Incubator for Non-Profits
Creating a more
  • Empowered
  • Connected
  • Inspired
  • United
  • Empowered
  • Connected
  • Inspired
  • United
  • Empowered
  • Connected
  • Inspired
  • United
  • Empowered
  • Connected
  • Inspired
  • United
Charleston
A space that nurtures collaboration; turning ideas into systems, and outcomes for the good of all.

For All

Champions for the changemakers
  • Two changemakers connecting.
  • Our Story

    Charleston’s
    non-profit incubator

    Ripple is the Charleston Tri-County’s non-profit incubator — a collaborative workspace, meeting and event space. Founded by Charleston-area locals, Ripple is designed to nurture collaboration and equip changemakers with the support, resources, and network they need to make sustainable, life-changing impact.

    Our Story
    Our non-Profits

    Our Community of Changemakers

    Changemakers
    Food Security
    0
    • Cultivates community through growing, eating, and celebrating food.
    • Rescues un-plated food from restaurants, caterers and grocery stores and deliver it to Lowcountry nonprofits serving the food-insecure population.
    • Dedicated to providing emergency assistance in the forms of grants to members of the Charleston F&B community
    • Builds garden-based experiential learning projects and school garden programs to educate students, connect people and cultivate community through growing, eating and celebrating food.
    • Enhances classroom curriculum with media arts programs (coding, photography, filmmaking, and design) to spark students’ curiosity and teach real-world skills.
    • Provides nutritious, plant-based meals made with love by teen volunteers for people facing critical health challenges.
    • Provides a fun, safe and supportive environment for youth that are interested in the sport of track and field while giving them tools and resources that will further transcend their lives in the classroom and on the track and field.
    • Dedicated to teaching yoga and mindfulness to students and creating learning-ready and compassionate classrooms.
    • Changing the solution to the health problem that arises within the community through nutrition and exercise in local Title 1 schools.
    • Raises funds to secure financial resources to help men, women, and children experiencing mental illness in our community through the Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center.
    • Offers hope, direction and development by providing a path of planning through workshops, activities, and trainings that addresses stress, depression, grief, coping skills, PTSD, self care, well being, and decision making skills.
    • Empowers women to build emotional and physical wellness as well as safe supportive communities through a combination of surf instruction, women’s wellness groups, and community building.
    • Promotes environmental justice and public health through research, education and citizen science.
    • Creates alliances between community, private, and public organizations to tackle the global climate crisis by starting at home, in the Lowcountry.
    • Influence anglers to follow personal catch and creel limits more restrictive than the law allows to create an improved and sustainable abundance of fish for future generations to catch.
    • Provides advocacy, resources and support to the residents of Joseph Floyd Manor (JFM) through community outreach and awareness, donations, and fundraising.
    • Creates continuous sustainable economic opportunities for minority owned businesses by eliminating barriers through providing resources, training, access to capital and supplier/buyer engagement utilizing corporate and community leaders as solution agents.
    • Was born out of mutual love and support between a mother and her son and aims to motivate people who are losing hope and are having a difficult time fighting their own battles.
    • Preserves, protects and promotes the cultural heritage of the Gullah Geechee People who have lived in the southeastern portion of the United States for over 300 years.
    • Serves 200 meals a day and their reach extends far beyond the table, lending resources that plant opportunities for hundreds, including veterans, homeless, transitioning families, and many more.
    • Helps enhance the Charleston Police Department’s community relations by providing access to resources beyond their normal means.
    • Commits to reducing the impact of Veterans’ mental and physical wounds through fitness programs and nutrition to empower our veterans to realize their full potential, confidence, and self-worth.
    • Enables youth to develop positive relationships with caring adults who empower them to reach their full potential through mentorship.
    • Inspires underserved youth to pursue their dreams through student-led service projects, educational programs and support networks that lead to more equitable and sustainable opportunities for success.
    • Provides curriculum-based mentorship to our youth, or the young at heart, by focusing on self-advocacy, workplace readiness, post-secondary education, and career readiness.
    • Shares life experiences, encouragement and guidance to instill values, self-esteem and character, while increasing economic empowerment through training, trades and skills for men, women, and youth..
    • Blends youth pickle ball lessons with social-emotional learning to improve crucial life skills, including self-awareness, self-management, healthier relationships and responsible decision-making skills.
    • Involves artists, cultural workers, youth and tiny business partners to support and promote TINY BUSINESS, as a vital part of commerce and neighborhood, to fully embrace the arts as activators of sustainability and to build a mentorship legacy and awaken a spirit of agency and community engagement in our youth.
    • Creates an intersectional yoga studio that brings people together across lines of difference, diversifies our existing practice community, and organizes our healing and creative artists into a unified force for change.
    • Ensures all elementary students develop the strong foundation in math and enthusiasm for academics needed for long-term success, by helping schools use volunteers as tutors.
    Join Ripple

