatives that strategically promote the growth of low-and moderate-income communities and/or provide services to these communities.

• Affordable Housing
  • The PNC Foundation understands the critical need for affordable housing for low-and moderate-income individuals.
  • We are committed to providing support to nonprofit organizations that:
    • give counseling and services to help these individuals maintain their housing stock;
    • offer transitional housing units and programs; and/or
    • offer credit counseling assistance to individuals, helping them to prepare for homeownership.
• Community Development
  • Because small businesses are often critical components of community growth and help foster business development, the PNC Foundation provides support to nonprofit organizations that
    • offer technical assistance to, or loan programs for, small businesses located in low-and moderate-income areas or
    • support small businesses that employ low-and moderate-income individuals.
• Community Services
  • Support is given to social services organizations that benefit the health, education, quality of life or provide essential services for low-and moderate-income individuals and families.
  • The PNC Foundation supports job training programs and organizations that provide essential services for their families.
• Arts & Culture
  • Support is given for cultural enrichment programs benefitting the community.
• Revitalization & Stabilization of Low-and Moderate-Income Areas
  • The PNC Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that serve low-and moderate-income neighborhoods by improving living and working conditions.
  • Support is given to organizations that help stabilize communities, eliminate blight and attract and retain businesses and residents to the community.

Our Mission

The Hansen Family Foundation provides opportunities to domestic, international, secular, and non-secular organizations that support the American way of life, which is defined by the principles of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 

Causes

Children

The Hansen Family Foundation supports causes dedicated to helping children both home as well as abroad. Learn More

Education

The Hansen Family Foundation believes that a decent education should be made available to everyone, young or old, the world over. Learn More

Animals

The Hansen Family Foundation believes in helping those who cannot speak on their own behalf. Learn More

Environmental

The Hansen Family Foundation is dedicated to preserving the world we all share. Learn More

Humanitarian

The Hansen Family Foundation views the plight of our fellow man as an opportunity to actively engage and effect change. Learn More

Arts & Culture

The Hansen Family Foundation supports all forms of artistic and cultural endeavors. Learn More

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation Vision

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, "A Foundation for All", was established in 2002. It was begun in order to give a clear voice for those who wish to be a part of the many, worthy, forces for change in our world.

We are a foundation whose purpose is to look ahead towards the future, giving the past its due by remembering where we came from, and how much we can all accomplish together. We aim to make the critical difference on our planet by recognizing and having respect for our ever changing world. We respect all Life, the Environment, and all People, no matter who they are.

Who We Are

The Creag Foundation is a private grant making foundation established in 2009 in Woodinville, Washington.

The founders of the Creag Foundation believe that meaningful change can only be achieved through hard work, creativity and passion. They also understand the practical mechanisms that allow charitable organizations to succeed and grow. As a group, Creag Foundation principals are dedicated to helping today’s most innovative programs improve the human condition in a wide variety of ways.

Our Focus

The broad purpose of the Foundation is to support the efforts of nonprofit organizations who are innovators in the field of human services. Our particular focus is on smaller organizations that are starting out or established organizations that are looking for funding to take their organization in a new direction.

What We Fund

/ What We Fund

The Creag Foundation is focused on innovation in the industry. We will consider proposals from 501(c)(3) organizations that are finding new ways to address societal issues facing the nonprofit community. Applicants must have held 501(c)(3) status for one year before submitting. If your organization has held 501(c)(3) status for over a year, and your believe that your organization has a new approach to an existing social problem or is addressing a previously unaddressed social issue, you are welcome to contact us and request that we consider your organization for a funding opportunity.

Background

Grants are one of the four ways the S.C. Arts Commission accomplishes its work in arts education and artist and community arts development. The South Carolina Arts Commission is honored to be named 2019 Public Sector Grantmaker of the Year by the 3,000-member Grant Professionals Association.

Purpose

To help South Carolina organizations make arts programs and existing facilities accessible to persons with disabilitiesUse of Funds Grants awards may reimburse the applicant for any combination of qualifying expenses incurred during the grant period. Projects may include but are not limited to the following: Programs

• Printing large print program materials
• Printing Braille materials
• Artist/consultant fees
• Preparation for special exhibitions
• Audio description
• Sign language interpretation
• Website accessibility
• Docent training for visual or audio enhancement
• Consultant fee to develop an overall accessibility plan for your organization
• Inclusive programming
• Staff training (i.e. travel to a workshop and/or training)
• Other accommodations that make programs accessible
• Purchase of assistive listening devices

