· Public charity
Carolina Thread Trail
To provide capital, technical expertise, and support to local communities to successfully build the regional vision of the trail and conserve natural lanes along the trails.
Read this first · the figures below need context
89% of Carolina Thread Trail’s FY2022 grant dollars went to Foundation For The Carolinas, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 17 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year Carolina Thread Trail named its own grantees at scale: 10 organizations, $433k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2022.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2020
- Under $10k1 grant · $8k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $235k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $190k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CITY OF GASTONIA | $140,000 |
| CATAWBA LAND CONSERVANCY | $50,000 |
| TOWN OF MCADENVILLE | $46,666 |
| CLEVELAND COUNTY WATER | $45,000 |
| SOUTHERN OFF-ROAD BICYCLE ASSOCIATION - TARHEEL TRAILBLAZERS | $38,000 |
| LINDSAY PETTUS GREENWAY INC | $30,000 |
| CITY OF BELMONT | $25,000 |
| VILLAGE OF MISENHEIMER | $25,000 |
| YORK COUNTY | $25,000 |
| TOWN OF MARSHVILLE | $8,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY21–21, $30k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
6 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2020, 4 since wound down; 20 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
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2022, 23% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $714k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CLCatawba Lands Conservancy3× · 2020–2022 · $284k · revenue -26%
- TOTOWN OF CRAMERTON2× · 2019–2022 · $268k
- COCITY OF CONCORD FBO OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT2× · 2019–2022 · $150k
Funded once
- COCITY OF SALISBURYone grant, 2019 · $227k
- TOTOWN OF CORNELIUSone grant, 2019 · $100k
- COCity of Mount Hollyone grant, 2019 · $50k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
7 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 7 of the 31 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Catawba Lands Conservancy · Foundation for the Carolinas · Gaston Memorial Hospital Inc · Gaston Community Foundation · The Golden Leaf Inc · The Cannon Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Carolina Thread Trail funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Carolina Thread Trail. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Carolina Thread Trail’s filings →