FundersAlabama

Mw Smith JR Foundation

Mobile, AL · EIN 63-6018078. Reported 42 grants totalling $462,949 to 27 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$5,000median grant
$462,949granted, 2021-2024
27organizations funded
38%of grantees funded again the next year
$3,972,044assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Mw Smith JR Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $5,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $3,000 and $10,000; the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $65,600. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
14 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
14 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
8 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
2 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
White Smith Memorial LibraryJackson, AL$117,600222024
Wilcox Community Health FoundationCamden, AL$72,200332024
Fairhope Film FestivalFairhope, AL$55,500442024
Kings Kids Foundation IncMobile, AL$50,000442024
Thomasville Healthcare FoundationThomasville, AL$43,200222023
Jmc AuxillaryJackson, AL$15,000112023
Monroe County Public LibraryMonroeville, AL$11,000332023
Camille PlaceMonroeville, AL$10,000112023
Contact Archeology IncPensacola, FL$10,000112021
Perdue Hill Claibourne Historic Preservation FoundationPerdue Hill, AL$10,000112023
Pride of AtmoreAtmore, AL$9,500222024
All 4 Paws-Clarke County Animal ShelterGrove Hill, AL$5,000112021
Government Street United Methodist ChurchMobile, AL$5,000112023
Monroe Health FoundationMonroeville, AL$5,000112022
Monroeville Area YMCAMonroeville, AL$5,000112023
Roseanna Wilson Harris Scholarship FundSan Carlos, CA$5,000112022
Waterfront Rescue Mission of MobileMobile, AL$5,000112021
Arc Baldwin CountyLoxely, AL$4,000112023
Monroe County Heritage MuseumMonroeville, AL$4,000112023
Alabama Junior Miss Scholarship FoundationMobile, AL$3,000112024
Alabama Public RadioTuscaloosa, AL$3,000222023
Distinguished Young Women of Monroe CountyMobile, AL$3,000112021
Pilots for ChristMonroeville, AL$3,000112022
First United Methodist ChurchFairhope, AL$2,949222024
Eastern Shore Art CenterFairhope, AL$2,000112022
Friends of the Swift Coles Historic HomeMontrose, AL$2,000112024
Mulherin HomeMobile, AL$2,000112021

9 of 27 (33%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 38%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 23 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Education
8 grants
Arts & Culture
7 grants
Human Services
3 grants
Health Care
2 grants
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
2 grants
Science & Technology
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
20218$47,000$5,000
202212$118,000$5,000
202314$151,192$5,000
20248$146,757$14,500

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 97% of this one's giving went to organizations in Alabama. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Alabama
$448K
Florida
$10K
California
$5K

Find more foundations like Mw Smith JR Foundation

We email you newly filed foundations whose giving matches your state and cause, as the IRS publishes them. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

J L Bedsole Foundation7 shared recipientsAlabama Power Foundation Inc7 shared recipientsUnited Bank Charitable Foundation6 shared recipientsThe Sybil and White Smith Foundation5 shared recipientsHearin - Chandler Foundation3 shared recipientsThe Daniel Foundation of Alabama3 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $5,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Alabama.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Mw Smith JR Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Drawer 1628, Mobile, AL, 36633. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 63-6018078 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.