· Private foundation
Wilbur S Smith and Stephanie E Smith-Phillips Foundation Inc
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 clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SAINT JAMES SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON | $5,000 |
| MUSC FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| BRIDGE BETWEN ANIMAL RESCUE | $2,500 |
| PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON | $1,500 |
| CHARLESTON DAY SCHOOL | $1,500 |
| GIBBES MUSEUM OF ART | $1,500 |
| ALMOST HOME FELINE REFUGE INC | $1,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 98% of your 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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 95% of Wilbur S Smith and Stephanie E Smith-Phillips Foundation Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 72% of the giving stays in SC; read by stated purpose it is 5% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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 +70% since the first grant, against +68% for the ones you funded once.
14 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 8 since wound down; 2 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, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k 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
- SJSAINT JAMES SCHOOL8× · 2017–2024 · $84k · revenue +25%
- MUMEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA FOUNDATION6× · 2018–2023 · $56k · revenue +8%
- COCOLLEGE OF CHARLESTON FOUNDATION2× · 2022–2023 · $20k · revenue +104%
Funded once
- LULANDER UNIVIERSITY EQUESTRIAN CENTERone grant, 2017 · $15k
- TSTUBULAR SCLEROSIS FOUNDATIONone grant, 2022 · $5k
- TATHERAPEUTIC ADVENTURES INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +68%
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.
Charleston Collegiate Schools mission is to inspire students to become passionate, lifelong learners by empowering them with knowledge, creativity, curiosity and confidence to mindfully embrace the opportunities of tomorrow.
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…
The schs mission is to expand, preserve, and make accessible our invaluable collection, and to encourage interest and pride in the rich history of our state.
To operate a private school for pre-kindergarten through grade 12 in Wilmington, NC
Chamber Music Charleston is dedicated to developing the audience for classical music through chamber music concerts and educational programs of the highest caliber.
The Museum is a non-profit organization whose mission is to spark imagination, stimulate curiosity and encourage problem solving through the power of play in families from all backgrounds with young children.
Enhancing the quality of life for all south carolinians, achieving global competiteveness and ultimately increasing prosperity for sc citizens.
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…
Columbia college provides educational opportunities that develop students' capacity for critical thought and expression, life-long learning, acceptance of personal responsibilty, and commitment to service and social justice.
TThe Charleston Horticultural Society equips garden enthusiasts and horticultural professionals across the South Carolina Lowcountry to cultivate community, resiliency, and beauty through gardening
Edventure inspires children, youth, and the adults who care about them to experience the joy of learning.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Charleston Day Schoolinc and the most unlike its peers is Bridge Between Animal Rescue. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
13 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. 13 of the 24 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 SAINT JAMES SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CAROLINA ART ASSOCIATION DBA GIBBES MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds The Preservation Society of Charleston Inc ↗
- Who funds Charleston Library Society ↗
- Who funds South Carolina Aquarium ↗
- Who funds CHARLESTON DAY SCHOOLINC ↗
- Who funds THERAPEUTIC ADVENTURES INC ↗
- Who funds LOUIE'S KIDS INC ↗
- Who funds WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds Bridge Between Animal Rescue ↗
- Who funds CHARLESTON AREA THERAPEUTIC RIDING INC ↗
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: Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina Inc · Richard and Susan Leadem Family · Guffey Family Foundation · The Ceres Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
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 Wilbur S Smith and Stephanie E Smith-Phillips 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.
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc — 0% of income from government
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 Wilbur S Smith and Stephanie E Smith-Phillips Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Wilbur S Smith and Stephanie E Smith-Phillips 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.