Facilities

• Curb cuts
• Construction of accessibility ramp(s)
• Accessibility signage for exterior and/or interior space
• Modification of restroom(s)
• Modification of drinking fountain(s)
• Installation of elevator
• Installation of electronic door opener
• Installation of Braille plaques
• Architectural or engineering study to address accessibility of existing facility
• Capital improvements (“bricks and mortar”) of existing facilities
• Capital improvement projects must meet all local and state building codes.
• If the existing facility is on The National Register of Historic Places or deemed eligible, all work must conform with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
• Applicants for capital improvement project support must upload
• A copy of the deed or letter from the property owner, acknowledging approval of this capital improvement project.
• Photographs, drawings or plans of existing facilities, identifying project areas. All construction documents must be stamped by the architect and/or engineer.
• Design development and construction documents that address the proposed accessibility project
• Adaptive equipment
• Other accommodations that make facilities accessible

Matching Requirements

• 1:1 (grantee:SCAC)
• At least 50% of the applicant’s match must be cash. 

Purpose

The purpose of the Arts Project Support (APS) Grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) is to support an artist’s or organization’s quality arts project or program or their commitment to improving themselves and/or their work artistically. Among other things, the APS grant can be used to build and/or increase technical, online, or virtual capacity; for community arts development; and for career advancement and/or professional development for artists and arts administration staff.

Term Arts Education Project Grants

This grant supports quality arts education programs for preschool (3k- 4k) and/or K-12 students during the school term (including beyond the school day), through both traditional providers (arts organizations) and other organizations (e.g., social service, health, community, education) that utilize the arts to meet the educational, developmental, and social needs of preschool (3k-4k) and/or K-12 students. This grant supports projects occurring during the school term 2025-2026. For the purposes of this grant, a term is defined as an academic year.

Activities should:

• Expand student access to arts education opportunities; and
• Complement, augment, or advance standards-based arts instruction or arts integration aligned with school curriculum; and
• Be focused on or include significant components of quality instruction and/or experiences in the visual arts, performing arts, media arts, design arts, folk and traditional arts, and/or creative writing; and
• Address South Carolina’s 2017 College and Career Ready Standards for Visual and Performing Arts Proficiency.
• If applying for or including preschool programming, address South Carolina’s Profile of the Ready Kindergartener.

Examples of eligible in-school and after-school activities include, but are not limited to:

• Workshops
• Artist residencies
• Performances
• Exhibitions
• Acquisition of critical equipment or supplies
• Program planning
• Professional learning for educators, instructors, artists and/or administrators
• Camps (non-summer camps)

Funding

• Up to $15,000 
• Matching Requirement: 1:2 (grantee:SCAC)
• This funding category is highly competitive.

About

The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative catalyzing social impact on a grand scale. Every year we select and nurture a group of big, bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges, and with the support of an inspiring group of donors and supporters, come together to get them launched.

Housed at TED, the nonprofit with a long track record of surfacing ideas worth spreading, and with support from leading social impact advisor The Bridgespan Group, the funding collective is comprised of several respected organizations and individuals in philanthropy.

Our goal is to match bold ideas with catalytic resources.

• We encourage the world’s inspirational changemakers to dream bigger than ever before.
• Help shape their best ideas into viable multi-year plans.
• Present those solutions in a compelling way to potential supporters.

The Process

Every year, The Audacious Project works with proven change-makers to surface their best, boldest ideas for tackling global problems.

Sourcing & review

Projects are sourced from public applications and a global network of partners and donors. They are narrowed down to a group of finalists whose ideas are representative of a broad range of geographies and issue areas while elevating leaders with proximity to the communities they serve.

Idea shaping & investment support

Each finalist project goes through a rigorous ideation, due diligence, and investment support process, to ensure their proposal is achievable and compelling.

Funding & launch

Finalist projects are presented privately to groups of donors and are then publicly unveiled at TED. Funded projects then pursue their plans and share regular updates on key milestones reached with donors and the public.

Is Your Idea Audacious?

• Are you a changemaker with a bold vision?
• Are you a non-profit with an experienced team equipped to receive large scale philanthropic support?
• Is your idea a proven concept that aspires to create a better world?
• We look for ideas that cover a wide range of issues, from global health and climate change, to social justice and education.

What Makes An Idea Audacious?

