· Public charity
Palmetto Electric Trust
Charitable fundraising services for worthwhile community activities by rounding up electric bills to an even dollar amount, with disbursement of funds for charitable purposes in the service area of palmetto electric cooperative, inc.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 26 grants below total $493,010 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $518,030 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $25,020 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 · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $22k
- $10k–50k22 grants · $396k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $75k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BLUFFTON-JASPER VOLUNTEERS IN | $75,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $38,775 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS - LOW COUNTRY | $30,000 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS | $25,000 |
| REAL CHAMPIONS INC | $24,500 |
| HELPING HAND CENTER INC | $22,500 |
| BLUFFTON SELF HELP INC | $20,000 |
| LOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK | $20,000 |
| PROGRAMS FOR EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE | $20,000 |
| FRIENDS OF HONEY HILL INC | $18,000 |
| MEMORY MATTERS | $18,000 |
| HISTORIC MITCHELVILLE FREEDOM PARK | $17,703 |
| JASPER COUNCIL ON AGING | $16,000 |
| VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE CLINIC | $15,040 |
| BLUFFTON COMMUNITY SOUP KITCHEN | $15,000 |
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 (FY19–24, $608k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 58% 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.
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 +62% since the first grant, against +35% for the ones you funded once.
26 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $80k 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
- ANAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches6× · 2019–2024 · $138k · revenue +39%
- TVTHE VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE CLINIC3× · 2020–2024 · $117k · revenue +52%
- JCJASPER COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING INC6× · 2019–2024 · $114k · revenue +87%
Funded once
- TCTECHNICAL COLLEGE OF THE LOWCOUNTRY FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue -19%
- UMUNITED MINISTRIES OF HAMPTON COUNTYone grant, 2020 · $34k
- OGOTHER GOVERNMENT ENTITY ASSISTANCEone grant, 2019 · $32k
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.
Provide community healthcare services to the citizens in the low country of south carolina.
To provide emergency assistance to low income individuals and families in the lowcountry of south carolina.
Lowcountry Veterans Home provides transitional housing and individualized support for homeless veterans, working to restore stability, dignity, and independence. Through case management, peer support, transportation, and strong community…
Food for Little Rascals Inc (FFLR) is operated exclusively to improve the health, welfare, and care of children in the State of South Carolina.
We strive to serve the community by constructing and rehabilitating homes for affordable homeownership, providing new housing rentals for low to moderate wealth families in south carolina, and providing services that aid in all aspects of…
Habitat for Humanity of Berkeley County (HFHBC) is a community-level Habitat for Humanity organization that acts in partnership with and on behalf of Habitat for Humanity International. HFHBC seeks to put Gods love into action by brings…
To provide low-cost housing for those in need in Brunswick County, North Carolina.
Harvest hope is on a mission to eliminate hunger and food insecurity in south carolina. we rescue nutritious food from stores throughout the state and distribute it to food pantries, shelters, and soup kitchens. we operate programs that…
To provide affordable housing for low-income families in darlington county, sc
Prepare and serve congregate and home delivered meals to persons 60 years of age and older as well as disabled persons. Provide social activities for senior citizens.
Lowcountry center for veterans research's (lcvr) mission is to advance discovery and innovation through research initiatives dedicated to improving the overall health and well-being of veterans living in the lowcountry.
To provide one week dream vacations for families with terminally ill children on hilton head isalnd, sc
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of the Lowcountry and the most unlike its peers is Helping Hand Center Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 34 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 26% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 15% 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.
45 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 45 of the 50 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
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 American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds THE VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE CLINIC ↗
- Who funds JASPER COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING INC ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS BLUFFTON/HILTON HEAD ↗
- Who funds BLUFFTON SELF HELP INC ↗
- Who funds PROGRAMS FOR EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE ↗
- Who funds HELPING HAND CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds LOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds COASTAL CAROLINA COUNCIL BSA ↗
- Who funds THE CHILDREN'S CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds COASTAL DISCOVERY MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds REAL CHAMPIONS INC ↗
- Who funds TECHNICAL COLLEGE OF THE LOWCOUNTRY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE LOWCOUNTRY INC ↗
- Who funds SANDALWOOD COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY ↗
- Who funds STAYING CONNECTED ↗
- Who funds PREGNANCY CENTER AND CLINIC OF THE LOW COUNTRY INC ↗
- Who funds ROYAL LIVE OAKS ACADEMY - RIDGELAND ↗
- Who funds Bluffton Community Soup Kitchen ↗
- Who funds HILTON HEAD ISLAND DEEP WELL PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds BEAUFORT-JASPER EOC INC ↗
- Who funds MEMORY MATTERS ↗
- Who funds OPERATION PATRIOTS FOB INC ↗
- Who funds AMERCIAN LEGION ↗
- Who funds LOWCOUNTRY AUTISM FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Neighborhood Outreach Connection ↗
- Who funds RESOURCE FOUNDATION FOR JASPER COUNTY ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF HONEY HILL ↗
- Who funds HISTORIC MITCHELVILLE FREEDOM PARK INC ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds Agape Family Life Center Inc ↗
- Who funds BLUFFTON-JASPER COUNTY VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE INC ↗
- Who funds HILTON HEAD REGIONAL HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INC ↗
- Who funds BURN FOUNDATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds HILTON HEAD ISLAND FOUNDATION TO SUPPORT YOUTH SPORTS INC ↗
- Who funds Bluffton Gullah Cultural Heritage Center ↗
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: Community Foundation of the Lowcountry · Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina Inc · Heritage Classic Foundation · The Church Mouse Thrift Shop Inc · Wexford Foundation · The Bargain Box · The Berkeley Hall Charitable Foundation · United Way of the Lowcountry · The Watterson Family Foundation · Hilton Head Firefighters Association Inc · Central Carolina Community Foundation · Dominion Energy Charitable 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 organization Palmetto Electric 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Palmetto Electric Trust?
Find your warmest path to Palmetto Electric Trust through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.