· Private foundation
The Sycamore Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 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 FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $31k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $25k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ROOF ABOVE | $15,000 |
| FAMILIES FORWARD | $10,000 |
| FORWARD PASS FOUNDATION | $8,500 |
| CHARLOTTE CENTER FOR LITERARY ARTS INC | $7,500 |
| CHARLOTTE GIRL GARAGE | $5,000 |
| CENTER FOR COMMUNITY TRANSITIONS | $5,000 |
| PATS PLACE CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER | $5,000 |
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 (FY18–18, $8k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% 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 +46% since the first grant, against +44% for the ones you funded once.
8 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 1 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, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k 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
- CCCHARLOTTE CENTER FOR LITERARY ARTS INC7× · 2017–2025 · $44k · revenue +118%
- FFFamilies Forward Charlotte Inc4× · 2022–2025 · $40k · revenue +63%
ROOF ABOVE INC3× · 2023–2025 · $38k · revenue +45%
Funded once
- CRCOVID-19 RESPONSE FUND VIA FFTCone grant, 2020 · $15k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2022 · $12k
- PPROJECT13THREEgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +42%
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.
Carolina Teen Center is a prevention and education year-round after-school and summer program that services youth and their families. Literacy programs, tutoring, life skills, mentoring, positive peer groups, conflict resolution skills,…
The mission of Rebuilding Together of Greater Charlotte is repairing homes, revitalizing communities, rebuilding lives.We mobilize community volunteers and contractors to provide repairs that make homes safer and healthier for…
The Abuse Prevention Council provides emergency, advocacy, counseling, education and specialized services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and homeless individuals and families.
To provide a continuum of professional services to promote healthier lives, stronger families, and safer communities.
To provide relevant information and program services to the Juvenile, District and Superior Court of Wake County, North Carolina.
To advocate for and equip african americans and all underserved communities with the tools to achieve social and economic equality.
Re-entry Program in Durham NC
Charlotte Is Creative develops programs and initiatives designed to break the Charlotte mold and remake it with creativity into a city that draws people in, excites them, and inspires them to invest their financial, social and creative…
Heal Charlotte is a community based organization that provides youth development programming (in-school, after school, and summer camps), adult training workshops (financial literacy, job training), rental assistance and eviction…
To promote health and resilience through progressive approaches that integrate evidence-based substance use prevention programming, harm reduction, and multifaceted systems of care.
NC CIVIL is a nonprofit community impact organization that develops grassroots approaches to structural disparities. Our mission is to increase resident involvement, improve organization of resources, and help institutions partner…
The mission of Communities In Schools is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is A Child's Place of Charlotte Inc and the most unlike its peers is International Rescue Committee Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
17 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. 17 of the 29 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 CHARLOTTE CENTER FOR LITERARY ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds Families Forward Charlotte Inc ↗
- Who funds ROOF ABOVE INC ↗
- Who funds The Center for Community Transitions ↗
- Who funds Pats Place Child Advocacy Center ↗
- Who funds PROJECT13THREE ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION CENTER ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF GREATER CHARLOTTE INC ↗
- Who funds RACE MATTERS FOR JUVENILE JUSTICE ↗
- Who funds International Rescue Committee INC ↗
- Who funds Ascend Nonprofit Solutions ↗
- Who funds Changed Choices Inc ↗
- Who funds BRIDGES OF PEACE INTERNATIONAL INC ↗
- Who funds CLINCH VALLEY COMMUNITY ACTION INC ↗
- Who funds A CHILD'S PLACE OF CHARLOTTE INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY RADIO FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds TEEN VENTURE ↗
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: United Way of Greater Charlotte Inc · Foundation for the Carolinas · Duke Energy Foundation · Albemarle Foundation · The Marc & Mattye Silverman Family Foundation · Merancas Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc
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 Sycamore Foundation Inc 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 The Sycamore Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Sycamore Foundation Inc 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.