The Mary Black Foundation was founded to support the hospital, which was a nonprofit hospital.

The Garrisons’ Healthy Families Initiative, named by the Trustees in appreciation for T.R. and Alma Garrison’s generous bequest, challenged nonprofits to address the root causes of poor health by focusing on prenatal and childhood strategies, while including the entire family unit.

At the end of the two initiatives and after an 18-month planning process, the foundation announced its two funding priority areas: Early Childhood Development and Active Living. In addition to the two priority areas, the foundation developed the Community Health Fund.

The Mary Black Foundation was awarded an innovation grant from the Convergence Partnership to prioritize neighborhood-level work, leading to the Foundation’s significant investment in the City of Spartanburg’s Northside neighborhood. 

The Mary Black Foundation made its first impact investment to the City of Spartanburg to provide gap funding for the CC Woodson Community Center.

The Mary Black Foundation led an effort to enter Spartanburg into the Wellville Challenge, a national competition to accelerate health outcomes for residents in five communities. The Foundation’s involvement with Wellville led to the creation of Hello Family and Live Healthy Spartanburg.

Also in 2015, the Foundation received a $5.3 million five-year grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health to prevent teen pregnancy in Spartanburg. This grant launched Spartanburg’s Connect initiative.

Launched the Healthy Families Initiative, a five-year effort to support parents in their role as their child’s first and best teacher through the expansion of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) across Spartanburg County.

The Mary Black Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary as a private foundation. It also reached a significant milestone: In its 25 years, the Foundation provided over $64 million in grants, exceeding the original endowment of $62 million.

The Foundation announced it was sunsetting the two previous focus areas of Early Childhood Development and Healthy Eating and Active Living and centering a focus on children and their families.