· Private foundation
Betty James and Walter S Montgomery Jr Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
Read this first · the figures below need context
56% of Betty James and Walter S Montgomery Jr Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Spartanburg County Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year Betty James and Walter S Montgomery Jr Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $19k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 47% of BETTY JAMES AND WALTER S MONTGOMERY JR FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHRIST SCHOOL | $3,000 |
| SPARTANBURG METHODIST COLLEGE | $2,500 |
| NOBLE TREE FOUNDATION | $2,400 |
| THE GARDEN CONSERVANCY | $2,000 |
| HATCHER GARDEN | $1,000 |
| PARDEE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| MEN'S GARDEN CLUB | $1,000 |
| SPARTANBURG COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $1,000 |
| ADULT LEARNING CENTER | $1,000 |
| THE GROUP OF 100 INC | $1,000 |
| AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY | $1,000 |
| UPSTATE FOREVER | $1,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $200 |
| HENDERSON COUNTY RESCUE SQUAD INC | $200 |
| Individual grant recipient | $200 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 83% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
15 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2020, 5 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call). Read against FY2020, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- TGTHE GARDEN CONSERVANCY INC7× · 2017–2024 · $15k · revenue +109%
SPARTANBURG COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC3× · 2018–2024 · $7k · revenue +9%- GOGROUP OF 100 INC4× · 2019–2024 · $4k · revenue +31%
Funded once
- NTNOBLE TREE FOUNDATION ORGgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $1k · revenue +364%
- HSHEJAZ SHRINERSgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $600 · revenue +51%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Southern wesleyan university is a christ-centered, student-focused learning community devoted to transforming lives by challenging students to be dedicated scholars and servant-leaders who impact the world for christ.
Greenville college d/b/a greenville university empowers students for lives of character and service through a transforming christ-centered education in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies.
Scicu seeks to advance higher education in south carolina through fundraising, scholarships, research, as well as facilitating collaborative activities among the member institutions. scicu also enhances a positive public image and…
Columbia college provides educational opportunities that develop students' capacity for critical thought and expression, life-long learning, acceptance of personal responsibilty, and commitment to service and social justice.
Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.
Greensboro College provides a liberal arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.
The purpose of wofford college is to function as a liberal arts institution of superior quality. its chief concern is the development of an intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic atmosphere in which serious and inquiring minds of students…
The board of control for southern regional education shall be devoted to the task of assisting states, institutions and agencies concerned with higher education in their efforts to advance knowledge and to improve the social and economic…
Scu is a catholic and jesuit institution that makes student learning its central focus, promotes faculty and staff learning in its various forms, and exhibits organizational learning.
Erskine College exists to glorify God as a Christian academic community where students are equipped to flourish as whole persons for lives of service through the pursuit of undergraduate liberal arts and graduate theological education.
Spelman college, a historically black college and global leader in the education of women of african descent, is dedicated to the academic excellence of its students.
North greenville university exists to glorify god by cultivating graduates who are equipped to serve as transformational leaders for church and society.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Spartanburg Community College Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Trees Coalition. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
17 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 33 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds THE GARDEN CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds Spartanburg County Foundation ↗
- Who funds SPARTANBURG COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds GROUP OF 100 INC ↗
- Who funds SPARTANBURG DAY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds SPARTANBURG METHODIST COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds CONVERSE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CHRIST SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds UPSTATE FOREVER ↗
- Who funds TREES COALITION ↗
- Who funds PARDEE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NOBLE TREE FOUNDATION ORG ↗
- Who funds ADULT LEARNING CENTER ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds HEJAZ SHRINERS ↗
- Who funds TOTAL MINISTRIES OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds HENDERSON COUNTY RESCUE SQUAD ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Spartanburg County Foundation · J M Smith Foundation · Arkwright Foundation · Rose and Walter Montgomery Foundation · Betty & James K Stone Foundation · Anna M Black Charitable Foundation · Black & Phillips Foundation Inc · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Duke Energy Foundation · Balmer Foundation · Foundation for the Carolinas · Harry H Gibson Family Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Betty James and Walter S Montgomery Jr Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Betty James and Walter S Montgomery Jr Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Betty James and Walter S Montgomery Jr Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.