J. MARION SIMS FOUNDATION EXCEEDS $30 MILLION GRANT MAKING MARK

By James T. Morton
President, J. Marion Sims Foundation

A few weeks ago the J. Marion Sims Foundation quietly passed a milestone when it awarded approximately $2.1 million in grants to a variety of community organizations.  Those awards moved the foundation beyond $30 million in grants awarded ($31,175,226 to be precise) in its 11 years of grant making.

So … just what does $30 million mean?

To answer that, it helps to have a bit of context.  As many readers (but perhaps not many newcomers) know, the foundation was created in the mid-1990s when Elliott White Springs Memorial Hospital was sold to Community Health Systems, Inc.  Invested proceeds seeded the foundation, whose founding trustees chose to focus its support on programs and projects of health, wellness, prevention and education to benefit the citizens of Lancaster County and the communities of Great Falls and Fort Lawn.

Under thoughtfully developed guidelines, the foundation awards funds in three different types of grants programs: a Responsive Grants Program, in which the foundation responds to community needs as set forth in applications, a Teachers’ Pet Grants Program, in which it awards grants of up to $500 to certified educators in our giving area, and a Special Initiatives Grants Program, in which the foundation addresses a specific issue with targeted grants.  Care is taken in awarding these grants to invest the funds under the foundation’s stewardship as wisely as possible while at the same time encouraging applicants to think freshly and creatively.

The foundation has chosen to interpret health and wellness broadly, opening its vision to include supporting not only programs and projects that are closely health related, but also those that promise to improve the overall health of our communities in a variety of ways.  It has funded numerous health-related programs, such as prescription assistance for low-income citizens, physical and mental health improvement efforts, programs for aging citizens, for prevention and education related to certain diseases, and projects in recreation, physical fitness, and safety, among others. 

Discerning a connection between health and a high rate of functional illiteracy among adults, the foundation adopted adult literacy and basic skills as the focus of its first targeted grant making initiative.  Additionally, the foundation has granted funds for a number of projects aimed at improving social health, such as addressing domestic violence, teen pregnancy, unengaged fathers, and youth at risk for unhealthy behaviors.        

In keeping with its guidelines the foundation awards its funds with a preference for programs -- 61% of its grant dollars have been issued for programmatic purposes.  An additional 24% have been awarded for capital and equipment projects such as the James A. Bradley Arts and Sciences Building at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, recreation facilities in Lancaster, Indian Land, Kershaw and Buford, facilities for senior citizens in Heath Springs Lancaster, and Indian Land, the Fort Lawn Community Center, and others. The foundation has provided funds on a smaller scale (approximately 15%) to organizations for operations and planning.

While significant, awarding $30 million in grants is not a tribute to the foundation, but rather to the good and hard work done every day by those who attend to our communities’ health in a variety of ways – the staffs and volunteers of local agencies and organizations who do the heavy lifting to improve the physical, mental, and social health of our communities.  Their efforts enable the foundation to see the vast majority of its dollars used wisely and well to improve our communities.  That would be true in the case of just a few dollars -- or of $30 million.