The Foundation has had a long association with Greenwood and South Carolina. Villum Kann Rasmussen began the association in 1991 when he expanded the Denmark-based VELUX companies to the United States. He chose Greenwood, South Carolina, where he found important elements for success: skilled labor, space, and a cooperative and friendly atmosphere.

Greenwood has strong community leaders who cooperate to strengthen the city’s civil society and partner with government to improve education and social services. Taking the lead from these people, the Foundation has helped fund a wide range of civic, educational, health and arts organizations in the Greenwood community.

For several years, the Foundation has provided funding to the United Way of Greenwood, enabling the United Way to provide special support to charitable agencies in the community. We support the Partnership for a Greater Greenwood County, which is committed to promoting a higher quality of life in the county. The Foundation also made a long-term commitment to help expand and upgrade the Greenwood-based Self Regional Healthcare Center.

Statewide, we have funded programs benefiting early childhood education, senior citizens, higher education and the environment. We provided funding to the Department of Education to support a statewide environmental education coordinator. We have provided funding for First Steps, an early-childhood education program supported by the State of South Carolina. We funded a multi-year collaborative of three South Carolina research universities (see the Higher Education section of this website), enabling them to teach sustainability as a concept in numerous courses, to make the institutions more sustainable in their own operations, and to expand environmental research, teaching and learning. We also provide funding to Upstate Forever for their Saluda-Reedy Water Project, which addresses the challenges caused by rapid development in the watershed near Greenwood.

In addition to our major grants (listed on the left), we have provided funding for numerous organizations and programs in Greenwood and South Carolina including Baruch Institute at Clemson University, the Drummond Environmental Education Center, Greenwood Children’s Center, Greenwood Family YMCA, and Teaching Kids About the Environment.

We rely extensively on Charles W. Schulze of Greenwood, South Carolina, who serves as our trusted adviser in connection with our Greenwood and South Carolina grant making.

For more information about our grantmaking in South Carolina, see the attached brochure: (South Carolina Grantmaking Report)