Santee Electric Cooperative was proud to make sizeable donations to three charitable foundations - Turbeville Children’s Home, Caring and Sharing Inc., and the Francis Marion University Education Foundation, through Santee Electric's Round-Up fund and CoBank’s Sharing Success program.
CoBank is a national cooperative bank with a Sharing Success program, which is a fund that matches the contributions from Santee Electric to the charities. Santee Electric Cooperative has participated in the Sharing Success program for the past ten years.
“CoBank has been an extremely valuable lending partner of Santee Electric’s for many years, and the Sharing Success program they offer is one of the great benefits that they provide,” said Jay Kirby, Vice President of Public Affairs. “It helps us to give back to the charities that work hard in our communities.”
Santee Electric's Round-Up Fund comes from "Operation Round-Up." Where each month, Santee Electric "rounds up" the electric bills of participating consumers to the next highest dollar. Donations are tax-deductible. All Operation Round-Up donations are placed in trust and administered by an independent Board of Directors called the Santee Electric Trust. The Board receives and evaluates all requests, determines who receives funding and how all Operation Round Up money will be distributed.
Santee Electric donated $10,000 to Turbeville Children’s Home, through the Round-Up fund and CoBank's Sharing Success Program. Turbeville Children’s home is a foster childcare facility. In February of 2016, the first children were placed in the reopened Turbeville Children's Home and since then Turbeville Children's Home has cared for over 250 children between the ages of 7 to 20 from all 48 counties across South Carolina. The money provided will go towards upgrading the restroom facilities. The goal of Turbeville Children’s home is to provide services and opportunities that will enhance the well-being of every child.
“We are so grateful for this donation. Making differences in the lives of the kids is the ultimate goal. Through generous donations like this one, we can,” said Tim Moore, Director of Turbeville Children’s Home.
The second organization was Caring and Sharing. Caring and Sharing began with the vision to help people who were lacking basic needs. Caring and Sharing helps provide food through food banks and other means necessary. It serves over 2,800 people and gives over 450,000 pounds of food each year. The organization helps disabled and senior citizens with heating, water and electric bills, along with other necessities such as medicine. Santee Electric was able to donate $5,000 through the Round-Up fund and CoBank's Sharing Success Program.
The final donation was made to Francis Marion University Education Foundation, which received $2,500 from Santee Electric. The money provided will go towards the First Generation fund, which provides scholarships to individuals who are the first in their family to attend college. The FMU Education Foundation’s primary focus has been on scholarship support for students.
