How much does John and Gwen Smart Foundation give?

John and Gwen Smart Foundation reported 19 grants totaling $4,055,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 19 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.

What does John and Gwen Smart Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (34%), Health (17%), Environment (14%).

Who are John and Gwen Smart Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Usher III Initiative Inc ($2.6M), New York Women's Foundation Inc ($2.6M), California Rangeland Trust ($971k).

Does John and Gwen Smart Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 23% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does John and Gwen Smart Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as John and Gwen Smart Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The San Francisco Foundation, American Endowment Foundation, Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc.

Where is John and Gwen Smart Foundation based?

John and Gwen Smart Foundation is based in IL.

John and Gwen Smart Foundation

John and Gwen Smart Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

John and Gwen Smart Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$4.1M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$800k

Largest

01What it funds

0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Education$6.5MHealth$3.2MEnvironment$2.7MHuman Services$2.1MFood & Nutrition$971kArts & Culture$685kAnimals$680kRecreation & Sports$470kOther$0

02FY2025 · 19 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

$10k–50k2 grants · $50k
$50k–250k11 grants · $1.1M
$250k+6 grants · $2.9M

$100,000

Median grant

States reached

$39M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
USHER III INITIATIVE INC	$800,000
NEW YORK WOMEN'S FOUNDATION	$600,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY	$500,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY	$400,000
AMERICAN NURSES FOUNDATION	$340,000
ROGOSIN INSTITUTE INC	$260,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY	$150,000
CREATIVITY EXPLORED	$125,000
KQED INC	$110,000
WOMEN IN NEED INC	$100,000
CG JUNG INSTITUTE OF SAN FRANCISCO	$100,000
SANTA BARBARA BIRD SANCTUARY	$100,000
PACIFIC CURRENTS INC	$100,000
EGOSCUE FOUNDATION	$100,000
CORNELL UNIVERSITY	$85,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY19–25, $3.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

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.

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 29% of John and Gwen Smart Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

John and Gwen Smart Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address · 2.4% directed abroad (not shown)

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$14M · 21 repeat orgs$1.1M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +40% since the first grant, against +2% for those funded once.

21 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$14M

$925k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+40%

+2%

Still filing today

71%

50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $220k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

EducationEnvironmentHealthHuman ServicesFood & NutritionAnimalsOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

UI
USHER III INITIATIVE INC
6× · 2020–2025 · $2.6M · revenue +42% · 46% of their budget
CR
CALIFORNIA RANGELAND TRUST
5× · 2019–2023 · $971k · revenue +40%
SB
SANTA BARBARA BOTANIC GARDEN
5× · 2019–2023 · $900k · revenue +213%

Funded once

IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2019 · $200k
TS
THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY TRAIL PROJECTgraduated
one grant, 2020 · $160k · revenue +266%
ST
Save The Baygraduated
one grant, 2019 · $150k · revenue +73%

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.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Conservation Society of California

Through management of oakland zoo, the conservation society of california deepens connection with animals, saves wildlife, and inspires champions for the natural world.

Animals

Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International

Uc Santa Barbara Foundation

The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…

Education

The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International

California Institute of Environmental Studies

The institute is dedicated to scientific research, the results of which are used to promote public awareness and education in the areas of conservation biology and ecology,including the wise use of natural resources.

Animals

Wildlife Conservation Network Inc

Connect conservationists and supporters, deploy resources to the field, provide conservationists with tools and support they need to succeed.

Animals

Ucsf Foundation Investment Company

The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.

Education

New York Botanical Garden

The new york botanical garden is a museum of plants and a scientific research center devoted to the study of plants and their uses. it is the garden's mission to improve public understanding of the natural world, horticulture, and the…

Environment

United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Unlocking the secrets of life itself is the driving force behind the salk institute. our team of world-class, award-winning scientists pushes boundaries of knowledge in areas such as neuroscience, cancer research, aging, immunobiology,…

Science & Tech

Ucla Foundation

The ucla foundation is the giving, receiving, and investing arm of the ucla campus. the foundation enables private donors to help build, sustain and advance one of the world's finest academic and research institutions. private philanthropy…

Education

INaturalist

iNaturalist's mission is to connect people to nature and advance biodiversity science and conservation. Its vision is a world where everyone can understand and sustain biodiversity through the practice of observing wild organisms and…

Environment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is California Rangeland Trust; the most unlike its peers is Egoscue Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

26 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. 26 of the 37 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

26/26

Grantees still filing

17/26

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Education$8,096,895Health$4,261,000Other$3,937,000Human Services$3,154,105Environment$1,440,000Food & Nutrition$971,000Animals$750,000Arts & Culture$425,000

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.

The San Francisco FoundationCA12.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 10 of 10Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The San Francisco Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Network for Good · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization John and Gwen Smart Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from John and Gwen Smart Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

Play a game based on John and Gwen Smart’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home