FundersSouth Carolina

Owen Family Foundation Inc

Columbia, SC · EIN 47-5554059. Reported 64 grants totalling $282,065 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$4,000median grant
$282,065granted, 2021-2024
23organizations funded
82%of grantees funded again the next year
$1,613,758assets, 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. Owen Family Foundation Inc 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 $4,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $1,000 and $5,000; the smallest was $670 and the largest $20,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

Under $1,000
1 grant
$1,000 - $5,000
36 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
20 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
7 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
Camp ColeColumbia, SC$52,000442024
USC Educational FoundationColumbia, SC$40,000442024
Hammond SchoolColumbia, SC$27,863442024
Neighbors Feeding NeighborsSpruce Pine, NC$20,000442024
Spruce Pine RotarySpruce Pine, NC$17,500332024
Avon Old Farms SchoolAvon, CT$16,000442024
Wake Forest UniversityWinstonsalem, NC$15,000322024
Mitchell County Shepherd's StaffSpruce Pine, NC$11,000222024
Trinity Episcopal ChurchEdisto Island, SC$10,847332024
Belle W Baruch FoundationGeorgetown, SC$10,000222022
Mitchell County SafeplaceSpruce Pine, NC$9,000222022
Spruce Pine Fire DepartmentSpruce Pine, NC$8,000442024
Parkway Fire and RescueSpruce Pine, NC$7,500332023
Congaree Land TrustColumbia, SC$6,000442024
Indian Waters CouncilColumbia, SC$6,000442024
American Friends for the Preservation of Czech CultureDover, MA$5,000112021
Heathwood Hall Episcopal SchoolColumbia, SC$5,000112021
Eastminster Presbyterian ChurchColumbia, SC$3,855222023
Brookgreen GardensMurrells Inlet, SC$3,000332024
Mount Gulian SocietyBeacon, NY$3,000332024
Homeless No MoreColumbia, SC$2,500112021
Society of the CincinnatiWashington, DC$2,000222023
Kao Educational FoundationLexington, VA$1,000112024

19 of 23 (83%) 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 82%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is unusually consistent. 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 kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 42 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Education
16 grants
Environment
7 grants
Arts & Culture
6 grants
Human Services
5 grants
Food & Nutrition
4 grants
Public Safety & Disaster Relief
3 grants
Housing & Shelter
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202114$62,500$5,000
202217$73,555$4,000
202317$72,010$2,500
202416$74,000$4,000

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. 59% of this one's giving went to organizations in South Carolina. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

South Carolina
$167K
North Carolina
$88K
Connecticut
$16K
Massachusetts
$5K
New York
$3K
District of Columbia
$2K
Virginia
$1K

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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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc10 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund9 shared recipientsThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc7 shared recipientsCentral Carolina Community6 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc6 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust5 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $4,000. 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 South Carolina.
  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.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in North CarolinaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Owen Family Foundation Inc'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: 719 Holly Street Suite 1, Columbia, SC, 29205. 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 47-5554059 · 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.