Inspire

• Transformative vision
  • Your idea should capture a bold vision for tackling one of the world's most urgent topics.
• Creating a better world
  • It is your opportunity to take a giant leap forward; you may be tempted to think incrementally, but remember for it to be bold, your idea should offer significant, enduring impact.
  • This vision should bring us much closer to your version of an ideal world in a matter of years rather than generations.
• Innovative and original
  • There should be a unique aspect or creative element to your approach that challenges convention or status quo or changes the narrative for the greater good.

Convince

• Proven concept
  • There should be evidence that the idea will have impact based on a track record of past success, a demand from those that would be affected, and justified confidence that results can be sustained in the future.
• A bold vision that has clear outcomes
  • There should be a sense of where you will be at the end of a multi-year funding term and the strategy, resources and timeline required to achieve it. We want to hear about the changes that would take place because of your idea, not just the components that go into implementing it.

• Established support
  • You and your capable and confident team have the backing of a nonprofit, NGO, or institution (or is part of a collaboration between multiple such entities). This organization should be able to receive philanthropic funds and have the core infrastructure necessary to support the work. (Note: Past projects have had an annual operating budget of $1 million or more.)

Please refer to FAQ for additional guidelines.

Organizational Development Grants

Organizational Development Grants are available to organizations throughout the Community Foundation’s four-county service area of Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper Counties. Their purpose is to help organizations increase their capacity to govern and achieve long-term sustainability. Grants are made up to $5,000 and may cover up to 70% of the total cost of the consultant’s services.

These grants may be used to address issues such as:

• Strategic planning
• Organizational structure
• Board/staff relations
• Governance training
• Board/staff policies and procedures
• Asset development planning
• Marketing/public relations/communications planning
• Merger and/or consolidations
• Fiscal management
• Social Justice Planning

Limitations

• The grant can be used only to retain a consultant.
• Organizations may only apply for an Organizational Development grant once during our fiscal year, which runs July 1 – June 30.
• Organizational Development Grants can only be approved once for each development area.
• Your grant application must include a detailed proposal from the consultant with budget and payment schedule.
• The grant is paid to the organization.
• The grant award may cover up to 70% of the consultant’s proposal.
  • For example, if the consultant’s total project cost is $6,500, the grant award would be $4,550, or 70% of the request.
  • The organization is required to cover the balance of the project cost with their funds.

Opportunity Grants

Opportunity Grants are Community Impact or Community Investment Grants with a grant request budget under $10,000. These grants are designed to stimulate and help launch new programs and projects; or to help focus, enhance, and/or expand an organization’s existing programs and services; or as an investment in a capital project which is a critical enhancement to the mission of the nonprofit organization.

Opportunity Grants are available to organizations throughout the Community Foundation’s four-county service area of Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties. The grant term is typically 12 months and grants are made up to $10,000.

This competitive program supports nonprofit organizations serving Allendale and/or Hampton counties addressing all charitable areas, with particular attention to education, health, and conservation/preservation of the built and natural environment.

Our Mission

The Tony Robbins Foundation is a nonprofit organization created to empower individuals and organizations to make a significant difference in the quality of life of people often forgotten.

We’re dedicated to creating positive changes in the lives of youth, seniors, the hungry, homeless and the imprisoned population, all who need a boost envisioning a happier and deeply satisfying way of life. Our passionate staff, generous donors and caring group of international volunteers provide the vision, inspiration, and resources needed to empower these important members of our society.

Grants

Dedicated to meeting challenges within the global community, creating solutions and taking action, The Tony Robbins Foundation provides monetary donations to various organizations around the world. Funding requests are evaluated on an ongoing basis. We look for organizations that align with our mission to empower individuals and organizations to make a significant difference in the quality of life of those often forgotten.

Georgia-Pacific Foundation

Established in 1958, the Georgia-Pacific Foundation sets aside resources to improve life in the communities where we operate. We’ve worked with thousands of outstanding community-based programs, service projects and disaster relief efforts, focusing our investment in four areas we believe make the most impact:

• education,
• environment,
• enrichment and
• entrepreneurship.

Investment Priorities

• Aligns with GP’s mission and values
• Aligns with GP’s Four Focus Areas of giving: Education, Environment, Enrichment of Community and Entrepreneurship
• Serves communities where GP has manufacturing facilities
• Creates value by contributing to and positively impacting long term well-being and sustainability of GP communities

Community Partnership Award

The Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award recognizes outstanding nonprofit organizations in the United States that have shown exemplary leadership by facilitating partnerships with public, private or social sector leaders who are working together as equal partners, not as donors and recipients, to build a cohesive community that serves as a model for collaborating with others for the greater good.

