Granting Goodness: How St. Mary's Students are Funding the Future

Today, the St. Mary’s Community Fund (SMCF) awarded $31,950 in the form of grants to six Mid-South organizations. 

The St. Mary’s Community Fund is a student organization formed for the purpose of educating young women about the importance of philanthropy through hands-on community service, fundraising, and grant-making.

SMCF is run and operated by Upper School students, who go through every step of the grant process under the guidance of Susan Whitten Graber ’86. 

Since it was established in 1998, SMCF has given over $750,000 to over 50 local nonprofit agencies. 

Today, SMCF presented checks to six Mid-South organizations. Each organization received a grant to help fund their programs focused on children: 

Carpenter Art Garden
The St. Mary’s Community Fund’s grant will go towards Carpenter Art Garden’s Summer Art & Mindfulness Camp which provides children in grades 2-8 with structured, enriching learning experiences during the summer months.

Community Legal Center
The St. Mary’s Community Fund’s grant will assist 10 families with adoption fees, helping children secure a safe, stable, and loving legal guardian or adoptive parent. This will ease the immediate financial burden on family members in order for them to be able to focus on the basic needs of the child, and will allow the children to have a more stable family and more opportunities to succeed.

Forrest Spence Fund
 A top request from families is access to wholesome meals while enduring financial and time constraints during a child’s hospital stay. The St. Mary’s Community Fund specifically funded healthy dinners once a month to Le Bonheur patients and their families. When families have planned meals at the hospital, they can keep their focus on their children.

Hope House
The St. Mary’s Community Fund’s grant will fund the Shared Stories, Strong Starts program which aims to strengthen early literacy rates. Each child will receive monthly, developmentally appropriate books paired with simple take home crafts to encourage parent-child interactions. This will support both learning and caregiver participation.

Madonna Learning Center
The St. Mary’s Community Fund’s grant will go towards the Madonna Christmas Play which is held at the Germantown Performing Arts Center and reaches hundreds of audience members, with three sold-out performances. The Madonna Christmas Play provides a powerful platform for our students to showcase their abilities, talents, and growth.

Reading with Mrs. Richardson
The St. Mary’s Community Fund’s grant will expand the Little Libraries, Big Impact project that expands book access across Memphis-Shelby County. This project will install three little libraries, continue book distribution, launch a new reading project at a senior living facility, and continue providing books to schools with limited library access. By providing these books, this project will foster a love for reading, enhance literacy skills, promote representation in literature, and add permanent neighborhood library access.

SMCF students volunteer with the agencies they fund, read grant applications and present them during monthly committee meetings, organize site visits, and select recipients with thoughtful consideration. The process teaches not only the importance of philanthropic giving, but also the many ways support for your community can be shown. 

“We are honored to be partnering with these nonprofits that are making immeasurable contributions to the Memphis community,” shared Grants Co-Chair Gemma Ferguson ’27. 

To read the full article, including how each grant was earmarked, click the link in our bio!