Nonprofits
Bunnelle Foundation’s founding director steps down after 21 years
It took Geales Sands nearly 21 years to figure out what the hardest thing is about the job of being the executive director of the Frances P. Bunnelle Foundation.
Leaving it.
“I love this job. It is not like work,” Sands said. “It’s not that it’s a walk in the park, but it’s joyful work, it’s interesting and challenging and thought provoking every single day. There’s something new, there’s some challenge or some new victory to be celebrated.”
Bunnelle, who retired to Pawleys Island, started the foundation shortly before her death on Nov. 12, 2000. She left a letter with instructions on how she wanted the money spent and which were her favorite causes, like the humane society. She wanted the money to be used to specifically to benefit Georgetown County.
It took a few years to settle Bunnelle’s estate and for the Coastal Community Foundation in Charleston to get the foundation up and running.
Sands and her family moved to Pawleys Island in 1999. She was working as the development director for Tidelands Hospice when she saw a help wanted ad in the Coastal Observer.
“That was back in the day when you ran classified ads,” Sands said. “If you want local people, that’s where you advertise.”
Sands became the foundation’s first executive director on Sept. 1, 2004.
What she’s seen in her 21 years, is the strengthening of Georgetown County’s nonprofits through the foundation’s work, including the recent Palmetto Giving Day.
“We’ve got nonprofits that are just crushing it. They’re doing their work so well,” Sands said. “That’s our goal. To strengthen the nonprofits that
strengthen Georgetown County.”
In Palmetto Giving Day’s first nine years, over $22 million has been raised for nonprofits that serve Georgetown County. That’s in addition to the more than $26 million the foundation has awarded in grants since its founding.
The amount of money raised at Palmetto Giving Day has steadily increased from $676,000 in 2017 to $4.3 million this year, when the event set records for the number of nonprofits and the amount of money raised. It was also the first time any nonprofit topped $400,000. SOS Care raised $419,422.
Sands said the annual event is more than just a fundraising extravaganza.
“Palmetto Giving Day is a tool to teach them how to raise more money themselves by using social media and online,” she added. “Quit thinking ‘we all live in this small place and it’s such a small pond and everybody’s fishing in the same pond.’ No. The pond is the ocean now.”
This year’s donations were made from residents in 38 states.
“If you tell your story in a compelling way, it can be transformative,” Sands said. “That’s what we’re trying to teach people.”
The foundation also provides scholarships for more than two dozen people to attend the annual Together SC nonprofit summit. During the event, the foundation hosts a gathering of representatives from Georgetown County nonprofits and representatives of nonprofits that do work in the county but aren’t based here.
“We require and foster collaboration because we’re so small we have to work together to move Georgetown forward,” Sands said. “Our neighbors to the north and our neighbors to the south have five times the population we do. But I would bet money that they don’t collaborate like we do.”
The foundation also sponsors a job fair for middle school students at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Known at Pathways to Possibilities, it drew 6,400 eighth-graders from 43 schools in 10 counties this year. There were over 100 employers talking about careers.
While it casts a wide net, the goal is to create an opportunity for students in Georgetown County’s four middle schools. The larger audience helps attracts employers.
Sands’ last day at the foundation is May 30.
“I brought it from its infancy to the community partner it is today. It’s time to hand it off to the next generation,” Sands said. “I don’t want to overstay my welcome, and I think we’re in a good place.”
Sands and her husband, John, plan to spend more time with their granddaughters in North Carolina and a grandson who will be arriving this summer.
“I’m going to spend more time doing grandmotherly things,” she said.
Sands believes that Bunnelle would be proud of the work the foundation has done and is doing.
“I think we have made a difference here and I’m so proud of the nonprofit community and how hard-working they are and how transformational they are and can continue to be,” she said. “I like to think we’ve sort of been the support staff that’s been cheering them on.”
