After a warm welcome by Mary Woodiwiss, Co-Chair of the Steering Committee, the meeting convened at approximately 5:35pm. Mary noted that GWC is 129 members strong and growing, and encouraged us to “consider the power of collective giving when 129 women can move $74,000 into our community in our second granting year”.

Louise Robinson, Chair of the Programs & Education Committee, led the program and announcement portions of our meeting. Louise reminded us of recent programs and this meeting’s theme of “Lighting the Way with Literacy” through child and adult literacy programs at Community Initiatives (Safe Haven) and the Greenwood County Library.

Dawn Puderbaugh Hodges introduced Teresa Goodman, Executive Director of Community Initiatives, who discussed Safe Haven, an after-school and summer program. Teresa highlighted that the program serves children up to sixth grade. Safe Haven includes a five-tier approach to helping children, especially those in low income neighborhoods. The program focuses on making sure students can read on level by third grade. She pointed out that Greenwood County ranks 29 of the 46 counties in South Carolina when it comes to literacy Safe Haven strategies to address childhood literacy are research-based.

Dawn gave a brief bio to introduce Pattie Fender of Greenwood Public Library. Pattie could not attend the meeting due to an important family celebration but provided an excellent video about the GPL’s Adult Literacy and ESL programs. There were testimonies by students, volunteers, and staff. The video included an appeal for more volunteers, with several participants sharing about how rewarding it can be.

Lisa Smith thanked our presenters, stating how enlightening the information was and announcing that Greenwood Women Care will donate a book to the GPL Children’s Collection in honor of each of our speakers.

Louise Robinson called for announcements from: Sally Kaufmann, Grant Review & Awards Committee, who gave an update on the new Women’s Health Grant to be publicized in early 2021; Trentsie Williams, Grants Review & Awards Committee Co-Chair, who spoke about our recent GWC Grants to 10 local nonprofits; and Summer Booker, Membership Committee Co-Chair, who said that renewal packets would be mailed this week and 2021 renewals should be returned by December 31.

Laura Bachinski, Co-Chair of the Steering Committee, reminded us that “GWC grows through membership of a broad range of women from many professional and personal sectors and our membership is open to everyone. New members many join us at any time. Participating in our organization is truly rewarding as we seek to enrich and strengthen our community in the good company of community-minded women.” Laura closed the meeting at approximately 6:35pm after thanking all the Zoom attendees, presenters, and guests and wishing all a Happy Thanksgiving and a peaceful and loving holiday season.

A video about Community Initiatives’ Safe Haven program is here. (6 min.) (NOTE: Community Initiatives received a GWC 2019 Grant for $10,000 in support of the Safe Haven program.)

A video on the Adult Literacy and ESL programs at the Greenwood County Library here. (8 min.)

A video of the Quarterly Meeting may be found here. (52 min.)

GWC’s first virtual “Kick Off the Vote!” event was a tremendous success. For the 2020 grant cycle, we are delighted to be able to award upwards of $50,000 this year to nonprofit organizations serving Greenwood County. The completion of our second grant cycle will bring our total grant awards to approximately $100,000. With your continued support, GWC is on track to grant half a million dollars or more into Greenwood County during our first ten years as an organization!

We welcomed around 35 Members to the Zoom meeting, taking some time to chat as we settled in. Margaret Conrad, Jan Puzar, and Mary Woodiwiss (Grants Review & Awards Committee members) developed our “Kick Off the Vote!” program, presenting GWC Grants information with detailed PowerPoint slides and allowing time for questions.

Margaret reviewed the highlights of our 2019 granting cycle: Eight local nonprofits received a total of $47,625 in last year’s cycle with our top ranked organizations receiving their full request. There was a natural break in the data between organizations receiving a higher total of votes and those receiving fewer votes. This break was the deciding factor between those organizations receiving funding and those that did not, and in determining amounts of each grant award.

During the “Sample 2020 Ballot” portion of the meeting, Jan reminded us not to forward the email containing our personal ballot link, to fill out our print worksheets prior to voting for ease in entering our votes electronically, to vote on a desktop or laptop as opposed to a phone, and, of course, to vote prior to Wednesday, October 21^stat 11:59pm. Points will be assigned to organizations based on your ranked votes: Your first ranked nonprofit will receive ten points, the second nine points, down to the tenth selection which will receive one point.

