· Private foundation
John M Rivers Jr Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k32 grants · $84k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Charleston Parks Conservancy | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| Confederate Home and College | $5,000 |
| Historic Charleston Foundation | $5,000 |
| Camden Military Academy | $5,000 |
| Charleston Library Society | $5,000 |
| Preservation Society of Charleston | $5,000 |
| Church of the Good Shepherd | $5,000 |
| Charleston Symphony Orchestra | $5,000 |
| BYN Mellon Charitable Gift Fund - | $5,000 |
| First Tee of Greater Charleston | $5,000 |
| Charleston Museum | $5,000 |
| Drayton Hall Foundation | $2,750 |
| Middleton Place Foundation | $2,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY23–24, $6k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 5% of John M Rivers Jr Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 87% of the giving stays in SC; by stated purpose, 80%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +29% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.
40 repeat relationships: 22 still active in FY2025, 18 since wound down; 10 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, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $24k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CACAROLINA ART ASSOCIATION DBA GIBBES MUSEUM OF ART5× · 2020–2024 · $60k · revenue +108%
- SFSPOLETO FESTIVAL USA INC5× · 2020–2024 · $50k · revenue +102%
- CMCAMDEN MILITARY ACADEMY6× · 2020–2025 · $42k · revenue +5%
Funded once
- CCCHATTOOGA CLUB EMPLOYEE SCHOLARSHIPone grant, 2021 · $10k
- COCOLLEGE OF CHAS TENNIS FACILITYone grant, 2022 · $10k
- UBUNC BUSINESS SCHOOLone grant, 2024 · $5k
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.
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.
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.
Charleston stage's vision is to be a leading professional theater company, engaging the broad community through high quality productions, with leading artists, and excellent production values. the organization provides the community access…
(See Schedule O)
Charleston Collegiate Schools mission is to inspire students to become passionate, lifelong learners by empowering them with knowledge, creativity, curiosity and confidence to mindfully embrace the opportunities of tomorrow.
Chamber Music Charleston is dedicated to developing the audience for classical music through chamber music concerts and educational programs of the highest caliber.
Brookgreen gardens was formed in 1931 to collect, preserve and exhibit american sculpture, and the flora and fauna native to south carolina.
To protect and preserve buildings of architectural and historial significance in South Carolina.
The mission of the charleston school of law foundation inc is to encourage and assist the study, teaching, promoting and research of the rule of law in charleston, south carolina and all related subject areas as determined by the board of…
The Mission of the College of Charleston Foundation is to promote programs of education, research, student development, and faculty development for the exclusive benefit of the College of Charleston.
The Charleston Academy of Music is committed to providing access to exceptional music education, performance and community outreach to all, regardless of age, skill, gender, ethnicity or income.
How this is measured
31 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 31 of the 73 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds CAROLINA ART ASSOCIATION DBA GIBBES MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA INC ↗
- Who funds TRIDENT UNITED WAY ↗
- Who funds CAMDEN MILITARY ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds The Charleston Parks Conservancy ↗
- Who funds The Preservation Society of Charleston Inc ↗
- Who funds HISTORIC CHARLESTON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VISION TO LEARN ↗
- Who funds BNY MELLON CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds Charleston Library Society ↗
- Who funds The Charleston Promise Neighborhood ↗
- Who funds CHARLESTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
- Who funds Middleton Place Foundation ↗
- Who funds FIRST TEE GREATER CHARLESTON ↗
- Who funds Colour of Music ↗
- Who funds Boys & Girls Club of The Plateau Inc ↗
- Who funds CONFEDERATE HOME AND COLLEGE ↗
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: Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina Inc · Post and Courier Foundation · Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation Inc · Guffey Family Foundation · The Joanna Foundation · John Winthrop Charitable Trust · Patrick Family Foundation · Pathfinder Foundation Inc · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · Richard and Susan Leadem Family · Atlantic Services of Charleston Cha · Roy and Amanda Maybank Charitable Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization John M Rivers Jr Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from John M Rivers Jr Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Shelburne Museum Inc: 9% of income from government
- Choate Rosemary Hall Foundation Incorporated: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
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