Each year, the Mutual of America Foundation sponsors a national competition in which hundreds of organizations demonstrate the value of their partnership to the communities they serve, their ability to be replicated by others and their capacity to stimulate new approaches to addressing significant social issues.

Six organizations are selected by an independent committee to receive the Community Partnership Award.

• The Thomas J. Moran Award is given to the national award-winning program and includes $100,000 and a documentary video about the program.
• The Frances R. Hesselbein Award is given to a partnership that is addressing social challenges in more than one community, or which demonstrates the potential to be replicated in other communities. This recipient receives $75,000.
• Four other organizations are named Honorable Mention recipients for their programs, and each receives $50,000.

Since its inception in 1996, the Community Partnership Award has recognized 262 partnerships from cities and towns across America. Like so many of our clients working in the nonprofit community, Mutual of America is dedicated to having a direct, positive impact on society.

Our Mission

Our mission is to continue and further the philanthropic legacy of Gardner Cowles, Jr. and the Cowles family, which includes promotion of education, social justice, health, and the arts.

The Founder

The Cowles Charitable Trust was first established in 1948 by Gardner “Mike” Cowles, Jr. (1903-1985). Born into the Cowles publishing family of Des Moines, Iowa, Mike was the youngest of Gardner Cowles and Florence Call Cowles’ six children. A newspaper editor and publisher by trade, he was committed to his family’s traditions of responsible, public-spirited, and innovative journalism as well as philanthropy. 

The Cowles Charitable Trust supports the arts, education, the advancement of ethical journalism, medical and climate research.

School Arts Support Grants

Purpose

To help schools acquire the supplies, materials/equipment, or professional development needed to address learning loss gaps in the arts, promote innovation in the arts classroom, and/or support arts integration initiatives to remediate core subject areas.

Use of Funds

School Arts Support Grants should have a strong connection to addressing COVID related learning loss in and through the arts, promoting arts innovation, and/or increasing capacity to utilize arts integration as a teaching practice.

• SAS grant funds may be used, in one of the following ways:
  • Materials/Equipment/Supplies
    • Examples could include:
      • Arts materials that will enhance teaching of areas that students are lagging in due to learning disruptions
      • Instruments to complete or increase a classroom set
      • Materials for an arts integration lesson
      • Equipment such as a pottery wheel, kiln or printing press
  • Please Note: Grant funds should supplement (add to) not supplant (replace) your current arts budget, meaning that grant funds should pay for materials/projects that are BEYOND your current budget capacity. Grant funds should NOT pay for materials/projects so that your current arts budget can be used elsewhere.
• Professional Development Opportunities
  • Examples could include:
    • Membership to state or national arts education associations
    • Conference, travel, and hotel fees for state or national conferences (travel and hotel must follow the S.C. state travel guidelines and rates).
    • Substitute teacher costs to allow for peer-to-peer planning for arts rich learning opportunities
• Arts Residencies
  • Please note: The artist in residence MUST spend peer to peer training time with the arts teacher to ensure growth in the teacher’s skill level and ability to teach the skill in future years.
  • Grant recipients must use members of the S.C. Arts Directory for grant-funded activities (see below for additional information)
  • SAS Grant funds can purchase materials to support the arts residency

Funding

Up to $2,500 per grant request. Individual schools are eligible to receive up to two (2) grants ($5,000 total) per fiscal year.

Purpose

To support public library-led projects that stimulate partnerships between libraries and artists and arts organizations that encourage communities to participate actively in artistic and cultural activities in small and/or rural areas of the state.

Use of Funds

The RLP grant can be used to fund public engagement activities involving any of the following artforms: dance, music, opera, musical theatre, theatre, visual arts, design arts (architecture, fashion, graphic, industrial, or interior), crafts, photography, media arts, literature, playwriting/screenwriting, media productions, spoken word/slam poetry, time-based art (installation, sound, experimental film, video art, computer-based technology, or performance art), and/or folklife/traditional arts.

Funding will be considered for a broad variety of activities, for example:

• festivals,
• exhibitions,
• workshops,
• residencies,
• digital projects,
• and performances that have a public engagement component.

Libraries must provide a physical space for the community to experience and interact with artistic content and programs or to create their own art. Works of visual and performing art may be temporary exhibits, permanent installations, programs or performances offered in the library, or parts of a library’s viewable collections.

Funds can also be used to hire professional artists such as those listed on SCAC’s Arts Directory and Teaching Artist Roster. Artists labeled as Certified Teaching Artists on the Arts Directory have been additionally vetted by SCAC through the submission of sample lesson plans, recorded teaching samples, and letters of recommendation; we encourage but do not require grant-funded teaching artist residencies to employ Certified Teaching Artists.

