· Private foundation
Ruby and Ernest McSwain Worthy Lands
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k4 grants · $20k
- $10k–50k18 grants · $352k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $335k
- $250k+1 grant · $250k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CITY OF SANFORD | $250,000 |
| OUTREACH MISSION | $110,000 |
| FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN NC | $75,000 |
| NCSU - NC VETERINARY MEDICAL FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| LEE COUNTY EDUCATION FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| TEMPLE THEATRE | $50,000 |
| SALVATION ARMY | $35,000 |
| SANFORD BRUSH & PALETTE CLUB | $32,000 |
| BREAD OF LIFE MINISTRY OF SANFORD | $25,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF CENTRAL CAROLINA | $25,000 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS | $25,000 |
| INGRAM FAMILY YMCA | $25,000 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS | $20,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $20,000 |
| FOSTER PARENT ASSOCIATION | $20,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of your 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.
36 repeat relationships — 23 still active in FY2024, 13 since wound down; 5 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, 66% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $330k 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
- TNTHE NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL FOUNDATION INC5× · 2018–2022 · $1.5M · revenue +36%
- NCNORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC5× · 2018–2022 · $1.2M · revenue +265%
- NSNC STATE NATURAL RESOURCES FOUNDATION INC4× · 2018–2021 · $500k · revenue +34%
Funded once
- GRGOLDSTON RURAL FIRE DEPARTMENTgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $250k · revenue +45% · 83% of their budget
- RVROBBINS VILLAGE THEATERone grant, 2017 · $50k
- NMNC MUSEUM OF ARTone grant, 2021 · $50k
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 financial support for all types of education and research within the college of sciences at north carolina state university.
To aid and promote, by financial assistance and otherwise, educational, research, and extension in the college of engineering at north carolina state university
The nc state alumni association engages alumni and friends through programs and services that foster pride and enhance a lifelong connection to nc state university ("nc state").
The mission of the north carolina central university foundation, inc., is to foster and promote the growth of higher education in north carolina and specifically north carolina central university by whatever name it may be designated, and…
To advance wilson college of textiles through engagement, partnership and philanthropy. as a charitable organization, the foundation supports the college and dean of the college and such support shall include but is not limited to…
Programs of credit unions which offer a wide variety of personal financial services exclusively to their members.
Inspiring philanthropy and strengthening our region through innovative community initiatives and quality services to donors and constituents.
The north carolina biotechnology center aids the biotechnology-related efforts of researchers, businesses, state and federal governments, and other agencies primarily through awards of grants and loans related to specific programs and…
The mission of hospice & community care is to give hope, comfort, and compassion to those that need it most. hospice & community care is a nonprofit healthcare organization providing hospice and palliative care to residents of york,…
To be north carolina's state orchestra, an orchestra achieving the highest level of artistic quality and performance standards, and embracing its dual legacies of statewide service and music education.
Our mission is to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for all north carolinians. we do this by collaborating with state, regional, local, and private-sector partners in new business recruitment, existing employer support,…
To support, represent and advocate for north carolina independent higher education.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is North Carolina State University Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Hollys Nest. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
23 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. 23 of the 46 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 THE NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MEREDITH COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds NC STATE NATURAL RESOURCES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CENTRAL CAROLINA ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL & EASTERN NC INC ↗
- Who funds LEE COUNTY EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TEMPLE THEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds GOLDSTON RURAL FIRE DEPARTMENT ↗
- Who funds OUTREACH MISSION INC ↗
- Who funds CHRISTIANS UNITED OUTREACH CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE ENRICHMENT CENTER OF LEE COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds HELPING HANDS CLINIC INC ↗
- Who funds SANFORD BRUSH AND PALETTE CLUB INC ↗
- Who funds UNC HEALTH FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HOLLYS NEST ↗
- Who funds FAMILY PROMISE OF LEE COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES ↗
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: The Perkins Foundation Inc · Duke Energy Foundation · United Way of Lee County Inc · North Carolina Community Foundation · Espere Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
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 Ruby and Ernest McSwain Worthy Lands 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.