North Carolina · Nonprofit
SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE
SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE (North Carolina) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,562,058 to it, the largest being NORTH CAROLINA PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN INC ($11,417,951). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.4M
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $919k
What Smart Start Partnership for Childre does
Mission
To support, educate and advocate to build a strong foundation for young children in our community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Family support - for more than 25 years, Smart Start Partnership for Children has supported children's healthy development by equipping parents and caregivers with tools, resources, and community connections. The dolly parton imagination library delivers a free, high-quality book each month to over 4500 young children in henderson county, fostering literacy and daily reading habits. Kindergarten readiness activities help children enter school confident and prepared to learn. Smart start promotes resilience by strengthening positive early childhood experiences and building resilience skills among individuals, families and organizations.
$252,326 spentof which $40,915 as grants15% of program spendingChild care quality and availability - smart start supports, educates, and advocates to build a strong foundation for young children by improving access to high-quality child care in henderson county. Smart start scholarships help families afford high-quality care while parents work or finish their education. Smart start enhances early childhood education through educator training, technical assistance, a dedicated school nurse serving the early care and education community, and a professional development program that supports early educators in earning degrees in early childhood education.
$1,350,758 spentof which $1,231,749 as grants78% of program spendingBuilding strong community connections - building a strong interconnected community is essential for ensuring that every child has the support they need to succeed. By working together - across sectors and roles - community members can amplify their collective impact, ensuring that all children receive the care, education and resources they need to thrive. Smart start collaborates with community leaders and businesses to create strategies and initiatives that foster a culture of collaboration in our community to better support our young children and families, helping everyone in the community recognize the role they play in supporting the well-being and future success of our youngest residents.
$118,617 spent7% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,721,701.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $412k to $972k (+136%).
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: 2018 97% · 2019 94% · 2020 92% · 2021 84% · 2022 63% · 2023 62% · 2024 56% · 2025 77%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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.
Board chair
Summer Stipe
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $2.2M.
3 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE’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
SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 78% of grant income and the top three 99%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
81% 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 SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 98% · 2019 95% · 2020 90% · 2021 57% · 2022 63% · 2023 63% — diversifying over time.
“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.
How long its funders stay
100% of SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
100% of SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE'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. $99k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states 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
SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE
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
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
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 SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE: 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 SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE?
- SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE (North Carolina) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,562,058 to it, the largest being NORTH CAROLINA PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN INC ($11,417,951). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $14,562,058 in grants to SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE?
- NORTH CAROLINA PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDREN INC is the largest funder on record, with $11,417,951 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SMART START PARTNERSHIP FOR CHILDRE 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 10 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