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About Us

About Us

Even before Eastern Carolina Community Foundation received its tax exempt status, the idea of a community foundation was circulating among community-minded citizens.

Eastern Carolina Community Foundation is the newest community foundation in South Carolina. It began to take shape in 2005, when a representative from the Coastal Community Foundation of Charleston was invited to speak to the Florence Rotary Club. Her presentation included a map revealing that nearly all of South Carolina was served by a community foundation — except for the Pee Dee area. The first audience question was “Why don’t we have a community foundation in the Pee Dee?” Her response was, “I was going to ask you the same thing. Why don’t you have a community foundation in the Pee Dee?”

Rotary Club representatives were so fired up that they met with other foundation and nonprofit representatives to find an answer for this question. In 2006, the Eastern Carolina Community Foundation was formed.

Since then, Eastern Carolina Community Foundation has established a permanent endowment to meet the changing needs of the Pee Dee … all with help from generous donors, hardworking volunteers, effective grantees, and a dedicated board and staff. ECCF is part of a national network of of over 750 community foundations that collectively pump billions into their local economies across the United States. Many of those assets have gone back into the community to help citizens of Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marlboro, Marion, and Williamsburg counties.