Local First
Both initiatives begin with a specific South Carolina place or need rather than an abstract national agenda.
Initiatives
Two initiatives. Two different kinds of local work.
One responds to what someone may need today. The other asks what a historic South Carolina community may need for the years ahead.
The Foundation is intentionally keeping its public work focused: Carolina Cares for immediate practical aid, and The Poston Preserve Initiative for place-based preservation, history, and community development beginning in Poston, South Carolina.
Current Public Initiatives
Two programs with clear boundaries—and a shared commitment to South Carolina.
Carolina Cares Initiative
Carolina Cares provides practical Essentials Kits and related direct aid for people facing hardship, instability, homelessness, displacement, or another immediate gap in basic necessities. The idea is simple: put something useful into someone’s hands when it can help right away.
The Poston Preserve Initiative
The Poston Preserve Initiative begins with Restore Poston, South Carolina. It combines public-history preservation, community documentation, stakeholder outreach, practical local projects, and planning intended to make a small historic Pee Dee community more visible, better documented, and better positioned for future support.
Areas of Work
What both initiatives have in common.
Practical Work
The work should produce something useful: supplies distributed, records preserved, people connected, sites documented, or a concrete next step made possible.
View SponsorshipPublic Record
Plans, donations, partnerships, activity, and results should be documented clearly enough that a donor or community member can understand what happened.
Explore VolunteeringProgram Discipline
Growth should follow evidence, funding, and capacity—not the other way around.
Both initiatives use planning frameworks, but targets are not treated as completed results. Specific activities can change with funding, local input, partnerships, pricing, season, and operational readiness.
Review accountability approachProgram ModelDefined
Clear initiative structure
Public ClaimsConservative
No unsupported metrics
Funding UsePractical
Supplies and operations
ReportingMeasured
Factual public updates
A focused initiative is easier to fund, operate, document, and explain.”
— The Poston Foundation