· Public charity
Wake County Smart Start Inc
Wake county smart start invests in young children, their families, and a connected early childhood system that supports and prepares them for school and life ahead.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $14k
- $50k–250k14 grants · $2.3M
- $250k+23 grants · $19M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHILDCARE NETWORK INC | $3,082,694 |
| WAKE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | $2,684,556 |
| CREATIVE SCHOOLS INC | $1,303,892 |
| BRIGHT BEGINNINGS OF CARY INC | $1,222,922 |
| PRIMARY BEGINNINGS CHILD DEVELOPMENT | $1,066,440 |
| THE HAPPY FACE PRESCHOOL | $880,446 |
| ACADEMICALLY BASED CHILD | $797,586 |
| KIDS FIRST ACADEMY INC | $759,528 |
| ABC LAND INC II | $728,374 |
| TELAMON CORPORATION | $680,820 |
| WAKE COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES | $665,510 |
| WANDA'S LITTLE HANDS EDUCATIONAL CENTER | $661,730 |
| LUCY DANIELS CENTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD | $630,699 |
| A SAFE PLACE CHILD ENRICHMENT CENTER INC | $588,438 |
| EARLY PRESCHOOL & LEARNING CENTER LLC | $559,640 |
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 (FY21–25, $6.9M) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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 +26% since the first grant, against +18% for those funded once.
42 repeat relationships: 35 still active in FY2025, 7 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, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $923k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
LUCY DANIELS CENTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD5× · 2021–2025 · $2.7M · revenue +26%- MCMETHOD CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER IN5× · 2021–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +61% · 32% of their budget
- FLFRANKIE LEMMON SCHOOL AND DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER5× · 2021–2025 · $975k · revenue +68%
Funded once
- URUPPER ROOM CHRISTIAN ACADEMY & PRESCHOOLone grant, 2021 · $407k
- KAKELLEY AUSTIN KINDERCAREone grant, 2021 · $204k
LEARNING TOGETHER INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $105k · revenue +28%
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.
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To provide services to children and their parents to support their readiness for school.
Wake county smart start invests in young children, their families, and a connected early childhood system that supports and prepares them for school and life ahead.
How this is measured
24 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. 24 of the 61 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 TELAMON CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds LUCY DANIELS CENTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD ↗
- Who funds FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER SOUTH ATLANTIC ↗
- Who funds METHOD CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER IN ↗
- Who funds THE SHAW UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds FRANKIE LEMMON SCHOOL AND DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds EARLY YEARS INC ↗
- Who funds TLC OPERATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds SAFECHILD ↗
- Who funds TRIANGLE AREA PARENTING SUPPORT ↗
- Who funds The Methodist Home for Children Inc ↗
- Who funds PASSAGE HOME INC ↗
- Who funds BOOK HARVEST ↗
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: Early Years Inc · Triangle Community Foundation Inc · United Way of the Greater Triangle Inc · Childtrust Foundation · John Rex Endowment · Carolina Hurricanes Foundation · North Carolina Community Foundation · Chatham County Partnership for Children · Aj Fletcher Foundation · Duke University Health System Inc · John William Pope Foundation · The Leon Levine Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Wake County Smart Start Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Wake County Smart Start Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Wake County Smart Start’s filings →