These organizations not only lease a space in the Upper Savannah COG building; they also serve a similar geographic area and collaborate on mutually beneficial projects.
Western Piedmont Education Consortium (WPEC)
During the 1996-97 school year, ten superintendents began discussions of ways they could work together to make their districts more efficient and more effective. In the fall of 1997, those superintendents formalized a working collaboration that was named the Western Piedmont Education Consortium.
The original intent of the ten superintendents was to find ways to save money, save time and to strengthen operations through sharing costs, sharing resources and sharing expertise.
Western Piedmont Education Consortium is an association of school districts in upper western South Carolina who work collaboratively to accomplish specific goals. The Consortium serves 13 school districts in addition to partnering with Lander University, Clemson University, Piedmont Technical College, USC Union, and the Governor’s School for Agriculture at John de la Howe.
Upper Savannah Land Trust (USLT)
The Upper Savannah Land Trust was incorporated on October 1, 2000, by citizens of the region as a 501(c)(3) organization. Finding widespread interest in its mission, the Land Trust began accepting easements from landowners. The first was a 33-acre tract. From this humble beginning, the Land Trust grew rapidly to become one of the largest land trusts in the state by the end of its first ten years of operation.
This remarkable achievement was possible only because of the efforts of our many supporters. We are most grateful for the confidence of our donors, especially those who came aboard in our early years. This confidence was the basis for the spectacular rise in the acreage of conservation easements donated voluntarily to our land trust. The most dramatic increase occurred in 2009 with the addition of some 20,000 acres conserved. Fifteen years later, we crossed the 57,000-acre mark. Regardless of our size, however, our first commitment is maintaining the trust of our donors.
The mission of the Upper Savannah Land Trust is to encourage and pursue the conservation of natural, historic, and scenic lands—farms, forests, waterways, and open spaces in the western Piedmont of South Carolina. Our service area includes the counties of Abbeville, Aiken, Anderson, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, and Saluda.
SC Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
The South Carolina Small Business Development Centers (SC SBDC) provides entrepreneurs across South Carolina, including the Upper Savannah Region, with no-cost, confidential business consulting, affordable training programs, and access to critical resources to support small businesses at every stage of development—from startup to growth and eventual exit.
Their core services include leadership and management consulting, strategic and tactical operations guidance, and collaborative planning to assess project feasibility for expansion or market entry. They also specialize in positioning businesses for successful access to capital through traditional lending, grants, or investor funding.
A key priority of the SC SBDC is strategic growth planning, empowering entrepreneurs to build businesses worth owning—sustainable, impactful, and positioned for long-term success.
In addition to their core services, they offer specialty programs designed to address the unique challenges faced by growing businesses, including international trade, government contracting, agribusiness and rural development, technology commercialization, and cybersecurity.
The SC SBDC’s mission is to advance South Carolina’s economic development by helping entrepreneurs grow successful businesses. They are committed to meeting the diverse needs of South Carolina’s small businesses and driving economic growth across the state.