Dataw Island couple donated millions. Now we know the identity of these ‘plain folks’
The Beaufort Fund — established 24 years ago by a married couple living in Beaufort County to benefit the community — has awarded more than $11 million to nonprofits serving Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties.
No one knew the identity of the generous couple — until now. They were Joanne and Alan Moses of Dataw Island, a New Jersey couple who retired in the Lowcountry of South Carolina and saw a need.
‘‘After they retired and moved down to Beaufort, they really loved the area, but they also saw a lot of people who needed help,’’ said their son, Bill Moses, in a news release. ‘‘They really wanted to help people, and it gave them no end of pleasure to see people benefiting from what they had done. The more they were able to accomplish, the happier it made them.’’
The Moses’ Beaufort Fund is the largest-ever grant program of the Coastal Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in South Carolina. It manages more than 700 funds established by individuals, families and organizations and awarding tens of millions of dollars in grants and scholarships each year.
Mrs. Moses died in December at age 89; Mr. Moses died in 2018 at 87.
Now, with their deaths, the Coastal Community Foundation released their identities, with the blessing of family members.
Joanne and Alan spent most of their lives in the New York City metro area, where Alan worked on Wall Street. They raised two children, Anne and Bill, in Chatham, N.J., and retired 30 years ago to the Lowcountry of South Carolina. During previous vacations, they fell in love with the Beaufort area.
In 1998, they set up The Beaufort Fund with Coastal Community Foundation and created the annual grant program.
Funds are awarded each year, providing general operating grants and support for specific efforts ranging from after-school programs to health services to rental and utility assistance.
In 2021 alone, The Beaufort Fund awarded more than $850,000 to 84 nonprofit organizations.
Friends of Caroline in Port Royal was one of the groups to benefit with a grant of $12,500 so it could continue to provide end-of-life care to individuals with no insurance or those who are under-insured. The organization provides hospice and grief support services to residents.
While they were living, Joanne and Alan Moses wished to remain anonymous so the focus would be on the not-for-profits The Beaufort Fund assisted. They would attend annual Beaufort Fund events but nobody knew that they were the money behind the mission.
But their multi-million-dollar endowment, the Coastal Community Foundation says, will continue to support hundreds of not-for-profits and students in the greater Beaufort region for generations to come.
‘‘Alan and Joanne Moses could go down in South Carolina history as some of the most-generous philanthropists our state has ever seen, and yet, they were the last people who would have sought such a distinction,’’ said Darrin Goss, president and CEO of the Coastal Community Foundation. ‘‘In so many ways they embodied the best of what philanthropy stands for.’’
At their core, Alan and Joanne were “very down to earth, just plain folks,” said Bill Moses, their son. While Alan was successful in his career, his son said, it was only later in life that the couple saw major returns on well-timed investments.
“My father ended up making some very good investments,” Bill Moses said, “but they always saw themselves as ordinary people who had gotten lucky and could just as easily have gotten unlucky.”
Joanne and Alan Moses included Coastal Community Foundation in their estate plans to continue the work of the Beaufort Fund, while also enabling new and expanded programs that support more area causes.
Among them is the Catalyst Grant program, which makes major investments in large-scale projects led by not-for-profits, such as Hopeful Horizons’ recent expansion into Walterboro to serve victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
The Moses’ legacy gift has also led to the expansion of the Rev. Pinckney Scholarship and College Readiness programs across Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties to serve 60% more students each year, allowing the foundation to continue to address educational inequities throughout coastal South Carolina.
This story was originally published May 10, 2022 at 8:58 AM.
