Great Smokies Health Foundation
Sylva, NC · EIN 56-1967734. Reported 54 grants totalling $1,204,802 to 29 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Great Smokies Health Foundation, the IRS classifies it under health care rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE E99Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 29 distinct organizations, with 17% 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.
- How much its list changes. 75% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $9,500. Half of what it reported fell between $7,500 and $15,000; the smallest was $5,970 and the largest $125,035. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson Co Public Schools | Sylva, NC | $202,645 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Swain County Board of Education | Bryson City, NC | $190,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Graham Co Board of Education | Robbinsville, NC | $180,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Graham County Health Dept | Robbinsville, NC | $131,235 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Jackson Co Dept of Public Health | Sylva, NC | $42,550 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Center for Domestic Peace | Sylva, NC | $38,285 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community Table | Dillsboro, NC | $37,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Vecinos Inc | Franklin, NC | $37,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Mountain Projects Inc | Waynesville, NC | $36,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Mountain Hope Nursing Alliance Inc | Sylva, NC | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Uncomplicated Kitchen | Cullowhee, NC | $34,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Blue Ridge Mountains Health Project Inc | Cashiers, NC | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| East Carolina University - School of Dental Medicine | Waynesville, NC | $23,143 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Child Medical Collaborative Inc | Sylva, NC | $22,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Hights Inc | Cullowhee, NC | $22,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Adults Working and Advocating for Kids Empowerment Awake | Sylva, NC | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Blue Ridge Community Health Services Inc | Hendersonvlle, NC | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Five Point Center Inc | Robbinsville, NC | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| United Christian Ministries of Jackson County Inc | Sylva, NC | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Swain Co Health Dept | Bryson City, NC | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Full Spectrum Farms | Cullowhee, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kids Inter-Disciplinary Services Inc | Franklin, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Macon County Care Network | Franklin, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rolling Start Nc | Sylva, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| State of Franklin Health Council Inc | Bryson City, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Swain-Qualla Safe Inc | Bryson City, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mountain Discovery Charter School of Swain County | Bryson City, NC | $6,300 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Jackson County Fire & Life Safety Inc | Sylva, NC | $6,174 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Westbridge Vocational Inc | Sylva, NC | $5,970 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
16 of 29 (55%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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 the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Graham County Health Dept
Community Health Programs - Rolling Start
7500Community Health Programs - Westbridge Vocational
COVID & Community Health Program
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 14 of 29 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3 | $21,615 | $6,645 |
| 2022 | 12 | $258,320 | $10,000 |
| 2023 | 16 | $436,943 | $15,000 |
| 2024 | 23 | $487,924 | $7,500 |
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
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $9,500 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in North Carolina.
- 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 Great Smokies Health Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). 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 23 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 176, Sylva, NC, 28779.
EIN 56-1967734 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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