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· Private foundation
ENCOURAGEMENT FOUNDATION TRUST
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$256k
Granted FY2019
19
Grants
7
Communities
$140k
Largest
01What you fund
0184% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2019.
Community Improvement$265kEducation$217kArts & Culture$114kFood & Nutrition$10kInternational$8kAnimals$5kEnvironment$2kOther$122k
02FY2019 · 19 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k16 grants · $44k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $13k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
$3,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
- METANOIA$140,000
- AMERICAN COLLEGE OF THE BUILDING ARTS$60,000
- COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FUND$12,500
- EAST COOPER MEALS ON WHEELS$5,000
- CHARLESTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA$5,000
- BRIDGE TO RWANDA$4,000
- LOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK$4,000
- CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCIETY$3,464
- RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF CHARLESTON$3,000
- SOUTH CAROLINA AQUARIUM$3,000
- MIDDLETON PLACE FOUNDATION$3,000
- EAST COOPER HABITAT FOR HUMANITY$3,000
- THE CARTER CENTER$2,000
- B A RUDOLPH FOUNDATION$2,000
- MAYO FOUNDATION$2,000
02The need
03
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.
show:
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–19) land where the poverty rate runs at 12% — the area typically sits at 11%. 99% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in 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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your edge
repeat funding
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.
85%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$633k · 18 repeat orgs$110k to everyone else
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +42% since the first grant, against +26% for the ones you funded once.
18 repeat relationships — 17 still active in FY2019, 1 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
18
5
Total granted
$633k
$106k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+42%
+26%
Still filing today
56%
40%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2019, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
Arts & CultureEducationCommunity ImprovementFood & NutritionInternationalAnimalsOther
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
- MMETANOIA3× · 2017–2019 · $265k · revenue +39%
- ACAMERICAN COLLEGE OF THE BUILDING ARTS3× · 2017–2019 · $215k · revenue +54%
- ECEAST COOPER MEALS ON WHEELS3× · 2017–2019 · $10k · revenue +42%
Funded once
- IAINTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUMone grant, 2018 · $100k · revenue -33%
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $2k · revenue +26%- B2BRIDGE 2 RWANDAone grant, 2017 · $2k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
04Your field
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.
1
The Charleston Museum
To educate Charleston area residents and visitors about the natural and cultural history of the South Carolina Lowcountry through collections, exhibitions, preservation, conservation, research and related programming.
Arts & Culture
2
Columbia College
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.
Education
3
Carolina University
A Christ-centered university committed to exceptional teaching, scholarly research, creative innovation, and professional collaboration.
Education
4
Sc Chamber of Commerce
Be the leading voice for business in south carolina.
—
5
University of South Carolina Alumni
Add value to students. engage our alumni. build the brand.
Education
6
South Carolina Council On
Providing actionable research, supporting industry clusters, and furthering education and workforce development.
Community Improvement
7
Charleston Waterkeeper
Charleston waterkeeper's mission it to protect and restore charleston's waterways for our community and future generations. we do that through an effective mix of boots-on-the-water stewardship and data-driven advocacy designed to protect…
Environment
8
The South Carolina Historical Society
The schs mission is to expand, preserve, and make accessible our invaluable collection, and to encourage interest and pride in the rich history of our state.
Arts & Culture
9
Carolina Art Association
The mission of the gibbes museum of art is to enhance lives through art by engaging people of every background and experience with art and artists of enduring quality; collect and preserve the art that touches charleston; and provide…
Arts & Culture
10
Chamber Music Charleston
Chamber Music Charleston is dedicated to developing the audience for classical music through chamber music concerts and educational programs of the highest caliber.
Arts & Culture
11
College of Charleston Alumni Association
The purpose of the association shall be to manifest an interest in, and to promote the welfare of, the college of charleston and its graduate affiliate, the university of charleston, s.c.; hereinafter referred to as the college of…
Education
12
South Carolina Association of Realtors
SC Association of Realtors is a non-profit membership association for SC Realtors that helps to lead, educate, and equip its members to be productive.
—
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lowcountry Land Trust Inc and the most unlike its peers is American College of the Building. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network
13 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
11/13
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Community Improvement$265,000Education$217,000Other$121,964Arts & Culture$114,000Food & Nutrition$10,000International$8,000Animals$5,000Environment$2,000
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 METANOIA ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN COLLEGE OF THE BUILDING ARTS ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds EAST COOPER MEALS ON WHEELS ↗
- Who funds LOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds THE CARTER CENTER ↗
- Who funds EAST COOPER HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds CHARLESTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
- Who funds MIDDLETON PLACE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SOUTH CAROLINA AQUARIUM ↗
- Who funds CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LOWCOUNTRY LAND TRUST ↗
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.
Coastal Community Foundation of SouthSC24.3× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Coastal Community Foundation of South · The Joanna Foundation · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation Inc · Patrick Family Foundation · Vitreus Foundation · The Stony Point Foundation · Central Carolina Community · Community Foundation of New Jersey · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
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 organisation ENCOURAGEMENT FOUNDATION TRUST 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.
2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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. 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.
05Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: METANOIA.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
low risk
~44 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 7 filed years.
Track record & reputation
low risk
7 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 200310400 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on METANOIA, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 44 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 4% of their budget — diversified.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Encouragement Foundation Trust?
Find your warmest path to Encouragement Foundation Trust through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines