North Carolina · Nonprofit
CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN (North Carolina) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,486,432 to it, the largest being NORTH CAROLINA PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN INC ($8,486,080). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $8.5M
- Net assets
- $496k
What Caldwell County Smart Start a Partnership for Young Children does
Mission
Helping caldwell county children arrive at school healthy and prepared for success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Child care & education quality included quality maintenance, quality enhancement, and professional development. The quality initiatives activity will assist caldwell county child care facilities in providing high quality care for children ages birth through five. All licensed child care facilities will be eligible to apply for technical assistance. Technical assistance priority may be given to facilities which: 1) serve higher number of children ages birth through age five; 2) receive no or limited technical support from other sources, 3) will be reassessed by dcdee during the program year. The quality initiatives activity consists of two tiers: level 1 and level 2. Quality initiatives - level 1 may support child care facilities holding a gs-110, 1 star, 2 star or 3 star-rated license in improving the quality of care provided for children ages birth through five through technical assistance. Quality initiatives - level 2 may provide technical assistance to child care facilities holding a 4 or 5 star-rated license with a focus on maintaining or increasing the quality of care provided for children ages birth through five. Quality initiatives - level 2 may also provide quality cash…
$317,946 spentof which $157,200 as grants40% of program spendingHealth & safety was the behavior support activity.this activity is an activity to support the inclusion of children with emotional, behavioral, and/or identified special needs in the child care setting. Services that are provided using smart start dollares in this activity include: (1) technical assistance: technical assistance (in the form of consultation and coaching) provided to early childhood educators working in caldwell county child care facilities serving children birth to five years old. 12 trainings were provided for child care workers including:cpr/first aid, classroom management, its sids-infant toddler safe sleep.
$90,000 spentof which $90,000 as grants11% of program spendingFamily support included the dolly parton imagination library program , the community outreach program, and the triple p program. Caldwell county smart start will provide for the early literacy program - "dolly parton's imagination library" (dpil). The goals are to 1) increase young children's access to books, 2) increase kindergarten readiness, 3) increase parent-child reading frequency, and 4) increase community collaboration. Dpil mails age-appropriate books to registered children (ages 0-5) on a monthly basis. The books will belong to the children and children can receive books regardless of family income. Caldwell county smart start staff will collaborate with other local organizations which champion literacy and reading, such as the caldwell county library and the caldwell county family literacy program in order to maximize the effectiveness of the dpil. Staff will monitor the sucess of the dpil through surveys and follow-ups with the parents of the children receiving the books. Complimentary to the dpil activities may be the development of a locally funded program designed to create and support a pool of qualified volunteers who would provide story reading and storytelling…
$387,409 spentof which $53,093 as grants49% of program spendingHurricane relief program provided support for affected child care centers and family child care homes in reopening and maintaining operations in the aftermath of hurricane helene.
$3,299 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $798,654.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $158k to $557k (+253%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 99% · 2021 98% · 2022 99% · 2023 99% · 2024 97% · 2025 96%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Hannah S Romero
Executive director
Board chair
Jeff Link
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $866k → $983k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN leans on a few funders — its largest provides 100% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
100% of CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $352 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN?
- CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN (North Carolina) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,486,432 to it, the largest being NORTH CAROLINA PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN INC ($8,486,080). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $8,486,432 in grants to CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN?
- NORTH CAROLINA PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN INC is the largest funder on record, with $8,486,080 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CALDWELL COUNTY SMART START A PARTNERSHIP FOR YOUNG CHILDREN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 2 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing