September 26, 2011; Source: Charleston Regional Business Journal | Someone needs to look at how this organization engages its board members so the rest of us can learn from it. Wings for Kids, an after-school program based in Charleston, South Carolina, announced that it has received a $1 million donation from one of its board members. The donation will be used to gain traction on a $4.5 million campaign that is meant to allow the organization to expand into other cities across the nation. Susan Zoukis, who along with her husband made the gift, has been on the board for three years. “Serving on the Wings board gave me the opportunity to view the organization from the inside, and what I saw was amazing,” Zoukis told the Charleston Regional Business Journal. The positive changes I witnessed in the lives of the kids in the program made me want to give more than just my time.”

Zoukis’s donation is especially timely since the Journal reports that three of Wings’ four nonprofit partners in Charleston are facing federal budget cuts.—Ruth McCambridge