Skip to content

North Carolina · Private foundation

Tri-County Telephone Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$57k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
11
Grants FY2025
15
Organizations funded FY2024
53%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$2,500
Largest grant, FY2025
$14,189
Organizations funded a year
9 to 48
FY2017 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$893k
Applications
Takes unsolicited applications
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 53% of the organizations Tri-County Telephone Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 40% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $28k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’18’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesArts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationHealthPublic Safety & DisasterOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving11$57k36%
FY202415$69k53%
FY202317$39k35%
FY20229$34k33%
FY202119$55k37%
FY202023$52k43%
FY201848$72k92%
FY201714$56kn/a
80% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$152kHealth$51kCommunity Improvement$25kRecreation & Sports$24kFood & Nutrition$24kHousing & Shelter$23kArts & Culture$21kPhilanthropy$11kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 27 grantees
All grantees of Tri-County Telephone Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Coastal Pregnancy Center$40,180410%
Pungo Christian Academy$35,33761%
Wilkinson Community Event Center$24,65643%
Open Door Community Center$23,30057%
Bath High School Preservation Inc$10,00024%
Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce$6,89041%
The Historic Bath Foundation Inc$6,600110%
Eagles Wings Christian Love in Action$6,00011%
Ruths House$4,10020%
Beaufort Hyde Partnership for Children$3,00020%
Beaufort County-Pantego Community Center$3,0001n/a
Beaufort County Community College Foundation Inc$2,95020%
Safe Harbor Helpline$2,5001n/a
Marion L Shepard Cancer Center Foundation Inc$2,00021%
Old Ford Volunteer Fire Department$2,00011%
East Carolina Council Bsa$1,50030%
Hyde County Hotline Inc$1,00020%
Belhaven-Pantego Rotary Club Foundation$9202n/a
Mattamuskeet Foundation Inc$5001n/a
Belhaven Community Chamber Commerce Inc$5001n/a
Bath Recreation Department$3501n/a
American Cancer Society Inc$25010%
Dementia Alliance of North Carolina Inc$2501n/a
Beaufort County Schools$2501n/a
Harvest Church$1441n/a
The United Methodist Retirement Homes Foundation Inc$7510%
Kiwanis Club of Washington$251n/a

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 69 recipients with no EIN on record ($254k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Tri-County Telephone Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCoastal Pregnancy Center: $40,180 over 4y, 10% of budgetPungo Christian Academy: $35,337 over 6y, 0.8% of budgetWilkinson Community Event Center: $24,656 over 4y, 2.8% of budgetOpen Door Community Center: $23,300 over 5y, 6.6% of budgetBath High School Preservation Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetWashington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce: $6,890 over 4y, 1.0% of budgetThe Historic Bath Foundation Inc: $6,600 over 1y, 9.7% of budgetEagles Wings Christian Love in Action: $6,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetRuths House: $4,100 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetBeaufort Hyde Partnership for Children: $3,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetBeaufort County Community College Foundation Inc: $2,950 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetMarion L Shepard Cancer Center Foundation Inc: $2,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetOld Ford Volunteer Fire Department: $2,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetEast Carolina Council Bsa: $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHyde County Hotline Inc: $1,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetAmerican Cancer Society Inc: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe United Methodist Retirement Homes Foundation Inc: $75 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 17.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Family Foundation IncNC17.6× affinity6 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Family Foundation Inc · North Carolina Community Foundation · The Cannon Foundation Inc · Jonathan Havens Charitable Trust 4242 Six Forks Road · Beaufort County United Way Inc · Robertson Family Foundation Inc · University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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.

Compare Tri-County Telephone Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Tri-County Telephone Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Tri-County Telephone 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.

About Tri-County Telephone Foundation

How much does Tri-County Telephone Foundation give?
Tri-County Telephone Foundation reported 11 grants totaling $56,684 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 9 and 48 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.
What does Tri-County Telephone Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (41%), Health (14%), Community Improvement (7%).
Who are Tri-County Telephone Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Coastal Pregnancy Center ($40k), Pungo Christian Academy ($35k), Wilkinson Community Event Center ($25k).
Does Tri-County Telephone Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 53% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Tri-County Telephone Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as Tri-County Telephone Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Family Foundation Inc, North Carolina Community Foundation, The Cannon Foundation Inc.
Where is Tri-County Telephone Foundation based?
Tri-County Telephone Foundation is based in NC.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 96 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Tri-County Telephone’s filings →

More from the funding graph