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How does a secret $275 million fortune left by a reclusive inventor transform a city for generations? For 25 years, Hollingsworth Funds Greenville has operated as one of the most powerful forces shaping the community's growth, philanthropy, and future. From the land under major developments like The Shops at Greenridge and Millennium Campus to a philanthropic mission aimed at solving the city's biggest challenges, the fund's influence is everywhere, yet its full story is rarely told. In this episode, we sit down with Gage Weekes, President and CEO of Hollingsworth Funds, to uncover the incredible history and the bold future of this unique organization. We explore the central question: How is one man's visionary estate plan from the year 2000 charting the course for Greenville's next 50 years?
This episode delves deep into the fascinating origin and strategic evolution of Hollingsworth Funds. We begin with the incredible John D. Hollingsworth legacy, exploring the life of the brilliant, yet intensely private, inventor who revolutionized the textile industry with his company, "John D. Hollingsworth on Wheels." Gage Weekes shares stories of Mr. Hollingsworth's quiet generosity and eccentric dedication, including his habit of planting a "green curtain" of pine trees to hide his work—a move that inadvertently created some of Greenville's most valuable undeveloped land today. We then trace the fund's journey from its creation with largely illiquid assets (land and a declining textile plant) to its current $415 million asset base. A pivotal moment for the fund came with Dr. Raj Chetty's research, which identified a lack of economic mobility in Greenville. This became the "North Star" for Hollingsworth Funds' philanthropic strategy, focusing its efforts on creating pathways to living-wage jobs and addressing systemic issues like affordable housing and childcare.
The conversation also shifts to the exciting future of the organization's impact on the city's landscape, focusing on the massive Laurens Road redevelopment. Gage Weekes unveils the ambitious plans for the Bolden Street District, a 90-acre mixed-use development—three times the size of the County Square project—set to transform the corridor from Haywood Road to Big O Dodge over the next 15 years. This project exemplifies how Hollingsworth Funds Greenville is leveraging its real estate not just for financial return to fuel its endowment, but as a direct tool for community-building, with a focus on integrating affordability and opportunity. We also discuss Ambassador James Joseph's "SMURF" capital concept (Social, Moral, Intellectual, Reputational, and Financial), which guides the foundation to use its influence far beyond just writing checks, convening leaders and advocating for policy to create lasting change.
Episode Resources:
Introduction
Katy Smith: Over the past 25 years, Hollingsworth Funds has invested $140 million in grants to more than 220 nonprofit organizations out of what is now a $415 million asset base. All of this was made possible by the landholdings, innovation, and legacy of Mr. John D. Hollingsworth, an inventor, a textile fiber equipment manufacturer, and a real estate investor who left the entirety of his $275 million estate to create Hollingsworth Funds upon his death in 2000. I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and on this episode of Simple Civics, Greenville County, I talk with Gage Weekes, president and CEO of Hollingsworth Funds, about Mr. Hollingsworth and the Hollingsworth Funds history and what's next for Hollingsworth Funds, which is also what's next for Greenville.
If you visited The Shops at Greenridge or the Millennium Campus, or if you have a student at Beck, Thomas E. Kerns Elementary School, or Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School, you have stepped on the land that is his legacy with much more community development to come. In our conversation, Gage mentions many interesting studies, projects, and resources, and we'll link all of them in the show notes, along with more information about Hollingsworth Funds and this special anniversary. I am excited to celebrate an important anniversary in Greenville County's history today with President and CEO of Hollingsworth Funds, Gage Weekes.
Celebrating 25 Years: The Hollingsworth Funds by the Numbers
Gage Weekes: Thank you for having me, Katy.
Katy Smith: Thanks for being here. Some of us who are in the nonprofit sector and the philanthropic sector know Hollingsworth Funds really well. But for listeners who don't, give us some stats to give an overview of what Hollingsworth Funds is and has done.
