RS&H’s Elevate Fund Raises More Than $500,000 for Over 80 Charities

As an employee-owned firm with offices around the U.S., RS&H commits itself to supporting the communities it serves.

One way the company supports communities is through its Elevate Fund. Guided by a committee of RS&H associates, the fund awards grants twice a year to nonprofit organizations where associates are involved.

The Elevate Fund is integral to RS&H’s corporate social responsibility strategy to aid and foster deeper connections with community organizations through funding and volunteering, with a focus on benefiting education, children and youth programs, and the environment. RS&H has raised more than $500,000 for over 80 organizations across the country since its launch in 2018.

Diversity of Team, Giving

When Carson Lange, a vice president and general counsel for RS&H, joined the firm in 2022, her supervisor encouraged her to join the Elevate Committee as a way of meeting more people in the company.

“It was a really good suggestion because you end up working with people across the firm from all kinds of disciplines,” said Lange. “And it’s a nice thing to do. It’s nice to make an impact.”

Lange became chair of the Elevate Committee in 2024. In the role, she has seen the Elevate Fund benefit organizations that range from art museums running summer camps and STEM programs in schools to those helping build ramps to make buildings more accessible and even support Guardian ad Litem advocates.

“There have been some surprising organizations that come up and it’s great that we have associates involved with them,” Lange said. “It really runs the full gamut, not what you would think of when you think of engineering.”

Helping Children Celebrate Halloween

While the Elevate Fund reaches new nonprofits in new communities every year, one organization in the firm’s hometown of Jacksonville, Fla. annually receives both monetary and engineering support.

For more than a decade, RS&H associates have helped children living with disabilities fulfill their wishes by engineering a magical Halloween experience, complete with custom costumes adapted to their wheelchairs. Each year, children from the Jacksonville Center for Independent Living (CIL) are fitted for their adaptive costumes in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

“If you can imagine it, they can build it,” said CIL Development Director Aaron Lewis. “With everything else going on in these kids’ and their families’ lives with their conditions, treatment and healthcare, it’s awesome that (RS&H) can help us strip it all down and let the kids be kids.”

The RS&H team collaborates each year across multiple disciplines to make Halloween visions a reality. In the past, RS&H designers have brought to life Cinderella’s carriage, the Hogwarts Express, a John Deere tractor, and many more costumes.

“Dedicated volunteers are behind the amazing costumes we are able to provide the children,” said Brandon Pourch, an RS&H architect and organizer of the event. “The collaboration between the team and the willingness to innovate to take these kids’ wishes and turn them into reality makes this a favorite project, year after year.”

Pourch and other RS&H associates have crafted the Halloween costumes–both for the kids and the wheelchairs–serving dozens of children and their families, including eight families in 2024. Their work with CIL Jacksonville has expanded beyond Halloween, with RS&H regularly contributing to the nonprofit’s initiatives, Lewis added.

“I think RS&H has been great stewards here with what they have done in the community,” Lewis said. “I love working with them every year.”

Helping Students Take Flight

Confronted with a Brookings Institution study that shows the majority of economically disadvantaged African Americans will remain so, as well as a Boeing Pilot and Technical Market Outlook that forecasts nearly half a million new commercial airline pilots will be needed over the next 20 years, the founding members of Tuskegee NEXT sought to help address both issues together.

Aviation engineer Johnny Jackson is one of those founding members who has stayed involved with Tuskegee NEXT since moving to Texas to join RS&H and become a Dallas-area leader. The program honors the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen by seeking to transform the lives of under-represented youth through aviation education and career path opportunities. Some of the first graduates are now flying for commercial airlines, the U.S. Air Force, or corporate clients.

“I’ve seen kids go up (on their first flight) crying and come back smiling,” Jackson said. “It’s an incredible opportunity to give back, reach kids, and let them know that aviation can be a career path for them.”

In 2023, Jackson submitted an application for an Elevate Grant to purchase new aviation headphones for the students to wear so they could better hear and communicate with air traffic controllers.

“It’s been great to be involved and see Tuskegee NEXT grow,” Jackson said. “And it’s awesome to be at RS&H and have the Elevate Fund support us.”

A Lasting Legacy for a Colleague

In Charlotte, N.C., RS&H Senior Vice President Radha Krishna Swayampakala looked for a way to honor J. Scott Cole, PE, CPM, a longtime North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) engineer who worked at RS&H from 2019 until his sudden passing in October 2023.

Swayampakala partnered with the RS&H Elevate Fund, Cole’s family, and other community members to raise $19,000 for a scholarship fund set up at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In its first year, the scholarship fund eclipsed the goal of $15,000.

The J. Scott Cole Legacy Scholarship celebrates the life and legacy of Cole and the positive impact he had on the Charlotte community through his leadership at NCDOT and RS&H. The scholarship reduces financial barriers for students pursuing a degree in civil and environmental engineering with a concentration in transportation.

Swayampakala and other RS&H associates also helped organize what he hopes will be an annual walk in the fall to remember Cole and contribute to the scholarship fund as his lasting legacy.

“Scott knew everybody in North Carolina, so when he joined RS&H, we were so excited that he was one of us and the impact he made on us,” Swayampakala said. “He made a great impact on a lot of people, and it’s awesome that RS&H is helping to remember his legacy in a way that will help more people in the future.”