South Carolina Arts Commission

Vision

We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences.

Mission

The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina.

Festivals Program Grant

Purpose

To provide support for a broad range of arts activities at festivals that take place in—and have an impact on—S.C. communities, increasing opportunities for public engagement and participation in arts and culture.

South Carolina Arts Commission

Vision

We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences.

Mission

The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina.

Art of Community: Rural SC Grants

Purpose

This grant supports arts-based projects throughout rural South Carolina that use the arts to address issues and challenges in rural communities. The project must serve the rural community in which the applicant is located.

Grant-funded activities should:

• expand community access to the arts in rural areas and
• include a public engagement component and
• engage a project steering committee to lead the project.
  • A project steering committee is the group of people who will be collaborating on and leading this project.
  • This group should have a strong understanding of the project and the applicant organization.
  • The project steering committee is responsible for, but not limited to, providing advice and direction, setting the project timeline and budget, monitoring the quality of the project, evaluating, and monitoring success of the project, and defining project outcomes.

Projects

Projects must support one or more of the following artistic disciplines:

• Dance (choreography or performance)
• Music (composition or performance)
• Opera/musical theatre (production or performance)
• Theatre (performance or playwriting)
• Visual arts (painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture, or printmaking)
• Crafts (ceramics, fiber, glass, leather, metal, paper, plastic, or wood)
• Photography
• Design arts (architecture, fashion, graphic, industrial, or interior)
• Media arts (film, animation, including production or screenwriting)
• Literature (poetry or prose)
• Spoken word/slam poetry
• Time-based arts (installation, sound, video art, animation, film, computer generated art, or performance art)
• Public art (ephemeral or permanent)

All projects must:

• include a public engagement component AND
• provide opportunities for
  • participants to develop their own artistic skills and/or produce their own artistic work; OR
  • artistic development for artists through activities such as residencies or workshops; OR
  • using the arts in new contexts.

4K Arts Integration Grants

Purpose

These grants help CERDEP preschool providers offer arts-integrated experiences for students and professional learning opportunities for teachers to use the arts to increase kindergarten readiness.

Projects may be considered to increase kindergarten readiness by:

• building connections between the arts and other subject areas in a meaningful
• providing artist-in-residence experiences for students that include professional learning for teachers
• supporting teachers in implementing projects based on professional learning in arts integration
• addressing gaps in arts access that have previously impeded learning in the classroom

Although there is not one singular definition for arts integration, the SCAC finds that the Kennedy’s Center’s comprehensive definition of Arts Integration is a worthy model.

Funding

• Up to $2,000 per fiscal year
• Matching Requirement: 1:3 (grantee:SCAC); no match for qualifying providers. No match is required for CERDEP preschool providers located in the Opportunity Initiative Counties.

District Arts Support Grants

Purpose

This grant supports school districts committed to implementing standards-based arts curricula and making the arts an integral part of the basic curriculum and daily classroom instruction. Arts disciplines are creative writing, dance, music, theatre, media arts, and visual art.

Funding

• Up to $25,000 per year for two (2) years
• Matching Requirement: 2:1 (grantee:SCAC)

Purpose

This grant provides knowledge, support, and resources that will empower arts organizations to prioritize accessibility for constituents and artists with disabilities. This is a three-year commitment.

Year One aims to provide grantees with tailored professional development that covers accessibility topics directly related to the arts sector. Barrier-Free Arts SC (BFASC) grantees will commit to engaging with professional development content throughout the grant period and will attend five (5) synchronous, virtual cohort sessions led by the SCAC’s arts learning and accessibility director. By the end of the first year, the grantees will develop an accessibility plan to remove barriers identified within their facility and programs. Year one will conclude with a presentation of each organization’s plan.

Years Two and Three will focus on utilizing grant funds to meet the organization’s accessibility goals set in its accessibility plan.

After successful completion of three years in the BFASC cohort, organizations will be eligible to become a BFASC-designated organization and will be identified as such through SCAC channels (e.g., the SC Arts Directory, social media highlights, and The Hub’s Venues directory). BFASC-designated organizations will be eligible for ongoing grant funding to support their pursuit of continued accessibility excellence and will become mentors to incoming organizations in the grant program.

Funding

Year One: Up to $3,500. Years Two and Three: Up to $5,000.

Matching Requirement

Year One: No match. Years Two and Three: 1:1 match (grantee:SCAC).