Gage Weekes: Hollingsworth Funds started with $275 million in assets, but today we're over $415 million in assets, $300 of which is in a traditional endowment, a liquid endowment. And the remaining $115 million is in the cost basis of our remaining real estate. Over the last 25 years, we've taken what was essentially an illiquid asset because we were gifted a lot of land and a textile machinery plant at our birth and turned that into a large endowment from which we can make grants into the community.
Since inception, we've made more than $140 million worth of grants into the Greenville community. Our first year in 2001 was about $415,000 in grants and just recently approved this year about $12.5 million. It's been a significant growth over the last 25 years, something we're really excited about.
Katy Smith: It's amazing impact, and it's been fun to see it since the beginning. All this has happened since John Hollingsworth's death 25 years ago, but in his life, he had a big impact as well. Tell us about him and stories that listeners might want to know.
Who Was John D. Hollingsworth? The Man Behind the Legacy
Gage Weekes: He was definitely a unique individual, a really special individual. He was born in Atlanta in 1917 and moved shortly thereafter at a young age to Greenville. He started working for his father's textile machinery plant called John D. Hollingsworth on Wheels. The first machine shop was actually on Oregon Street, right off of Augusta Road, which a lot of people don't know. In 1942, he took over his father's business. And that's when he moved it out to the plant site on Laurens Road, started out as a small shop out there and then grew from there.
He was an inventor. A lot of people refer to him as a mechanical or electrical genius. He basically revolutionized the textile machinery business. He invented a metallic card clothing process that separated fibers 10 times faster than anybody else and built machinery that was used around the world. Between starting this off in 1942, by the time he was into the late 70s, into the 80s in his heyday, they had over 5,000 employees with a presence in 18 different countries, all of which started right here in Little Greenville.
Katy Smith: Well, I'm sure it's been so interesting to hear stories from his former colleagues and employees as you've begun this process of celebrating the legacy that he's left over the last 25 years. What are you hearing from people about what they remember about him?
Gage Weekes: A lot of people hear about the stories about him being a private individual and almost eccentric in a way. But the reality is he was just a guy who was really dedicated to his business. That was a plant that operated on three shifts and he was there all the time. He just had a tremendous work ethic, was always on the shop floor. I was just talking to Bill Henderson, who was the longtime president of Hollingsworth on Wheels, 60 plus years at the company. And he was just telling stories about how Mr. Hollingsworth used to walk the floor, even in the third shift in the middle of the night, always curious about what people were working on, how they could improve. A lot of that private nature was just actually a lot about the dedication that he had to the business.
But a lot of people also don't realize how just quietly generous he was. He was a really thoughtful individual who cared not only about his employees, but his customers and also the community that he was in. We were sitting actually at a lunch the other day with a nonprofit leader. She and I were talking about the 25th with Hollingsworth Funds. And she said, my father actually used to drive a truck for Mr. Hollingsworth for 30 plus years. A lot of people don't realize that Hollingsworth on Wheels actually was one of the largest trucking businesses as well, because they were constantly moving all the textile machinery around to customers. They had a big service side of that where they would go and replace parts and fix machines and things like that. But she was talking about a story of memory that was very vivid for her of sitting on Santa's lap at an annual Christmas party and getting toys or things like that.
But she talked about how much her father enjoyed working for Hollingsworth on Wheels and for Mr. Hollingsworth and that he was a 30-year-plus employee. And so many of the employees there were 20, 30, 40 years there. That says a lot about him as well.
But he was also just generous. Personally, he would have employees that maybe they had a family member that got sick or needed a surgery somewhere that was maybe outside of the region. And he would actually use the fleet of planes that he had to fly people to a hospital and have something done. His only stipulation was nobody told them that it was him that was doing that. Very humble, again very private, quietly generous and he would do that for a lot of just supporting a lot of organizations throughout the community anonymously. Obviously people didn't have a good sense for where some of those gifts came from. And that was really important to him.
