Skip to content

Alabama · Nonprofit

THE SMARTPLAY

THE SMARTPLAY (Alabama) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $710,105 to it, the largest being MIKE AND GILLIAN GOODRICH FOUNDATION ($135,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$141k
Funders on record
20
Grants received
$710k
Net assets
$505k
14/20 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 73%
01What it does

What The Smartplay does

Mission

We are committed to preparing youth for success by uniting sports with academic growth and character development. Our mission is to help every student make the smart play - on the field, in the classroom, and in life.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Plan, organize, fund and implement educational programs that feature reading enrichment for disadvantaged children of elementary school age.

  2. Work with the public school system to implement sports / reading programs within elementary schools throughout alabama.

    $155,459 spent
    100% of program spending
  3. Conduct specially designed programs for hispanic children in the areas of sport and reading enrichment. Provide sport skill schools for athletes in the specialty area of pitching.

The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $155,459.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($163k) Expenses 100 ($126k) Net assets 100 ($270k)2018 Revenue 103 ($168k) Expenses 134 ($170k) Net assets 99 ($268k)2019 Revenue 101 ($164k) Expenses 132 ($167k) Net assets 98 ($266k)2020 Revenue 203 ($332k) Expenses 101 ($128k) Net assets 174 ($470k)2021 Revenue 142 ($232k) Expenses 140 ($177k) Net assets 194 ($525k)2022 Revenue 141 ($230k) Expenses 172 ($217k) Net assets 199 ($538k)2023 Revenue 92 ($150k) Expenses 142 ($179k) Net assets 188 ($509k)2024 Revenue 86 ($141k) Expenses 114 ($144k) Net assets 187 ($505k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (86)Expenses (114)Net assets (187)Peer revenue range

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 $266k to $470k (+77%).

$270k
$268k
$266k
$470k
$525k
$538k
$509k
$505k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

67% of THE SMARTPLAY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (18% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 16,206 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$37k
’17
−$2k
’18
−$2k
’19
$205k
’20
$55k
’21
$14k
’22
−$29k
’23
−$4k
’24
42
months of
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

Casey Grammer

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed991011119107
Joined·+0+1+3+0+1+1+2
No longer listed·0020305
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $41k → $92k.

3 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 THE SMARTPLAY’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

THE SMARTPLAY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

27% 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 THE SMARTPLAY.

19%
largest funder
47%
top three
~9
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 33% · 2019 37% · 2020 27% · 2021 30% · 2022 19% · 2023 27% — 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

67% of THE SMARTPLAY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

70% of THE SMARTPLAY's grant income comes from Alabama funders.

NV
PA
DE
NC
AL
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Alabama out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $118k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

THE SMARTPLAY holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 15,537 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−3% · below the median
Months of reserve42.0mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−2% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15,537 recreation & sports nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like THE SMARTPLAY

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 Alabama

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

83% of spending goes to programs.

Program 83%Management 17%Fundraising 0%

Governance

7
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

74%

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 THE SMARTPLAY: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 THE SMARTPLAY?
THE SMARTPLAY (Alabama) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $710,105 to it, the largest being MIKE AND GILLIAN GOODRICH FOUNDATION ($135,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does THE SMARTPLAY have?
IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $710,105 in grants to THE SMARTPLAY, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of THE SMARTPLAY?
MIKE AND GILLIAN GOODRICH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $135,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like THE SMARTPLAY find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

Play a game about who funds Smartplay →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 20 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