Before and after the ballot discussion, Mary led us through some “FAQs About Nonprofit Funding” to help inform our voting decisions and described “What Happens After You Vote”.

After a quick 30 minutes, with everyone’s questions answered, the meeting was adjourned at 6:00, just as our email ballots arrived in our inboxes. What incredible timing! Thanks again to Mary, Jan, and Margaret for an informative and enjoyable “Kick Off the Vote!” meeting.

If you missed the meeting, you can view it here.

GWC Grants Review & Awards Committee designed and hosted a grant writing workshop, “Grant Writing 101”, on July 23. Thirty community members serving a wide range of local nonprofits attended the virtual meeting which was offered at no charge. Presentations included “Writing Your Grant Proposal” by Kathy Emily, “Grant Assessment” by Donna Foster, and discussion of a pre-workshop writing assignment by Jan Puzar and Mary Woodiwiss.

The workshop concluded with a Funders Forum of local grantmakers: Selynto Anderson, Self Regional Healthcare; Emily Findley, United Way of Greenwood & Abbeville Counties; Mamie Nicholson, Self Family Foundation; Trentsie Williams, on behalf of the GWC Grants Committee; and Mary Woodiwiss, Greenwood County Community Foundation.

We are pleased to have offered this service to our community!

A video of our Grant Writing 101 workshop, via Zoom, may be found here. PLEASE NOTE: Due to recording errors, this video begins within the first informational session of the 2.5-hour long workshop.

In this time of special COVID-19 precautions, Greenwood Women Care (GWC) recognizes that many of our local nonprofits have been impacted by changes in contact with the public, fundraising, and other usual activity. Meanwhile, GWC has, for the time being, suspended our gatherings which allow us to regularly feature local nonprofits in our programming and by holding Quarterly Meetings and Socials in nonprofit venues.

GWC has developed another means of drawing attention to local nonprofits! We invited local nonprofits to let us shoot a very informal video to present their mission and programs. Twenty-three organizations have chosen to participate and we are thankful for their time and attention in such a challenging season as this. (We managed this with proper social distancing, simple filming on a phone, and no cost to GWC ~ please be advised, and patient with the informal results! )

Videos appeared in 5 “sessions” of 4-5 videos each, with a new session added each Thursday, June 11-July 9.

In each line below, there is a hyperlink to the website, Facebook page, or other informational site (click on each organization’s name) and to that organization’s video clip (click on here). We hope this series of videos will not only serve the efforts of these nonprofits but will also help us to stay connected as Members in this time apart and continue in our mission to inform our Members and guests of issues and opportunities in our community.

Session 1 (posted on June 11)

Learn about BLOOM here.

Learn about Greenwood Pathway House here.

Learn about Piedmont Agency on Aging here.

Learn about Cornerstone here.

Learn about The Arts Center of Greenwood here.

Session 2 (posted on June 18)

Learn about The Museum and Railroad Historical Center here.

Learn about Burton Center here.

Learn about Emerald City Rotary Club (sponsors of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library) here.

Learn about Beyond Abuse here.

Session 3 (posted on June 25)

Learn about Greater Greenwood United Ministry here.

Learn about Boys & Girls Club of the Lakelands here.

Learn about Project Hope Foundation here.

Learn about Connie Maxwell Children’s Home here.

Session 4 (posted on July 2)

Learn about Hospice & Palliative Care of the Piedmont here.

Learn about Greenwood Area Habitat for Humanity here.

Learn about United Way of Greenwood and Abbeville Counties here.

Learn about A Place for Us here.

Learn about Greenwood Performing Arts here.

Session 5 (posted on July 9)

Learn about Community Initiatives here.

Learn about Greenwood Community Theatre here.

Learn about Healthy Learners here.

Learn about CrossRoads Pregnancy Center here.

Learn about Cokesbury College here.

GWC is happy to welcome 21 new 2020 Members, as of February 11^th! On that evening, our Membership Committee hosted an informal Soup Supper at the home of Mary Woodiwiss.

Our purpose was to welcome our new Members, give an overview of the activities of our GWC Committees, and provide a smaller gathering for women to meet others before our first Quarterly Meeting on February 18^th.

After enjoying an array of several soups, breads, salads, desserts, and beverages, we each spent time getting acquainted with someone we didn’t already know well. Representatives from our six standing committees gave an introduction to their functions within GWC. There was an opportunity for questions, discussion, and continued conversation. It was lovely to be there and just relax in each other’s good company!