Katy Smith: Wow, that is fascinating. He passes away on December 30th, 2000, and he had made some very sophisticated arrangements regarding his estate that set in motion this incredible legacy that has happened since. I would love to know more about Hollingsworth Funds itself, how it came to be, and some of the milestones that you've passed over the last 25 years.
Forging the Foundation: The Unique Structure of Hollingsworth Funds
Gage Weekes: The important thing that Mr. Hollingsworth wanted to have happen upon his death, which he thought about for a long time, was to ensure that the textile machinery plant was in operation the minute following. The way Hollingsworth Funds was created, it was actually created as a type one supporting organization, which is a slightly unique nonprofit designation that allows not only an operating business like the textile machinery plant to roll up into a charitable entity, but also over 42,000 acres of land that he amassed over time because what he didn't put back into his textile machinery plant, he invested into real estate across the state of South Carolina. Those 42,000 acres were across the state, two-thirds of which were down in the low country, and then about a third of it here in Greenville. He established Hollingsworth Funds with those assets. Hollingsworth Funds gets established in 2001 as a type one supporting organization. That means that it has named beneficiaries and those beneficiaries actually appoint the majority of our board slots. And that's why Furman University receives 45% of our annual contributions.
The YMCA of Greenville County receives 10% of our annual contributions. And then 45% goes to a class of organizations really designated as any 501c3 benefitting Greenville County.
He went to Furman University for a brief stint, less than a year, but still had fond memories of his time there. And he was a big fan of the Y. He used to show up at five o'clock in the morning before anybody was there to work out and then get his day started. That's why the Y came to be there.
But early on, the unique nature of our start was that we were almost 100% illiquid, which is very different from a traditional foundation. 42,000 acres that were gifted into Hollingsworth Funds and the textile machinery plant, which by that time was on the decline. We had zero liquid of those 275 million in assets that they were valued at at the time. The first, I would say the first 10 years of our existence was really about the board, which was a volunteer board at the time that we had no real staff for many of those early years, certainly from the philanthropy side. It was really to divest of a lot of that real estate in order to raise money for the endowment and then to be able to pay out grants.
And I think whether it's a milestone or just a really interesting impact that Hollingsworth Funds had in its first decade was just the land that it sold or developed turned into a lot of things that maybe we take for granted today. If you've ever been to The Shops at Greenridge, or you've been to the Whole Foods across the street on Woodruff Road, or if you have driven through Millennium Campus where CU-ICAR is, or you send your kid to Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School, or to Beck Middle for that matter, or Thomas E. Kerns Elementary School, all of those places are sitting on Hollingsworth Fund's land. Even in Laurens County, the ZF Transmissions plant is on Hollingsworth funds land. That was a pretty cool story that after divesting some of that, there's just a real contribution to the economic and educational vitality of our community.
Today, we have roughly 2,500 acres of that 42,000 that still remains, but it's some of the most valuable land. When you think about the 1,100-acre master plan development in Verdae, about half of that is still developable and will contribute to our growth. In addition to the financial aspect of it, it just gives us an opportunity to think about the creation of place a little bit differently and think about that a little bit more through the eyes of our philanthropic interests and how we can contribute to Greenville's growth in a smarter, more inclusive way where we've got an opportunity for everybody to have a chance to get ahead and to be able to utilize both the power of the endowment and the investments that we can make into the community, as well as the real estate that we have. That's a pretty cool thing, pretty unique.
Katy Smith: Tell us about some of the milestones that have happened along the way in this journey.
Finding a North Star: Economic Mobility and the Power of "SMURF" Capital
Gage Weekes: One of the, whether we think about it as a milestone or a seminal moment, certainly in 2010, 11, 12, that's when Hollingsworth Funds first started to really ramp up on engaging in professional staff and thinking about not only its real estate, but also its philanthropy in a more intentional way.
