South Carolina Youth Philanthropy Partnership

We are particularly enthusiastic about the effort our Community Foundation has made to extend philanthropy into the lives, minds and hearts of youth. The South Carolina Youth Philanthropy Partnership forges an innovative combination of Junior Achievement's student company curriculum, which teaches students how to run a for-profit business from beginning to end, with a specially designed curriculum that teaches students the importance of philanthropy and community involvement.

With the support of three founding partners, Junior Achievement of Central South Carolina, the Lipscomb Family Foundation, and Central Carolina Community Foundation, this initiative establishes a grantmaking foundation within the students for-profit business thus providing students with necessary entrepreneurial skills as well as an understanding of corporate and personal giving responsibilities.

The project was successfully piloted in 10 high schools in Spring 2002. The one semester curriculum challenges students to raise a minimum of $500 to be matched on a 10:1 ratio in order to provide a maximum of $5,500 for granting back into the community. Participating schools granted a total of $49,641 to community nonprofit organizations in one semester! Foundations that sponsored schools in Spring 2002 included the Lipscomb Family Foundation, the Taucher Family Fund, the Self Family Foundation, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, the Sonoco Foundation, Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation, the Nord Family Foundation, and BlueCross and BlueShield of South Carolina.

Educators and partners saw an evident improvement in student awareness of the nonprofit sector and a greater understanding of corporate responsibility to community leadership. But more importantly, they saw a heightened sense of student connection to their communities and in many cases, an initiative to manifest that connection in the form of service.

Students enjoy the opportunity to gain the hands-on experience of how a business entity works in a capitalist society, and they are forever impacted by the tangible understanding of what nonprofit organizations really do and how they work, a concept that is often elusive and ambiguous to youth. We are optimistic about the future growth and success this project will generate in high schools throughout South Carolina.