Twenty years ago, a simple idea took root. What if small acts of generosity, pooled together, could create lasting change in our local communities?

Two decades later, the Central Community Foundation has turned that idea into reality for nonprofits and neighbors across Central Rural Electric Cooperative’s service area.

Operation Round Up was not a new concept to the cooperative industry but it was to many Central members. The idea of members voluntarily rounding up their monthly bills to the nearest dollar to provide grants for local organizations to help our local communities.

“We started putting the idea of the foundation together in 2004 or 2005,” said Randy Jarvis, who retired from Central as the vice president of corporate development in 2016. “We had a lot of organizations and groups looking for donations and thought the foundation might be a way to address donation equity across the communities we serve.”

Operation Round Up was founded in 1989 by a co-op in South Carolina and adopted by Central in 2006. Jarvis spearheaded the program after learning more from other cooperatives that had successfully implemented the program.

“Before the foundation, we weren’t able to make as large of an impact with donations,” said Larry Mattox, Central’s director of communications. “The amount of donations organizations could receive through the foundation became significantly higher and made a much larger impact on those who were helped.”

The monthly donations, which total no more than $11.88 yearly, are pooled together and allocated to a variety of nonprofits, organizations and individuals on a bimonthly basis.

“It became a good way to support communities equitably through the foundation, a way to support causes that met the cooperative’s core values,” Jarvis said.

Today, more than $1.4 million has been donated over the past two decades and has helped hundreds of nonprofits, groups, organizations and local neighbors.

“It’s members giving within specific fields of interest,” Jarvis said. “Once they saw what they were supporting, fire departments and schools, they bought in to the program.”

Every dollar granted, every neighbor helped and every life impacted is made possible by Central members. For 20 years, members have helped turn small contributions into meaningful change.

“It’s heartwarming that somebody had a vision that their co-op could help their community in a significant way,” Jarvis said. “It’s what the co-op is about, neighbors helping neighbors.”