And then you have a real seminal moment in 2013, 2014, where two things happened. One, Dr. Raj Chetty came out with a really important piece of research around economic mobility and how people get ahead in our country. It really put a spotlight on not only the Southeast, but Greenville in particular, that even though we were in the middle of tremendous growth, it was clear that we were actually one of the hardest places in the country to get ahead for people who were born in the bottom quintile of household income to find their way to the top.
That was a really important moment for us because it gave us an almost a North Star in its own way of how to frame up some of our philanthropic interests and how we could support the Greenville community, both in getting kids prepared for college and career, attaining a post-secondary degree, getting on a pathway to a living wage job, but also thinking about some of the growth challenges that face Greenville, whether we're talking about affordable housing pressure, transportation and connectivity, even childcare at this stage in the game.
But the other thing that happened right about that same time was a speech that was given by Ambassador James Joseph, who was the ambassador to South Africa, who gave a speech at a community foundations conference about the importance of foundations using all forms of its philanthropic capital. We refer to it as SMURF, which many people hear us talk about all the time. But what that really stands for is social, moral, intellectual, reputational, and financial capital. It's not just about the grant making. That's important, that helps support a lot of the things that we do, but I would say that probably 95% of the work that we do is in those other areas.
It's about leveraging the relationships that we have to help convene and bring folks together to solve problems more collectively. It's about some of the moral reputational capital that we use to educate and make folks aware of challenges that face our community, solutions that are out there, raising a hand when others maybe aren't to say, "Hey, I think there's something we can do a little bit better here." Or even thinking about some of the intellectual capital, either that we generate internally from a foundation perspective or that exists within our community but doesn't necessarily make its way to a lot of decision makers and trying to find ways to do that.
Those two moments with Dr. Chetty and with Ambassador James Joseph really defined both the North Star for where we wanted to go at the time and also a bit of a roadmap of how we could get there, what role we could play, which I thought was really created an identity for us over the last 25 years.
Katy Smith: I agree and see it in the way you show up. And listeners, if you are not embedded in the world of philanthropy, particularly through foundations and institutions, I would like to think it's the way a lot of you probably practice your own philanthropy. You give a donation somewhere, but hopefully you're also volunteering or speaking up for the issues surrounding it and putting your whole self into that giving.
That is what Gage is talking about with social, moral, intellectual, reputational capital. It's not just writing a check and saying good luck to you. It's really putting the whole heft of the institution behind that gift. And I've really appreciated that. It is amazing to see all of the trees that are growing now because of little acorns you guys planted. Exciting.
The Next 25 Years: Redeveloping Laurens Road and the Bolden Street District
Gage Weekes: I'll share one fun story from Mr. Hollingsworth days that relates to trees as well. The story of the green curtain, which many people don't realize or know about. But when he first started the textile machinery plant on Laurens Road, it was pretty wide open around it, not a lot of trees. And being a private individual that he was, more so because of his inventions and just not wanting people to steal his ideas or be peeking in the windows, he started planting pine trees. He planted pine trees in concentric circles all around that plant. When you think about all the pine trees that exist from that side of Laurens Road across from Century BMW, for those of you who know where that is, all the way back towards into Verdae, all of those pine trees were planted by Mr. Hollingsworth. As he acquired land, he would plant more pine trees, to protect his asset. And there's a great picture in the lobby of our office of one of his plants in Brazil that he purchased. And if you look at it, you will see the exact same thing. He planted pine trees in concentric circles all around that plant.
But what that did in Greenville as it relates to our real estate and how it's impacted our growth today is that it created the hole in the donut in the city, between Woodruff Road and Laurens Road and everything west of I-85 and where Verdae is today. He didn't want anybody to develop that land. His idea was to hold it in perpetuity. In some ways that foresight has helped preserve and even create some of the value that we have today along Laurens Road and that we can look forward to from a real estate development perspective.