    Does Your Non-Profit Need Support? We Can Help.

    Ripple removes the financial barriers startup nonprofits and social entrepreneurs face — providing space, resources, and mentorship in fundraising, outreach, and marketing. So you can focus on your mission — and be the change our communities need.

    Join
    Empower together
    Spirit

    We’re firm believers
    in the power of :

    That’s why we’ve created a space that provides the resources, programming, and events that nurture collaboration, and channels the skills and talents of many into ideas, systems, and outcomes for the good of all.

    As longtime Charleston-area locals who’ve led businesses, media outlets, partnered with community organizations, and built national networks across diverse industries, we’re devoted to making meaningful, enduring connections with the changemakers who see the needs in our communities and devote themselves to making a difference.

    the collective
    Spirit
    Kind words
    • Ripple empowers us to serve more of the community by way of Gullah/Geechee history, art and tradition. Ripple has allowed us to flow more into our why. Tenki Tenki  Ripple!!

      Elder Carlie Towne,
      GullahGeechee Angel Network
    • Operating as a non profit can often feel like an isolating uphill battle. Being able to come to work everyday to an environment of support, collaboration, and a genuine desire to pour into our community completely changes attitudes and burn out rates among peers. Every day, something good happens here. 

      Alex English,
      Be A Mentor
    • A ripple is defined as a small wave or series of waves on the surface of water. At The Ripple Fund, the ripple has brought waves of hope to non profits. My Community’s Keeper Mentor Group is grateful for the opportunity to share in this collaborative effort.

      Keith Smalls,
      My Community Keepers Mentor Group
    • The work happening at Ripple is a true testament to teamwork and the power of togetherness. I am incredibly grateful for the connections we continue to make at Ripple and I know that the ripples of change through our interactions will continue to be felt for years to come!

      Katie Stagliano,
      Katie’s Krops
    • Release Over 20 is extremely grateful for being part of the Ripple family.  To have a state of the art physical meeting space at our disposal is an amazing asset and to be part of the network has been invaluable to our growth and development.

      Adam Fahrar,
      Release Over 20
    • The Ripple Fund is a space that fosters community, collaboration, and innovation. Most of all, it has been a safe space where we can show up as we are without worrying about judgement, or comparison, or competition.  We are very fortunate to be a part of it. 

      Erin Jones
      Waves 4 Women
    Team Ripple

    Our Team

    • Jerry Scheer

      Upon Law school graduation, Jerry Scheer, Mark Cummings and a 3rd party started Tbonz restaurant group in Athens Ga,. The trio expanded their scope to include Savannah, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Greenville, High Point and Charlotte where they now operate 25 restaurant groups. Philanthropy has been an integrally woven into the fabric of their restaurant groups. Ripple is the evolution of the concept “ to give is to receive” Many of the profits derived over the years from their Homegrown Hospitality to establish the Ripple Fund to help nonprofits maximize their outreach in our communities. The group is also involved in angel investments in various entities and hopefully when they become profitable, the profits are funneled back into RIpple allowing those monies to sustain the dozens of nonprofits working in the facility. The ultimate goal of Ripple is to give each nonprofit a chance to fulfill their dreams and goals without the early financial anxieties of office space, board rooms, internet, and how to afford a good cup of coffee.

      Jerry Scheer

      Founding Partner
    • Jamie Smith

      Most days Nacho will be the first person to greet you when you walk into Ripple. He is big in stature, loves a good belly rub and a “good boy”

      Jamie Smith

      CFO
    Team

    Connect with us

    Ripple’s foundation is guided by the knowledge that we’re all intrinsically connected — our door is always open.

    Visit Us
    701 East Bay Street Suite 121, Charleston, SC 29403
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