Ashton Hope Keegan Foundation Inc

We raise money for scholarships and educational support materials that enable these women to earn their GED, and then a technical certification that gets them into the professional workforce quickly.

We host an annual Hope Gala that raises our operating funds. This money is used to buy GED textbooks, GED test study guides, and educational supplies (paper, pens, etc) which enables the women to succeed with their GED. Once they have their GED in hand, we provide additional scholarships to cover the cost of tuition, supplies, transportation, child care, etc to enable them to get a technical certification (such as welder, auto repair tech, certified nursing assistant, etc).

We were established as a 501(c)(3) in December, 2016, and spent 2017 building our team and processes. We held our first Hope Gala in Jan, 2018, and raised $22,610.87 to fund our programs for the year. We held our Second Annual Hope Gala in Jan 2019, and raised $36,351.69 (a 60% increase). By 2021, our Hope Gala has become well established in the community, and we were able to raise more than $66,000 despite the COVID restrictions. In 2022, our Hope Gala raised just under $50,000, which was driven down by significant increases in our expenses due to the high inflation rate. We now have an experienced Board of Directors, and an experienced team of volunteers that ensure we can sustain our ability to raise the scholarship money, and get it to the needy women.

- In August, 2017, we made our first donation to an organization that specializes in teaching women the skills needed to pass the GED tests.

- In March, 2018, we granted 6 GED vouchers to women at Athens Technical College.

- In May, we granted 3 scholarships to women who recently completed their GEDs and entered technical certification training at Athens Tech. These scholarships not only covered tuition, but also provided money to overcome other impediments to their education, such as transportation and child care.

- In July, we purchased and donated 40 sets of GED textbooks and test preparation aides, as well as boxes of school supplies, to the PALS program at Women to the World. This was a critical need for the program, as the current set of books they had is outdated, and the test prep materials were used and erased over and over again.

- In August, we funded 6 scholarships for women who completed their GEDs and are entering technical certification training. In a noteworthy sign of the success of the programs, one of the women receiving this continuing education scholarship is one of the GED Voucher recipients from March - she completed the GED, and is building more momentum going forward!

- We partnered with The Classic Center and Orange Theory Fitness to host our third annual set of Angel Trees for the women in the PALS Program. Studies show that the women have a tendency to withdraw further from society during the holiday season because of the shame of being unable to provide for their children. By providing holiday gifts, we remove this impediment to the women’s continuing education, and allow them to continue to build momentum throughout the year.

- In December, we funded a portion of the Athens Tech Roll Out Rescue Program. This program ensures students are unable to afford to pay all of their registration fees at the time of registration, are not disenrolled.

- In January, 2019, we held our Second Annual Hope Gala, raising more than $36,000. Our Board just approved our FY19 funding plan, that will allocate $25,000 for scholarships this year. This will allow us to double the size of the scholarships (to $1,000 each) as well as significantly increase the number of scholarships we can award.

- We are also in discussions with another local charity to take over administration of two scholarships they fund (worth $10,000 annually) since they don't have a stable group of volunteers to keep up with the work.

- Throughout the 2019 - 2022 timeframe, we have also focused on expanding our means of fundraising so we're not held hostage to the Hope Gala. This turned out to have been a great idea, as COVID impacted our ability to conduct the Hope Galas, but grants have more than made up for what we need.