Frances P Bunnelle Foundation

The Frances P. Bunnelle Foundation serves the georgetown county region through a robust grantmaking program and leads other important community-wide initiatives. The Bunnelle center: in 2023, the Foundation continued to make meeting space available at no charge to nonprofits serving georgetown county. The building includes two meeting rooms, one with state-of-the-art technology that can accommodate 50+ people, and another small meeting room that can accommodate 12. Palmetto giving day: the Foundation was proud to support palmetto giving day in 2023 with matching funds and administrative support. Over $3.8 million was raised over a 36-hour period through online giving to support 83 organizations that serve georgetown county. Pathways to possibilities: in 2023 the Foundation hosted the 5th annual pathways to possibilities career expo which reached over 5,000 8th graders from 9 counties. This marked the return of the in-person event, as the previous two years were held online due to the pandemic. The event connects students with career education and future opportunities with over 80 regional employers in an interactive workforce development experience.

Cradle to career: the cradle to career (c2c) initiative highlights the Bunnelle Foundation's work to ensure that all young people in georgetown county will have the character, competencies, creativity and motivation required for traditional and new economy jobs. The initiative was created to address the trend of young people leaving georgetown county after high school due to a lack of opportunity in the area, promoting positive youth development and economic vitality through partnerships that will help create opportunity in georgetown county. Projects include internships for college students with local businesses and a youth board for high school students.

Grantmaking: in 2023 the Foundation awarded over $1.9m in grants to 107 different organizations that support georgetown county in the areas that meet the Bunnelle mission. These grants were distributed as follows: 118 grants totaling $720,414 supporting youth development programs, 114 grants totaling $768,016 supporting human needs programs, 33 grants totaling $266,114 supporting environmental programs, 18 grants totaling $113,775 supporting root causes of poverty efforts, 10 grants totaling $42,500 supporting economic vitality initiatives.