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· Private foundation
JOHN G & PHYLLIS W SMALE FAMILY FOUNDATION
This foundation accepts unsolicited grant applications.
$87k
Granted FY2024
7
Grants
2
Communities
$55k
Largest
01What you fund
0195% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2020–2024.
Recreation & Sports$222kEnvironment$35kEducation$27kReligion$25kCommunity Improvement$22kArts & Culture$20kHuman Services$8kOther$20k
02FY2024 · 7 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k4 grants · $12k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $20k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $55k
$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
- CINCINNATI PARKS FOUNDATION$55,000
- MILL CREEK ALLIANCE$10,000
- LOVE GROWS PROGRAM INC$10,000
- EVERY CHILD SUCCEEDS$5,000
- CINCINNATI CENTER CITY DEVELOPMENT$5,000
- DUKE UNIVERSITY$1,000
- KENYON COLLEGE$500
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:
Your human-services grants (FY22–24, $8k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16% — the area typically sits at 12%. 100% of those 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.
88%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$335k · 9 repeat orgs$44k to everyone else
9 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 2 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
9
3
Total granted
$335k
$44k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+11%
+69%
Still filing today
100%
67%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
EducationRecreation & SportsEnvironmentReligionCommunity ImprovementArts & CultureOther
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
- CPCINCINNATI PARKS FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $222k · revenue +10%
- MCMILL CREEK ALLIANCE3× · 2020–2024 · $35k · revenue +133%
- CCCINCINNATI CENTER CITY DEVELOPMENT CORP4× · 2021–2024 · $22k · revenue +9%
Funded once
- MHMUSIC HALL REVITALIZATION COMPANY INCone grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue -100%
- CMCINCINNATI MUSIC HALLone grant, 2020 · $20k
SPRINGER SCHOOL & CENTERgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $4k · revenue +69%
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 City School
The mission of The City School is to train students' minds, disciple their hearts and bring light to the city, one child at a time.
—
2
Central Indiana Corporate
The central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is transforming our regional economy, bringing together the ceos of central indiana's largest and most civically engaged employers and university presidents to advance "big picture"…
Community Improvement
3
The Peak School
The peak school seeks to ignite a passion for learning, to develop students of diverse talents and backgrounds who think critically and act with integrity, and to graduate compassionate, confident, capable students who will embrace their…
Education
4
Cincinnati Country Day School
Creating leaders who, through the discovery of their own abilities, kindle the potential in others and better a dynamic world.
Education
5
The Cambridge School
Operate a classical school from pre-K through 12th grade education.
Education
6
The Collegiate School
See schedule o to create a diverse and inclusive community of learners committed to a challenging and supportive educational experience that will foster the intellectual, moral, emotional, and physical development of each student.
Education
7
Cleveland State University
The CSUF is organized primarily to engage in activities to provide support and services to CSU.
Education
8
Cleveland University - Kansas City
To provide a strong, student-centered professional education with a focus in the areas of life sciences and health promotion through education, scholarship, and service.
Health
9
Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts
With funding, services, and advocacy, ArtsWave fuels a more vibrant economy and connected community through the arts.
Arts & Culture
10
Cincinnati Waldorf School
The Cincinnati Waldorf School educates the unfolding capacities of children by engaging the creative imagination of the mind, the spirit of the heart, and the skillful use of the hands. The community actively participates in creating an…
—
11
Cleveland Institute of Music
To empower the world's most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams&potential.
Education
12
The Hill School
Secondary boarding/day educational institution
Education
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Springer School and Center and the most unlike its peers is The Seven Hills School. 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
11 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
8/11
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Recreation & Sports$221,876Environment$35,000Education$26,870Religion$25,330Community Improvement$22,128Arts & Culture$20,000Other$20,000Human Services$8,000
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 CINCINNATI PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MILL CREEK ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds CISE ↗
- Who funds CINCINNATI CENTER CITY DEVELOPMENT CORP ↗
- Who funds MUSIC HALL REVITALIZATION COMPANY INC ↗
- Who funds LOVE GROWS PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds EVERY CHILD SUCCEEDS ↗
- Who funds THE SEVEN HILLS SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds SPRINGER SCHOOL & CENTER ↗
- Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds KENYON COLLEGE ↗
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.
The Greater Cincinnati FoundationOH19.5× affinity7 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: The Greater Cincinnati Foundation · Louise Taft Semple Foundation · Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile Jr · Williams Foundation · Johnson Charitable Gift Fund · Fidelity Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
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 JOHN G & PHYLLIS W SMALE FAMILY FOUNDATION 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.
2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
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: MUSIC HALL REVITALIZATION COMPANY INC.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
insufficient risk
Limited financial data in public filings.
Track record & reputation
low risk
7 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 273055959 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 MUSIC HALL REVITALIZATION COMPANY INC, 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
- Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
- WatchSustained operations— Filing through 2023; revenue contracted over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 21% 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 John G & Phyllis W Smale Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to John G & Phyllis W Smale Family Foundation 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