Texas · Nonprofit
Southern Smoke Foundation
Southern Smoke Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 88 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,560,352 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($2,500,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.6M
- Funders on record
- 88
- Grants received
- $8.6M
- Net assets
- $5.5M
What Southern Smoke Foundation does
Mission
To provide support and assistance for those in the food and beverage community and their suppliers who are in crisis. We provide funds directly to people in need that are battling health crises, winter storm damage, natural disasters, and mental health needs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Southern Smoke provides funding to individuals in the food and beverage industry who are in crisis. Established in 2016, our emergency relief fund has distributed more than $15 million to individuals in the food and beverage industry in crisis. Recipients in crisis experience needs related to medical bills, car accidents, weather catastrophes, family support assistance, and mental health. In 2025, the emergency relief fund provided relief to 918 individuals. To qualify for emergency relief funding or mental health services (described below in Line 4b), recipients must have worked in the food and beverage industry for a minimum of 6 months and an average of 30 hours per week. Every applicant must show proof of such employment by providing paycheck stubs and/or W2s.
$2,248,127 spentof which $1,492,472 as grants88% of program spendingSouthern Smoke provides free mental health services to food and beverage workers, providing 10,217 no-cost counseling sessions since 2020.
$304,378 spentof which $304,378 as grants12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,552,505.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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 2019 to 2020, from $616k to $7.9M (+1185%).
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.
90% of Southern Smoke Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Lindsey Brown
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $17k → $212k.
22 of 88 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 Southern Smoke Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 88 funders by total. 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
Southern Smoke Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 29% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
95% 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 Southern Smoke Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 100% · 2019 82% · 2020 37% · 2021 41% · 2022 48% · 2023 59% — 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.
How long its funders stay
6% of Southern Smoke Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 26% 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
59% of Southern Smoke Foundation's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $3.5M that is directly attributable, 82% of it comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
Southern Smoke Foundation holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Southern Smoke Foundation
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 Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
64% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 33 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Southern Smoke Foundation: 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 Southern Smoke Foundation?
- Southern Smoke Foundation (Texas) receives grants from 88 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,560,352 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($2,500,000). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Southern Smoke Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 88 organizations giving $8,560,352 in grants to Southern Smoke Foundation, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Southern Smoke Foundation?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $2,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Southern Smoke Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 2017–2025), and the filings of 88 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing