Westside Together Foundation follows a philosophy of embedded philanthropy— a commitment to stay engaged, build trust, and share power with the community rather than act from afar.
Carol Hines presented with Best of the West Award
Additional Best of the West Award youth winners.
The Westside Together Foundation’s vision is a Westside where the people most affected by challenges also define the solutions.
Breakout sessions address the concerns of Westside residents.
Family Support
Communications
Disaster Planning & Response
Small Business Support
Charleston’s Westside is a place of deep roots, resilience, and community pride as well as
persistent challenges. Westside Together, also known as the Westside Collaborative, was
founded on a simple but demanding mission: to sustain, accelerate, and scale the good work
already happening here. Real change doesn’t happen over grant cycles—change takes time,
collaboration, and trust built over years.
Officially incorporated in 2023, the Westside Together Foundation supports community
leaders, organizations, and residents working toward a healthy, thriving Westside—for now and
generations ahead. It didn’t start from scratch. Organizers built on existing efforts by offering
financial and strategic support, connecting local partners, and aligning initiatives so limited
resources can go further.
At the heart of the work is the Westside Collaborative, a growing network of residents
and organizations that meets every season to share resources, identify priorities, and
form Implementation Teams around key issues such as housing, family support, business
development, and resident engagement. These teams unite partners around similar goals in
order to grow their impact, inform the Foundation’s goals, and decide together what projects
to advance, grounding every choice in local truths.
Westside Together Foundation follows a philosophy of embedded philanthropy—a
commitment to stay engaged, build trust, and share power with the community rather than act
from afar.
Embedded philanthropy means:
• Long-term commitment: not one-off grants, but sustained involvement over years.
• Local leadership: supporting neighbors, resident leaders, and nonprofits to shape their
own priorities.
• Relationships as the vehicle for change: partnerships, not transactions.
The Foundation goes beyond traditional grantmaking. It convenes diverse voices, nurtures
local leadership, connects communities with institutions, and invests in data and shared learning
so that impact deepens over time. The goal isn’t just to run programs, but to strengthen the
infrastructure of collaboration and trust that makes those programs last.
Everything the Foundation and Collaborative do is grounded in values shaped by the
community itself:
• Collaboration & Teamwork: Shared mission and resources, leaving egos behind.
• Community-driven & Inclusive: Leadership comes from all corners; resident input is essential.
• Trust & Respect: Honor differences and build on existing relationships.
• Results-focused & Committed: Value accountability, follow-through, and long-term investment. Westside Together’s immediate and long-term goals reflect what residents have told us matters most:
• Home Ownership, Repair, and Finance: support homeownership, home repair, and safe, healthy housing through coordinated—not isolated—efforts.
• Family Support & Engagement: strengthen child development, senior care, food access, transportation, and safety based on residents’ needs.
• Small Business Support: grow small businesses and entrepreneurship so Westside residents benefit directly from local investment.
• Communications & Outreach: keep information about resources and events flowing to residents and ensure neighborhood voices continually shape community priorities.
• Disaster Preparation & Response: build shared readiness and coordinated response systems to help the community prepare for and recover from emergencies.
Westside Together knows that investing in who leads the work—and how it’s done—is as
vital as investing in what gets done. Without coordination, trust, and shared ownership, even
well-funded programs can miss the mark. The Foundation’s focus is on building structures that
connect and amplify existing strengths rather than duplicating or competing with them.
Westsiders have been clear: “No more empty planning sessions where nothing happens.” “No
more groups competing for scarce dollars.” Those frustrations point to what must change—and
to why Westside Together exists.
While many nonprofits provide food, housing, or after-school programs, Collaborative partners
ask a deeper question: How do those efforts fit together? By coordinating across organizations,
sharing information, and fostering resident leadership, partners can multiply their collective
impact. That’s what transformation looks like—not a patchwork of disconnected projects, but a
living system of collaboration and shared care weaved tightly together.
The Westside Together Foundation’s vision is a Westside where the people most affected by
challenges also define the solutions; where investments reinforce one another; and where
collaboration replaces competition. Together, the collective can ensure the Westside isn’t just
a place of programs, but a place of power, belonging, and self-determined progress—one that
shines far beyond any single grant or project.