Because as we think about what's on the horizon for the next 25 years of Hollingsworth Funds, certainly staying true to that North Star around increasing economic mobility and strengthening those pathways for folks to attain a living wage is going to be paramount for us, especially around those collective initiatives, a lot of policy and advocacy work that we do as well. But there's a real opportunity for us to develop the remaining real estate that we have.
Many of you may have seen recently an announcement around Bolden Street District, which is going to be a 90-acre next-generation destination for everyone in Greenville. And that's between all the land on Laurens Road where a lot of the larger big box retail sits. So where the Michaels is by Haywood Road all the way up through Marketplace Shopping Center with the Gabe's and Sky Zone at the other end. And then the pad sites next to Big O Dodge. All the way from Haywood to Big O Dodge, that entire area is going to be redeveloped over the next 10 to 15 years.
And our hope is that while certainly it's important for us to still yield a profit off of that without question, because all the proceeds of that go into supporting our endowment, which then goes back into the community, we're also looking for ways to integrate opportunity into the place itself. If we're going to build residential, how do we integrate affordability and create opportunity for folks? If we're going to build commercial or office, how do we recruit and retain companies that are paying living wages and that are giving opportunities to folks? Thinking about how we can build a place that also creates opportunity for those who may not have otherwise had it, if we were to let the market just do its thing. It's an interesting balance. It's a really great challenge, one that we're excited to tackle and maybe makes us a little unique.
Katy Smith: To get people's minds around this, if you live in Greenville County, you're probably very familiar with the area Gage is talking about, driving down Laurens Road and those big box sites and the empty pads. You know that area well, but it's hard to get your head around what that acreage compares to and imagining then what could go there instead of empty or potentially underutilized big boxes. Contextualize it for folks.
Gage Weekes: The easiest comparison that we can make from a real estate perspective is for those of you who are familiar with the county square development close to downtown, that's a 30-acre site. If you look at that, you drive through there today and look on both sides of the road, that's a huge site, a lot of opportunity and a ton of mixed-use development that's going to go there. We have a 90-acre site. That's three county squares stacked up next to each other.
When you think about that, that is a significant amount of land that is within the city limits, is owned by a single landowner, and is owned by a patient landowner that is a charitable entity and land that once it is transformed benefits a charitable entity that then goes back into the community. That's an extremely rare opportunity that rarely exists in other places just around the country.
The reality is that while we have those 90 acres at Bolden Street District, we have another 80 acres on the corner of I-85 and Laurens Road. Whenever you get off the exit for 276 and Laurens Road off of I-85, those trees on the corner, we own all of those as well.
You start to put that into context and we have not just a 10, 15-year outlook for the 90 acres of Bolden Street, but push another 20, 30 years plus for what that could look like in that other land that we own within Verdae. What comes with that is tremendous responsibility. Obviously, we've had a tremendous responsibility to steward the legacy of Mr. Hollingsworth and the assets that he left us 25 years ago. But we think about what a those have turned into today and the opportunity with Greenville's growth over the last 20, 25 years and what that now presents for the land that we have.
It's just a tremendous opportunity for the future and for the future of Greenville. And I'm really excited about it because it's going to be Greenville's next great destination, where we are the pathway of growth for Greenville over the next couple of decades. What a great way to both contribute to place and community at the same time.
Katy Smith: I love it. I certainly am celebrating this 25th anniversary of Hollingsworth Funds because I have personally witnessed the enormous impact that you've made, but it's really exciting to think about all that is still ahead. Enormous congratulations to you and your team and the board that's made it all happen. And thanks for being here today.
Gage Weekes: Happy to do it. Thank you. And thank you for your leadership. We're not the doers in the community. It's people like you and others who are actually getting the work done. We're just trying to set the conditions for it and be a good partner and a good facilitator.
Katy Smith: Thanks so much, Gage.
Gage Weekes: Thanks, Katy.
Credits
Simple Civics: Greenville County is Produced by Podcast Studio X.
A Greater Good Greenville project.
