· Private foundation
The Sherman Family Charitable Trust
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.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK | $7,500 |
| SYNAGOGUE EMANU-EL | $7,500 |
| THE SHERMAN HOUSE | $7,500 |
| CJF ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND | $7,500 |
| SC AQUARIUM ADVANCEMENT DEPARTMENT | $5,000 |
| TRIDENT LITERARY SOCIETY | $5,000 |
| GREEN WAVE CLUB TULANE | $3,000 |
| GEORGETOWN COUNTY MUSEUM | $2,500 |
| INT'L AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM | $2,500 |
| YASCHIK ARNOLD JEWISH STUDIES COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON | $2,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,500 |
| MEALS ON WHEEL EAST COOPER | $2,500 |
| TULANE UNIVERSITY | $2,500 |
| COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON ATHLETIC FUND | $2,500 |
| ADDLESTONE HEBREW ACADEMY | $1,500 |
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 (FY20–23, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
21 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 12 since wound down; 9 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, 52% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $32k 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
- LFLOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK INC5× · 2018–2024 · $25k · revenue +51%
- COCOLLEGE OF CHARLESTON FOUNDATION7× · 2018–2024 · $23k · revenue +8%
- TLTRIDENT LITERACY ASSOCIATION INC2× · 2018–2021 · $18k · revenue +15%
Funded once
- DWDAVIS WALKER HEART FUNDone grant, 2020 · $20k
- FSFLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES BOOSTERSone grant, 2017 · $15k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $14k
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.
To educate Charleston area residents and visitors about the natural and cultural history of the South Carolina Lowcountry through collections, exhibitions, preservation, conservation, research and related programming.
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…
Charleston Habitat for Humanitys (CHFH) vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live. Seeking to put God's love into action, Charleston Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope. By…
South carolina legal services is a statewide law firm that provides civil legal services to protect the rights and represent the interests of low income south carolinians.
To expand access to legal representation and rights in South Carolina.
Facilitate networking among hospitals
Charleston Literary Festival, Inc. produces a curated, annual program of events with a distinctly international flavor in the historic setting of Charleston, South Carolina. It brings together world class authors and speakers on a variety…
To strengthen families, organizations, and communities to prevent child abuse and neglect.
The Community Foundation's mission is strengthening community by connecting people, resources, and needs.
To facilitate, develop, and advocate for neighborhood revitalization, affordable housing construction, preservation and economic development in Charleston County.
Empowering south carolina communities and children's advocacy centers to deliver a best practice response to child abuse
The charleston area justice ministry (cajm) is committed to justice and building a powerful organization capable of negotiating the interests of our community. having been founded by religious congregations, cajm is based on values of…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chabad of Charleston Inc and the most unlike its peers is Casa Jojo Foundation. 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 27% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 16% 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.
31 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. 31 of the 80 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 INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds LOWCOUNTRY FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TRIDENT LITERACY ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds CHABAD OF CHARLESTON INC ↗
- Who funds JCC HOUSING CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds ADDLESTONE HEBREW ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds TOURO INFIRMARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FORUM FOR EQUALITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND ↗
- Who funds Charleston Jewish Federation Inc ↗
- Who funds COASTAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDRENS SHELTER OF HOPE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Humanities Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds JEWISH CHILDREN'S REGIONAL SERVICE ↗
- Who funds TEACHERS SUPPLY CLOSET ↗
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: Henry & Sylvia Yaschik Foundation Inc · Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina Inc · The Joanna Foundation · Trident United Way · The Leon Levine Foundation · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · The Cohen Family Foundation · Goldring Family Foundation · Oscar and Mona Sokol Foundation · Bill Jennie & Harry Ackerman Foundation Trust · Sol and Celia Cohen Endowment Fund · Jewish Endowment Foundation of South Carolina
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 The Sherman Family Charitable 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.
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How do I get to The Sherman Family Charitable Trust?
Find your warmest path to The Sherman Family Charitable 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.