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· Private foundation

Whitten-Welch Foundation Kelly Smith

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.

$67k
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it funds
0190% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Religion$301kHuman Services$228kRecreation & Sports$60kEducation$45kPublic Safety & Disaster$20kHealth$18kPhilanthropy$12kYouth Development$3kOther$0
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k6 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $53k
$2,500
Median grant
4
States reached
$788k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS$35,000
SANTA' S CAUSE$17,500
THE TOOTH FAIRY INC$7,500
Individual grant recipient$2,500
PEOPLE FOR PETS$2,000
ALWAYS CHRISTMAS$1,000
ST JOHNS EPISCOPAL CHURCH$500
QRU NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION$500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%LEGACY FIELDS: $3k → 11%ST JOHNS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $500 → 11%ARC RIVER VALLEY: $3k → 17%AM FUND: $10k → 13%WALDORF UNIVERSITY: $3k → 10%SISTERS OF ST FRANC: $40k → 13%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $40k → 17%FESTIVAL OF GIVING: $875 → 11%DE LUZ COMMUNITY CHEST: $2k → 11%ARC RIVER VALLEY: $1k → 17%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $40k → 13%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $40k → 17%TWIN FALLS COUNTY FAIR FOUNDATION: $500 → 11%FRIENDS OF FALLBROOK: $800 → 11%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $40k → 13%QRU NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION: $2k → 11%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $40k → 13%QRU NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION: $2k → 11%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $35k → 13%QRU NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION: $500 → 11%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $35k → 13%SANTA' S CAUSE: $30k → 11%SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $30k → 13%SANTA'S CAUSE: $20k → 11%SANTA'S CAUSE: $20k → 11%SANTAS CAUSE: $20k → 11%SANTA' S CAUSE: $18k → 11%MAGIC VALLEY PUBLIC SAFETY GRANT CO: $17k → 11%SANTA' S CAUSE: $15k → 11%SANTA'S CAUSE: $10k → 11%TOOTH FAIRY INC: $10k → 11%MV JUNIOR GOLF ASSOCIATION: $10k → 11%SAGE WOMAN'S CENTER: $5k → 11%CASA: $3k → 11%TWIN FALLS OPTIMIST CLUB: $2k → 11%PEOPLE FOR PETS: $2k → 11%MAGIC VALLEY YOUTH SERVICES: $2k → 11%COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN IDAHO: $2k → 11%TWIN FALLS OPTIMIST CLUB FOUNDATION: $2k → 11%PEOPLE FOR PETS: $1k → 11%SAGE'S WOMANS CENTER: $1k → 11%MAGIC VALLEY YOUTH SERVICES: $1k → 11%TWIN FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT: $500 → 11%PROJECT SUCCEED: $500 → 11%SOUTH CENTRAL COMMUNITY ACTION: $135 → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$598k · 10 repeat orgs$103k to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
20

Total granted

$598k
$102k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-36%
-10%

Still filing today

40%
10%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $500 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
PhilanthropyHuman ServicesEmploymentHealthPublic 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.

Backed again, and grew

  • SO
    SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS
    8× · 2018–2025 · $300k
  • SC
    SANTA'S CAUSE INC
    8× · 2017–2025 · $153k · revenue -36% · 34% of their budget
  • RF
    RACING FOR CHARITY INC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $61k · revenue -81%

Funded once

  • SO
    SISTERS OF ST FRANC
    one grant, 2017 · $40k
  • MV
    MAGIC VALLEY PUBLIC SAFETY GRANT CO
    one grant, 2020 · $17k
  • AF
    AM FUND
    one grant, 2022 · $10k
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Christmas Angels Inc
Human Services
2
Charity Cars Inc

To provide vehicles to qualified needy individuals or other qualified entities.

Human Services
3
Santas Cause Inc

Have Santa surprise families in need with Christmas gifts.

—
4
Spencerville Christmas Village Inc
Arts & Culture
5
Christmas Village

Raises funds to be distributed to certain exempt organizations.

—
6
Hope for the Holidays Inc
Human Services
7
Cross Creek Volunteer Fire Dept Inc

Provide fire protection and medical support

Human Services
8
Margarets Project Santa Inc
Human Services
9
Rockin Christmas Fund Inc
Philanthropy
10
Visions for Change Inc

Community services

Civil Rights
11
Traveling Tooth Fairies
Health
12
Yor Christmas Magic Foundation

Provide christmas for families in need

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Santa's Cause Inc; the most unlike its peers is South Central Community Action. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

8 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. 8 of the 31 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
6/8
Grantees still filing
1/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS: $300,000 · OtherSISTERS OF ST FRANCISMAGIC VALLEY JUNIOR GOLF FOUNDATION: $49,780 · OtherMAGIC VALLEY JUNIOR GOLF FOUNDATIONSISTERS OF ST FRANC: $40,000 · OtherSISTERS OF ST FRANCMAGIC VALLEY PUBLIC SAFETY GRANT CO: $16,500 · Other+20 more: $50,910 · Other+20 moreSANTA'S CAUSE INC: $152,500 · PhilanthropySANTA'S CAUSE INC+1 more: $1,620 · PhilanthropyRACING FOR CHARITY INC: $61,305 · Human ServicesRACING FOR…ALWAYS CHRISTMAS INC: $3,500 · Human ServicesALWAYS CHR…THE TOOTH FAIRY INC: $17,500 · HealthQRU Nonprofit Organization: $4,000 · Public Safety & DisasterMagic Valley Youth Services INC: $3,000 · Employment
Other$457,190Philanthropy$154,120Human Services$64,805Health$17,500Public Safety & Disaster$4,000Employment$3,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10k$100kgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSANTA'S CAUSE INC: $152,500 over 8y, 34% of budgetRACING FOR CHARITY INC: $61,305 over 5y, 14% of budgetTHE TOOTH FAIRY INC: $17,500 over 2y, 12% of budgetQRU Nonprofit Organization: $4,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetALWAYS CHRISTMAS INC: $3,500 over 4y, 24% of budgetMagic Valley Youth Services INC: $3,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetOPTIMIST CLUB OF TWIN FALLS: $2,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetMAGIC VALLEY FESTIVAL OF GIVING INC: $1,620 over 1y, 0.6% of budget
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 SANTA'S CAUSE INC ↗
  • Who funds RACING FOR CHARITY INC ↗
  • Who funds THE TOOTH FAIRY INC ↗
  • Who funds QRU Nonprofit Organization ↗
  • Who funds ALWAYS CHRISTMAS INC ↗
  • Who funds Magic Valley Youth Services INC ↗
  • Who funds OPTIMIST CLUB OF TWIN FALLS ↗
  • Who funds MAGIC VALLEY FESTIVAL OF GIVING INC ↗

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.

Janice Seagraves Family Foundation IncID24.2× affinity9 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Janice Seagraves Family Foundation Inc · 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Whitten-Welch Foundation Kelly Smith funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Whitten-Welch Foundation Kelly Smith. Bigger dots raise more.

2022
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Whitten-Welch Foundation Kelly Smith?

    Find your warmest path to Whitten-Welch Foundation Kelly Smith 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.

    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 31 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

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