South Carolina Children’s Fund (SCCF) makes strategic, catalytic investments and provides expertise and technical assistance to educational organizations across the Palmetto State. Our approach and investments will be centered around five major areas of focus, each of which will help us achieve our overarching goal: to provide more South Carolina students and families with access to high-quality educational opportunities.
In South Carolina, educational opportunity has been historically inconsistent based on geography and socio-economic status, especially for African-American, Hispanic and working-class families. In 2022, 85% of Black, 83% of Hispanic and 54% of White public school fourth graders were not proficient in reading, according to the Nation’s Report Card. South Carolina has an urgent need and SCCF aims to harness the will and expertise of South Carolinians and willing partners to meet that need.
Co-Founders
Jessica Aaron
Jessica Aaron is Co-Founder and Board President of South Carolina Children's Fund. A Clemson University graduate, she returned to South Carolina with her family five years ago. Since then, she has served as director/trustee on the boards of Dee Norton Child Advocacy Center, Claflin University, Charleston Day School and the Historic Charleston Foundation. Last year, she and her husband became sponsors of the Meeting Street Scholarship Fund in Allendale County--which provides important "last dollar" financial aid for students from working class backgrounds and helps students attend their "best-match" college or university in the state. Jessica is also a guardian ad litem in Charleston County and a volunteer mentor with Communities in Schools at Charleston's Early College High School. While in New York City for two decades, she worked in child welfare and served as a community volunteer. A social worker, she has held positions in policy and planning at New York's Administration For Children's Services and in the Commissioner's Office. Jessica is a mother of two boys, and transitioned from full-time roles to taking on a number of volunteer roles while raising her family in the city: She served as Board President at Citizens' Committee For Children and as Board President of the Court Appointed Special Advocates, an organization that advocates for foster children in family court. In addition to her undergraduate degree from Clemson University, Jessica holds a graduate degree in social work from Columbia University. In co-developing South Carolina Children's Fund over the past several years, she has traveled the state listening to and learning from students, families, civic leaders and educators across rural and urban schools and districts.
Kira Orange Jones
Kira is the CEO of Teach Plus, a national organization advancing teachers as leaders in education policy/practice with a focus on student opportunity. She is a founding committee member of The Coalition to Reimagine Teaching and the 1 Million Teachers of Color Campaign. Previously, she served as SVP at Teach For America and founded the Systems Impact Lab, leading twelve regional teams throughout the South and Midwest. Kira led TFA's Greater New Orleans region for over a decade through an unprecedented period of recovery and renewal following Hurricane Katrina, recruiting and developing more than 5,000 teachers and school and systems leaders. She also served three terms as an elected member of Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), representing 450,000 constituents across Greater New Orleans. In 2019, she carried every Republican and Democratic precinct across her six parishes. For her work in New Orleans, Kira was named a Louisianan of the Year and to Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. She is now also a moderator for the Pahara/Aspen Global Networks, on the boards of Stand For Children and Instruction Partners, and is a founding member of Education Leaders of Color. She holds a B.A. in Film Studies from Wesleyan University, where she is a Distinguished Alumna, and a M.Ed. from Harvard University.
Founding Board Members
Jessica Aaron
Kira Orange Jones
Jennifer Bronson
Lucy Guffey
Lauren Herterich
Caroline McKee