More than four decades ago, visionary leaders in the Palmetto State recognized that innovation was the key to advancing health, social, educational, and economic outcomes in South Carolina. 

 

They believed in the power of new ideas to fulfill the promise of our home.

 

They founded Palmetto Project in 1984.

 

Since then, our Palmetto Project team has worked alongside civic leaders, educators, businesses, government agencies — and our fellow neighbors & South Carolinians like you! — to expand access to healthcare, improve early literacy, and strengthen our communities. 

 

Our people are what take ideas from imagination to impact.

​

MISSION STATEMENT

Our current mission is to identify innovative strategies to address the social and economic challenges facing our state, and put them into action.

As we finalize our strategic plan for 2026-2029, our mission, vision, and values will be updated. 

For more than 40 years, we’ve been taking new ideas from spark to scale to create a stronger South Carolina. 

HISTORY

Founded in 1984, Palmetto Project has served as a statewide nonprofit and social innovation institute dedicated to identifying bold solutions to the most pressing social and economic challenges facing South Carolina.

For more than 40 years, we have brought together government, businesses, healthcare providers, nonprofits, and communities to test new ideas, prove what works, and scale successful models statewide.

Our collaborative initiatives have helped transform access to healthcare, increase voter participation, improve childhood immunization rates, reduce racial disparities in cardiovascular health, strengthen early literacy, support families, and expand economic opportunity.

Our programs have become state and national models, influencing public policy and improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians. While the challenges facing our state continue to evolve, our commitment remains the same.

We are committed to  bringing people together to create practical, measurable solutions that strengthen communities. Every innovation we pursue begins with the simple belief that the greatest challenges are also our greatest opportunities for change, impact, and progress.

Since 1984, Palmetto Project is proud to report: 

  • We launched the first network of volunteer healthcare providers to offer medical care to the low-income and uninsured of South Carolina, and created the prescription drug access program that became Welvista.

  • We helped take South Carolina from 37th to 1st in childhood immunizations in the 1990s.

  • Our ACA enrollment strategies became a national model.

  • We cut statewide racial disparities in cardiovascular mortality in half through our Heart & Soul program that mobilized trusted, trained, and community-based church members to provide health education.

  • We led statewide election modernization and launched a social movement through our iconic “I VOTED” stickers.

All of our work is grounded in the SPARKS framework, representing our commitment to studying community needs, building meaningful partnerships, testing innovative solutions, measuring what works, and scaling proven ideas that strengthen South Carolina.