· Private foundation
The Lester and Roberta Smith 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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $11k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $95k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SOUTHERN ARIZONA AIDS FOUNDATION | $30,000 |
| AZ CYBER INITIATIVE | $25,000 |
| YOUTH ON THEIR OWN | $20,000 |
| TUCSON BADGER YOUTH WRESTLING CLUB | $10,000 |
| KXCI TUCSON COMMUNITY RADIO | $10,000 |
| BOOKS FOR CLASSROOMS | $6,000 |
| ANGEL HEART PAJAMA PROJECT | $5,000 |
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 (FY19–25, $70k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
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 +80% since the first grant, against +53% for those funded once.
12 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 4 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, 57% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $46k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- LCLITERACY CONNECTS4× · 2017–2023 · $100k · revenue +71%
Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation3× · 2020–2025 · $90k · revenue +80%- YOYOUTH ON THEIR OWN3× · 2022–2025 · $55k · revenue +56%
Funded once
- GVGREATER VAIL COMMUNITY RESOURCESgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $34k · revenue +254%
- HGHIGHER GROUND A RESOURCE CENTER 27-3585869one grant, 2021 · $23k
- GMGAP MINISTRIES FOR FOOD PACKAGING SYSTEMone grant, 2024 · $22k
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.
Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona works toward ensuring that all people have the opportunity to reach their potential and contribute to our community. Through quality, evidence-based, workforce development programs; Goodwill…
Arizona youth partnership, (azyp), empowers youth to harness their strengths to live healthy and purposeful lives.
To elevate the teaching profession in southern arizona by empowering and celebrating prek-12 teacher excellence through community engagement and investment.
Bringing arizonans together to create a stronger and brighter future for our state.
The mission of the chidrens advocacy center of southern arizona is to provide a safe, compassionate, healing environment for children who have been a victim or witnessed a crime. vision: provide each child with the safety they need to tell…
The arizona center for afterschool excellence is dedicated to the enhancement of child and youth development and educational achievement through quality afterschool programming.
Codac provides tools, support and services to individuals, families, and communities so they may live with dignity, free from the harmful effects of mental illness, substance use disorders and trauma.
Ymca of southern arizona is dedicated to improving the quality of human life and helping all people realize their fullest potential through the development of spirit, mind and body. we are a powerful association of men, women and children,…
Genesis city's mission is to effect positive change in our community by empowering disadvantaged youth to acquire the education and work skills they need to become lifelong learners and productive members of their community in this and…
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 35 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 LITERACY CONNECTS ↗
- Who funds Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation ↗
- Who funds YOUTH ON THEIR OWN ↗
- Who funds Southern AZ Research Science & Eng FDN ↗
- Who funds GREATER VAIL COMMUNITY RESOURCES ↗
- Who funds AZ CYBER INITIATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUTS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA ↗
- Who funds EPIDAURUS DBA AMITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TUCSON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC DBA CHILDREN'S MUSEUM TUCSON ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF TUCSON INC ↗
- Who funds TUCSON YOUTH MUSIC CENTER ↗
- Who funds Step Up To Justice ↗
- Who funds INTERMOUNTAIN CENTERS FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INC ↗
- Who funds Therapeutic Riding of Tucson Inc ↗
- Who funds Books for Classrooms ↗
- Who funds IMAGO DEI MIDDLE SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds ANGEL HEART PAJAMA PROJECT ↗
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: Community Foundation for Southern Arizona · The Hs Lopez Family Foundation · Connie Hillman Family Foundation · Fred & Christine Armstrong Foundation · Angel Charity for Children Inc · Marshall Foundation · The Womens Foundation for the State of Arizona · The Stocker Foundation · Arizona Community Foundation · Southwest Foundation for Education & Historical Preservation · United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona Inc · Nicholas W Genematas II Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Lester and Roberta Smith Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lester and Roberta Smith Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Lester and Roberta Smith Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Lester and Roberta Smith Foundation 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.
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