About Langston Foundation

In June 2007, The Langston Foundation was incorporated as a South Carolina non-profit corporation. We are a tax-exempt 501(c)3 corporation and are registered as a charitable organization in good standing with the South Carolina Secretary of State. Stated most basically, the Langston Foundation serves as the private-fundraising arm of Langston Charter Middle School and exists solely for its benefit and betterment.

Mission Statement

To exclusively support the Mission, Vision and Core Values of Langston Charter Middle School by providing financial support and facilities.

What We Do

The Langston Foundation works to elevate community awareness of Langston and to raise funds to meet the operational and capital needs of the school. These efforts are focused internally and externally–

Internally, through the Funding the Present - Securing the Future campaign targeted toward the Langston Families that directly benefit from LCMS,

Externally, through grants and through a capital campaign targeted toward individual philanthropists, major donors and corporations with a vested interest in and passion for improving the quality of education in South Carolina.

Our Motivation

The Greenville County School District spends on average over $9,275 per student per year including facility funding, compared to just over $4,552 per student per year that Langston Charter Middle School (LCMS) receives. This funding disparity is due to the fact that in South Carolina, the state law does not require or provide for facility or transportation funding to charter schools. LCMS has to provide for all its operating costs out of its per-pupil funding. Additional fundraising and financial support has been essential since LCMS opened as a means of supplementing the budget and getting the necessary support into the classroom.

South Carolina’s Education Finance Act (EFA) established a per pupil funding level (with annual increases for inflation) for public schools in the State based on a 1977 goal of providing a "minimally adequate” education to all South Carolinians. That target is woefully short of LCMS’s standard of delivering “Excellence in Academics."

"Minimally adequate" IS NOT acceptable for

the children of LCMS.

At the Langston Foundation, we assert that even "minimally adequate" IS NOT acceptable for the children of LCMS. We are the Public-Private Partnership that delivers the funding required to sustain the standard of "Education Excellence" that LCMS consistently achieves.

How We’re Structured

The Langston Foundation, Inc. is managed by a Board of Directors of community volunteers who generously devote their time and talent. Currently the Foundation Board has nine members and is actively seeking new members that share our passion for Langston and have connections into the community’s education-oriented thought-leaders and potential donors:

Board of Directors

Bob Fuzy

Spartanburg Methodist College, Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Lisa Stevens

Member Greenville County Planning Commission, Member SC Lottery Commission among other civic organizations

Brett Pyle

Vistage, Chair for Greenville, SC
Leadership Greenville Class 36

Tammy S. Hill

Real Estate Attorney in Greer, SC

Randy Erkens

Manager of Corporate Finance and Insurance, Greenville Hospital System

Alison Thompson

Director of Development for the Langston Foundation

Mindy McCown

Accountant, Team Bookkeeping Services

Rick Horne

Professional in the insurance and real estate fields

Philip T. Bradley

Retired entrepreneur, former member of the SC House of Representatives and SC Public Service Commission