Grantmakers › South Carolina

United Way of the Lowcountry

Beaufort, SC · EIN 57-0405847. Reported 111 grants totalling $4,051,003 to 39 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.

39organizations funded
$26,250median reported grant
$4,051,003granted, 2021-2025
77%of grantees funded again the next year
9%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 9% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 77% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $26,250. Half of what it reported fell between $16,660 and $47,400; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $183,063. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
48 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
34 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
22 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
4 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
YMCA of the Lowcountry IncPort Royal, SC$376,235552025
Low Country Legal VolunteersBluffton, SC$371,869552025
Agape Family Life Center IncHardeeville, SC$289,233552025
Resource Foundation for Jasper CountyRidgeland, SC$278,665552025
Hopeful HorizonsBeaufort, SC$252,970552025
Child Abuse Prevention AssociationBeaufort, SC$203,460552025
Boys and Girls Clubs of Lowcountry IncBluffton, SC$195,025442024
Hilton Head Island Deep Well ProjectHilton Head, SC$185,910552025
Consumer Credit Counseling ServicesSavannah, GA$145,179552025
Second HelpingsHilton Head, SC$140,710552025
Good Neighbor Free Medical ClinicBeaufort, SC$137,995552025
Family Promise of the Lowcountry IncBluffton, SC$128,680332023
Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse DeptBeaufort, SC$115,000212022
Amikids IncTampa, FL$107,121442025
Beaufort Jasper Economic Opportunity Commission IncBeaufort, SC$95,000112022
Beaufort Housing AuthorityBeaufort, SC$72,813112022
Jasper County Council for the AgingRidgeland, SC$68,000222023
Bluffton Self Help IncBluffton, SC$67,200222022
Boy Scouts of AmericaN Charleston, SC$62,400552025
Lowcountry Food Bank IncCharleston, SC$61,010112021
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of the Coastal Empire IncSavannah, GA$60,600442024
Born to Read IncBeaufort, SC$60,450552025
Coastal Empire Community Mental Health CenterBeaufort, SC$55,000112022
Meals on Wheels Bluffton Hilton Head IncHilton Head, SC$52,583332024
The Disabilities Foundation of Beaufort County IncBeaufort, SC$51,300332024
Childrens Center IncHilton Head, SC$50,745332023
Love House Outreach MinistriesBeaufort, SC$50,450332024
Real Champions IncRidgeland, SC$50,000112022
Help of BeaufortPort Royal, SC$42,115222022
Fresh Start Healing HeartRidgeland, SC$40,000112022
Habitat for Humanity International IncBeaufort, SC$36,660222022
Mount Carmel Baptist ChurchSeabrook, SC$30,000112022
Salvation ArmyBeaufort, SC$30,000112022
Daniel O Morris South Carolina Low Country Heritage TrustHilton Head, SC$26,250112025
Beaufort Memorial Hospital Endowment FoundationBeaufort, SC$25,000112021
2ND Mount Carmel Baptist ChurchBeaufort, SC$10,000112022
Families in Transition$10,000112024
A Fathers PlaceConway, SC$9,375112025
Foundation ChurchBeaufort, SC$6,000112022

24 of 39 (62%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 21 of 39 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
7 orgs
Crime & Legal
3 orgs
Religion
2 orgs
Health Care
2 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Public & Societal Benefit
1 org
Environment
1 org
Youth Development
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202121$637,679$20,400
202235$1,741,131$40,000
202321$648,551$23,800
202419$621,350$27,200
202515$402,292$26,250

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

92% of its giving went to organizations in South Carolina. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

South Carolina
$3.7M
Georgia
$206K
Florida
$107K

Down to the city

Beaufort, SC
$1.2M
Bluffton, SC
$763K
Hilton Head, SC
$456K
Ridgeland, SC
$437K
Port Royal, SC
$418K
Hardeeville, SC
$289K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Coastal Community Foundation of South27 shared recipientsCommunity Foundation of the Lowcountry19 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund19 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc16 shared recipientsThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc14 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program14 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $26,250 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in South Carolina.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from United Way of the Lowcountry's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 15 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 202, Beaufort, SC, 29901.

EIN 57-0405847 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

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