· Community foundation
Community Foundation of the Lowcountry
The Community Foundation's mission is strengthening community by connecting people, resources, and needs.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 193 grants below total $9,408,513 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $11,598,835 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $2,190,322 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k59 grants · $359k
- $10k–50k93 grants · $2.0M
- $50k–250k36 grants · $4.3M
- $250k+5 grants · $2.8M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| University of South Carolina Beaufort Education Foundation | $1,234,463 |
| Northwestern University | $505,000 |
| Volunteers in Medicine Hilton Head Island | $379,558 |
| The Hilton Head Island Deep Well Project | $354,423 |
| Coastal Community Development Corporation | $312,500 |
| Bluffton Self Help | $213,554 |
| Heritage Classic Foundation | $188,764 |
| The Children's Center Inc | $187,103 |
| Lowcountry Legal Volunteers | $174,600 |
| Hopeful Horizons | $171,766 |
| Programs for Exceptional People Inc | $171,300 |
| Boys and Girls Club of the Lowcountry - Hilton Head Island | $165,082 |
| Beaufort Memorial Hospital Endowment Foundation | $162,000 |
| Michigan State University | $160,000 |
| Gullah Traveling Theater Inc | $150,425 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $3.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% of those 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +44% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
209 repeat relationships — 127 still active in FY2025, 82 since wound down; 55 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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 FY2025, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.2M 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
- TVTHE VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE CLINIC9× · 2017–2025 · $2.1M · revenue +102%
- UOUNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA BEAUFORT EDUCATION FOUNDATION2× · 2024–2025 · $1.4M · revenue +347% · 33% of their budget
- HHHILTON HEAD ISLAND DEEP WELL PROJECT INC9× · 2017–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +8%
Funded once
- JHJILLS HOUSE INCone grant, 2022 · $250k
- ILINTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP INSTITUTEone grant, 2021 · $100k · revenue -5%
WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INCgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $78k · revenue +36%
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.
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
Founded in 1902, barton college is a four-year, private, liberal arts college located in wilson, n.c. the barton experience focuses on academic excellence within a wide range of professional and liberal arts programs leading to…
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.
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.
The mission of the University is to inspire independent thinkers who become trustworthy, effective leaders that shape caring communities. The vision of the University of Lynchburg is to cultivate a world that is innovative, authentic, and…
The southern association of colleges and schools commission on colleges is the regional body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the southern states. the commission's mission is the enhancement of…
At unc health foundation, we inspire philanthropic support for unc health and unc school of medicine that transforms healthcare and provides hope to the people of north carolina and communities around the world.
Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.
Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.
Mid-atlantic christian university is an undergraduate institution of christian higher learning whose mission is to impact the world by transforming ordinary people into extraordinary christian leaders. students are taught to think…
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of the Lowcountry and the most unlike its peers is Lauras Little Critter Barn. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 32 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.7% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
307 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 307 of the 413 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE CLINIC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE LOWCOUNTRY INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA BEAUFORT EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HILTON HEAD ISLAND DEEP WELL PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds LANDMARK COLLEGE INC ↗
- Who funds University of Maine Foundation ↗
- Who funds SAVANNAH COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds BLUFFTON-JASPER COUNTY VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE INC ↗
- Who funds ARTS CENTER OF COASTAL CAROLINA ↗
- Who funds BLUFFTON SELF HELP INC ↗
- Who funds THE CHILDREN'S CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds COASTAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds MIRASOL HEALTH INC ↗
- Who funds SECOND HELPINGS ↗
- Who funds Community Foundation of the Lowcountry ↗
- Who funds HOPEFUL HORIZONS ↗
- Who funds MEMORY MATTERS ↗
- Who funds PROGRAMS FOR EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE ↗
- Who funds AVON OLD FARMS SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds Neighborhood Outreach Connection ↗
- Who funds LOWCOUNTRY LEGAL VOLUNTEERS ↗
- Who funds HILTON HEAD REGIONAL HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INC ↗
- Who funds BACKPACK BUDDIES OF GREATER BLUFFTON AND HARDEEVILLE ↗
- Who funds PORT ROYAL SOUND FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HERITAGE CLASSIC FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS BLUFFTON/HILTON HEAD ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds OSPREY VILLAGE INC ↗
- Who funds Bluffton Community Soup Kitchen ↗
- Who funds SANDALWOOD COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY ↗
- Who funds COASTAL DISCOVERY MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds HILTON HEAD ISLAND RECREATION ↗
- Who funds HILTON HEAD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds BEAUFORT MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION ↗
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: Heritage Classic Foundation · Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina Inc · The Bargain Box · Wexford Foundation · Palmetto Electric Trust · The Church Mouse Thrift Shop Inc · United Way of the Lowcountry · The Berkeley Hall Charitable Foundation · The Watterson Family Foundation · Central Carolina Community Foundation · Hilton Head Firefighters Association Inc · Rotary Club of Hilton Head Island-Sunset
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 Community Foundation of the Lowcountry 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.
- Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc — 7% of income from government
- Community Foundation for MetroWest Inc — 4% of income from government
- Jacksonville University — 3% of income from government
- Landmark College Inc — 1% of income from government
- Yale New Haven Hospital — 0% of income from government
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.