St. Mary's Community Fund
Enhancement Hero
Girls are
Generous
Empowered Girls Empowering Memphis
Established in 1998, the St. Mary's Community Fund is a student-run organization that has granted over $750,000 to more than 50 local agencies, directly benefitting Mid-South children. The Fund also promotes community service and provides experiences for young women to learn first-hand about philanthropy and grant-making.
Each member of the St. Mary's Community Fund volunteers through hands-on service within the funded agencies. In addition, they participate in the entire grant process. By reading grant applications, presenting them at monthly committee meetings, organizing site visits, and selecting reliable and deserving grant recipients, the students learn the process of philanthropy and its important impact on the community. Committee members raise money through personal solicitations and campus fundraisers such as GIVE901.
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Recent Grant Recipients
This year, St. Mary’s students raised $41,987 to support several Mid-South organizations to help fund their programs focused on children. We are honored to be partnering with these nonprofits that are making immeasurable contributions to the Memphis community.
Community Legal Center
Community Legal Center is a non-profit organization committed to providing legal services to those with limited means and those who are at risk. The 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
The mission of the Forrest Spence Fund is to assist with the non-medical needs of critically or chronically ill children and their families throughout the Mid-South. This Community Fund grant will specifically fund healthy dinners once a month to Le Bonheur Children's Hospital patients and their families. When families have planned meals at the hospital, they can keep their focus on their children.
Harwood Center
Harwood Center provides therapeutic services for children age 2 through transition to kindergarten who have a diagnosed developmental disability or are experiencing delays in their development or have behavior challenges. SMCF specifically funded equipment and educational toys for stations within their sensory rooms, which will facilitate a “compassionate and trauma-informed” therapy experience for their learners, while also helping them calm down when they become upset.
Reading with Mrs. Richardson
Reading with Mrs. Richardson's mission is to ensure every child has access to literacy support regardless of social or economic status. This grant expanded a preexisting project by distributing 500 high-quality, diverse books to underserved children in the Mid-South region. By providing these books, the project will foster a love for reading, enhance literacy skills, and promote representation in literature.
Streets Ministries
The vision of Streets is serve and empower students to grow personally and academically as they learn about the love of Christ. This SMCF grant funded the STREETS Smart Elementary Literacy Program, which provides literacy enrichment coaching for 30 second and third graders from Kingsbury Elementary School.
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![Susan Whitten Graber]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1666808730/stmaryses/atfdbfqx0g76upegcsb0/_O5A7072_pp.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1666808730/stmaryses/atfdbfqx0g76upegcsb0/_O5A7072_pp.jpg","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1666808730/stmaryses/atfdbfqx0g76upegcsb0/_O5A7072_pp.jpg","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_4/v1666808730/stmaryses/atfdbfqx0g76upegcsb0/_O5A7072_pp.jpg","width":1200},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_5/v1666808730/stmaryses/atfdbfqx0g76upegcsb0/_O5A7072_pp.jpg","width":1600},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_6/v1666808730/stmaryses/atfdbfqx0g76upegcsb0/_O5A7072_pp.jpg","width":2200}])
Susan Whitten Graber
“I think one of the most important aspects of SMCF is that we are not just having one-way relationships with agencies by giving them grants. We are consistently trying to connect with them by serving them. That leads to authentic relationships with agencies’ staff and the constituents the nonprofits serve.”
Susan Whitten Graber ’86
St. Mary’s Community Fund Director
More information
Susan Whitten Graber '86
Director, St. Mary's Community Fund
swhitten@stmarysschool.org
901-351-9363