South Carolina Business Review

The increasing importance of philanthropy

By Mike Switzer

Published July 2, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT

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Clay Grayson, attorney in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

Funding cuts from Washington have brought funding concerns not only to universities but to all nonprofits. Our next guest says that this is increasing the importance of philanthropy and in fact, he coincidentally wrote a book about this last year. Mike Switzer interviews Clay Grayson, an attorney in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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