Tennessee · Private foundation
Carolyn Smith Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $4.8M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 165
- Grants FY2025
- 161
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 17%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $15,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $225,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 13 to 161
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 12
- Total assets, FY2025
- $2.1M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 17% of the organizations Carolyn Smith Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 11% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $418k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 150 | $4.7M | 30% |
| FY2024 | 161 | $3.9M | 17% |
| FY2023 | 146 | $3.0M | 14% |
| FY2022 | 140 | $2.3M | 22% |
| FY2021 | 140 | $1.5M | 59% |
| FY2020 | 64 | $1.2M | 75% |
| FY2019 | 13 | $368k | 46% |
| FY2018 | 15 | $176k | 60% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vanderbilt University Medical Center | $1,800,000 | 8 | 0% |
| Cure Sanfilippo Foundation | $750,000 | 8 | 7% |
| Monthaven Arts & Cultural Center | $507,500 | 6 | 26% |
| Nashville Rescue Mission | $435,000 | 9 | 1% |
| The Store Inc | $285,000 | 3 | 1% |
| Big Brothersbig Sisters of Middle Tn | $280,000 | 7 | 1% |
| Corner To Corner | $275,000 | 5 | 4% |
| Shatterproof a Nonprofit Corporation | $240,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Siloam Health | $235,000 | 5 | 2% |
| Gallatin Shalom Zone Inc | $235,000 | 4 | 17% |
Show all 168 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 113 recipients with no EIN on record ($5.0M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Carolyn Smith Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 156 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: Memorial Foundation Inc · Hca Healthcare Foundation · The Frist Foundation · The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · United Way of Middle Tennessee Inc · Dorothy Cate and Thomas F Frist Foundation · Joe C Davis Foundation · Nashville Predators Foundation · The Healing Trust Formerly Baptist Healing Hospital Trust · Dettwiller Foundation · The Steven & Laurie Eskind Family Foundation · Louie M & Betty M Phillips Foundatn
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Carolyn Smith Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Carolyn Smith 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.
About Carolyn Smith Foundation
- How much does Carolyn Smith Foundation give?
- Carolyn Smith Foundation reported 165 grants totaling $4,783,828 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 161 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Carolyn Smith Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (34%), Human Services (16%), Housing & Shelter (8%).
- Who are Carolyn Smith Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Vanderbilt University Medical Center ($1.8M), Cure Sanfilippo Foundation ($750k), Monthaven Arts & Cultural Center ($508k).
- Does Carolyn Smith Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 17% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Carolyn Smith Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Carolyn Smith Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Memorial Foundation Inc, Hca Healthcare Foundation, The Frist Foundation.
- Where is Carolyn Smith Foundation based?
- Carolyn Smith Foundation is based in TN.
Play a game based on Carolyn Smith’s filings →