25 Years of Making Greenville a Home for Everyone

Celebrating 25 Years of Hollingsworth Funds

In 2000, John D. Hollingsworth left his fortune to Hollingsworth Funds when he passed, leaving a nearly century-long family business to an organization whose goal is to better the lives of people in Greenville County.

Greenville has a long history with the textile industry. Mill villages still stand today that represent the lasting legacy of this economic bedrock of the city, with many locals able to trace their family history back to textiles. The Hollingsworths are crucial to that story.

A Local Business with a Global Impact

What once was a garage operation out of the family home turned into one of the world’s leading fiber-processing equipment makers when John D. Hollingsworth took over the company from his father in 1942, inventing machinery that separated textile fibers ten times faster than earlier machines.

But it wasn’t just textile machinery that grew the estate—a majority of the Hollingsworth funds were tied up in 42,000 acres of undeveloped land, which would go on to be sold to add to the overall liquidity of the funds. The unique thing about Hollingsworth Funds is that you can see their impact almost daily even if you don’t realize they were the ones who contributed to it.

Whether you are spending time at the Shops at Greenridge or working at one of their transformative economic development projects like the Millennium Campus, or Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research, they have played an integral role in the existence of those spaces that have become physical grounds for growing industry leaders in various sectors of business. John Lummus, CEO of the Upstate SC Alliance, believes in the value of their work. “They make us a stronger. We are a more marketable region and can ensure wider access to the opportunities we recruit at Upstate Alliance thanks to the Hollingsworth Funds.”

Beyond Business: A Commitment to Greenville

The Hollingsworth Funds have been a great example of an industrial leader prioritizing community development at home. The Upstate is fortunate to have organizations like this working collaboratively across the community; not everything they do can be seen in physical brick and mortar, instead, it permeates the collective good of Upstate residents and businesses.

They founded the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy, which eventually merged with the Nonprofit Alliance to become Greater Good Greenville – a hub for research, best practices, and partnership in our sector. They helped grow OnTrack Greenville, a community initiative that has helped hundreds of students from Title I middle schools stay on track toward high school graduation, strengthening our local talent. This leads to a strong workforce and Upstate economy.

The Upstate is growing, and organizations like the Hollingsworth Funds help ensure that everyone in Greenville County and beyond can grow, live, and thrive in our region by actively participating in our economy and building the necessary infrastructure for community success.

Hollingsworth’s estate has been nothing short of transformative for the people of Greenville County. Now, with $415 million in assets, using their real estate to contribute to the community is their ultimate goal, and they have no plans of stopping.