Which funders back the same organizations as South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Save The Children Federation Inc, United Way of the Midlands, Children's Trust of South Carolina.

South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees

South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees

Q: What does South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Human Services (51%), Education (48%), Community Improvement (0%).

Q: Who are South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Greenville County First Steps to School Readiness Partnership ($10M), Richland County First Steps to School Readiness Partnership ($9.0M), Charleston County First Steps to School Readiness Partnership ($7.6M).

Q: Does South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 0% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Per south carolina code section 59-152-30: "the goals for south carolina first steps to school readiness are to: (1) provide parents with access to the support they might seek and want to strengthen their families and to promote the optimal development of their preschool children; (2) increase comprehensive services so children have…

$56M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$32M

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Human Services$168MEducation$158MCommunity Improvement$206k

02FY2025 · 47 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

$50k–250k7 grants · $1.6M
$250k+40 grants · $54M

$396,153

Median grant

States reached

$35M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
PRIVATE 4K CHILD CARE CENTERS	$32,397,609
GREENVILLE COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTN	$1,346,772
RICHLAND COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNER	$1,230,998
YORK COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNERSHIP	$1,184,739
LEXINGTON COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNE	$1,178,033
SPARTANBURG COUNTY FIRST STEPS PART	$1,141,787
BERKELEY COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNER	$979,024
CHARLESTON COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTN	$977,422
HORRY COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNERSHI	$779,881
FLORENCE COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNER	$646,647
BEAUFORT COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNER	$631,551
ANDERSON COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNER	$630,825
LEE COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNERSHIP	$609,150
WILLIAMSBURG COUNTY FIRST STEPS PAR	$606,782
DILLON COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNERSH	$575,635

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 72% of its 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.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$326M · 48 repeat orgs$206k to everyone else

48 repeat relationships: 47 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$326M

$206k

Still filing today

96%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

GC
GREENVILLE COUNTY FIRST STEPS TO SCHOOL READINESS PARTNERSHIP
9× · 2017–2025 · $10M · revenue +39% · 87% of their budget
RC
RICHLAND COUNTY FIRST STEPS TO SCHOOL READINESS PARTNERSHIP
9× · 2017–2025 · $9.0M · revenue +100% · 42% of their budget
LC
LEXINGTON COUNTY FIRST STEPS TO SCHOOL READINESS PARTNERSHIP
9× · 2017–2025 · $7.6M · revenue +65% · 97% of their budget

Funded once

NC
NEWBERRY COUNTY FIRST STEPS PARTNERSHIP
one grant, 2017 · $206k

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.

South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees

Education

Partnership for Children of Cumberland County Inc

The partnership's mission is to be the driving force to engage partners to achieve lasting positive outcomes for all children, beginning at birth.

Education

Onslow County Partnership for Children

When they have challenges, we connect all children and their families to programs and resources that provide opportunities and hope.

Education

Smart Start of Forsyth County

To promote equitable access to quality, comprehensive early childhood development and education in response to the needs of our community.

Education

Durham's Partnership for Children

To ensure every child in durham enters school ready to succeed, we lead community strategies for children birth to 5, and their families that promote healthy development and learning and echance access to high quality care.

Education

North Carolina Partnership for Children Inc

The north carolina partnership for children (ncpc) is the lead organization and backbone of the smart start network, setting statewide vision, policy, and funding priorities. while local partnerships translate the statewide vision into…

Education

The First Step

—

Early Years Inc

Early years leads efforts to strengthen accessible and affordable quality early care and education by providing support for families, communities and the workforce. early years 's primary purpose is to provide services, research and…

—

Southwest Human Development Incorporated

Southwest human development strengthens the foundation arizona's children need for a great start in life.

—

Children & Family Resource Center of Henderson County Inc

To nurture the development of children by building a strong foundation of family and community.

—

Franklin Granville Vance Smart Start Inc

Our mission is to advance and advocate for a high quality, comprehensive, accountable system of care and education for children 0-5, which builds a foundation leading to a productive and successful life. our goal is to prepare our children…

Human Services

Caldwell County Smart Start a Partnership for Young Children

Helping caldwell county children arrive at school healthy and prepared for success.

Human Services

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Abbeville County First Steps to School Readiness Partnership; the most unlike its peers is Laurens County First Steps to School Readiness Partnership. 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

46 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. 46 of the 49 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)

46/46

Grantees still filing

43/46

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$188,454,087Education$138,019,419

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.

Save The Children Federation IncCT23.7× affinity10 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Save The Children Federation Inc · United Way of the Midlands · Children's Trust of South Carolina · Central Carolina Community Foundation · Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina Inc

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 South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees. Bigger dots raise more.

2025

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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 South Carolina First Steps to School Readiness Board of Trustees’ 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