May And Stanley Smith Charitable Trust

The May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust operates as one of the Western United States' most deliberate and relationship-driven funders. With $456M in assets (FY2024) and annual giving consistently in the $27-32M range, the Trust channels substantial resources through just four tightly defined focus populations: Adults and Transitioning Youth with Disabilities, Foster Youth, Older Adults, and Veterans. This precision is intentional — the Trust's 2024-2028 Strategic Plan explicitly reaffirms these populations and adds equity and intersectionality lenses to longstanding direct-service priorities.

The Trust does not accept unsolicited proposals and makes no apology for it. New organizations enter the pipeline via a narrow email inquiry channel, limited to 1-2 pages of plain text sent to the relevant program-area address. There are no application deadlines, no open RFPs, and no public portal — the Trust defines its own pace through quarterly trustee meetings. First-time applicants should understand this is a multi-cycle relationship, not a transactional grant. An initial inquiry may take 4-6 months to receive a decision, and a first grant may not materialize for a year or more after first contact.

The Trust favors organizations with at least two years of measurable outcomes, annual operating budgets exceeding $250,000, and revenue diversification with no more than 70% government funding. These thresholds explicitly filter out start-ups, new programs from untested organizations, and government-dependent providers. Multi-year grants (typically 2-3 years) ranging from $75,000 to $825,000+ reflect a preference for sustained partnerships rather than one-time gifts.

Organizations should align their framing with three core value terms embedded throughout the Trust's communications: dignity, agency, and inclusion. The Trust funds direct service providers, community-level interventions, and systems-change advocates — but in all cases expects applicants to articulate how their work promotes self-sufficiency and the individual's capacity to reach their highest potential. Multi-service organizations are most competitive when they isolate one specific program tied to one focus population rather than describing their full organizational scope. California-based nonprofits represent the bulk of current grantees, but organizations in underserved Trust geographies — Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming — face meaningfully less competition.

The Trust's financial trajectory shows consistent, disciplined grantmaking growth over more than a decade. Total assets climbed from $382M (FY2012) to $456M (FY2024), and annual total giving grew from $13.3M to the $27-32M range, with a notable spike to $39.5M in FY2021 likely reflecting COVID-19 emergency response and accelerated multi-year pledge activity. More representative years: FY2023 giving of $28.2M (grants paid: $20.1M), FY2022 giving of $31.7M (grants paid: $19.3M), FY2020 giving of $31.9M (grants paid: $25.2M).

The gap between total giving and grants paid reflects the Trust's multi-year pledge structure. A grant approved in one year may be paid over 2-3 subsequent fiscal years, meaning FY2023's $20.1M in actual cash payments draws on commitments made in prior cycles. For applicants, this means timing your inquiry to align with trustee cycles — quarterly meetings — is important for being considered in a given fiscal year's pledge activity.

The Trust's own recent-grants database reports 142 grants totaling $19,559,226 with an average award of $137,741 since approximately 2020. Sample 2025 grants reveal the range in practice: Veterans Legal Institute received $75,000 (1 year), Bay Area Legal Aid received $300,000 (2 years), Caring Across Generations received $474,000 (2 years), and Corporation for Supportive Housing received $825,000 (3 years). The modal structure appears to be a 2-year grant in the $150,000-$350,000 range, implying an annualized commitment of $75,000-$175,000 per grantee per year.

All four focus populations receive roughly equivalent allocation, consistent with the Trust's stated 2024-2028 plan. Geography skews heavily toward California — 19 of 19 identifiable grantee records in the IRS data are California-based — though the Trust serves 14 states. Net investment income of $7-10M annually funds roughly 25-35% of grant activity, with the balance supported by portfolio performance. The Trust received no new contributions in FY2019-FY2023, operating entirely on endowment growth.

The Trust occupies a distinct niche among Western US social-service funders: large enough to make meaningful multi-year commitments, disciplined enough to maintain only four focus populations, and insulated enough from public pressure to operate entirely by invitation. The table below compares the Trust to four peer foundations operating in overlapping geographies and sectors.

Among these peers, the Trust is distinctive for its equal commitment across four named populations rather than a single unifying theme. Weingart and Marguerite Casey are geographically broader but more diffuse; the Trust's specificity around Disabilities, Foster Youth, Elders, and Veterans makes it the strongest bet for organizations whose work squarely fits one of those lanes. The Trust's per-grant size ($75K-$825K, 2-3 years) is competitive with Weingart and Casey but substantially larger than Johnson Foundation awards, making it one of the highest-value relationship targets in the Western US for qualifying nonprofits.

The Trust's most significant recent development is the launch of its 2024-2028 Strategic Plan, which reaffirms all four focus populations while introducing explicit equity and justice language — a meaningful signal that organizations using systemic and structural analysis will be better received than those framing work in purely service-delivery terms. The plan also formally recognizes intersecting identities, opening the door to programs serving populations that span multiple focus areas.

Geographically, British Columbia, Canada was phased out as of January 1, 2024, ending a geographic scope that had honored the founders' Canadian ties. Organizations based in BC that previously held Trust grants should not expect renewals under current guidelines.

On the staffing front, Sam Holmes joined as Senior Program Officer for Veterans and Military Families in 2023, bringing a decade of military community experience and an MBA from UC Davis. His background at Homeless Resource Council of the Sierras signals the Trust's continued interest in housing-focused veterans service providers. The full program team — Amy Freeman (Foster Youth), Jeanine Alpert (Disabilities), Elisabeth Cutler (Foster Youth programs/research), and Kelly Kent (Elders) — is stable, with most officers having 6-10 years at the Trust.

In 2025, documented grants include Veterans Legal Institute ($75,000), Bay Area Legal Aid ($300,000 for foster youth), Corporation for Supportive Housing ($825,000 for older adults), and Alzheimer's Association ($450,000). The Trust also continued its practice of year-end discretionary grants to foodbanks across all 14 service states — a modest program not open to external applications.

Master the email inquiry format. The Trust's entire first-contact process runs through a 1-2 page plain text email. Do not include PDF attachments, Word documents, or hyperlinks — the Trust's security policy means these are deleted before staff reads them. Write in plain paragraphs: paragraph one introduces your organization and track record, paragraph two maps your specific program to one of the four focus populations using the Trust's language, and paragraph three states your geographic service area and organizational budget. Nothing more.

Route to the right inbox. The Trust has four program-area email addresses: Disabilities@SmithCT.org, FosterYouth@SmithCT.org, OlderAdults@SmithCT.org, and Veterans@SmithCT.org. Sending to the wrong address is not recoverable — there is no internal forwarding. For technical issues only: Grants@SmithCT.org.

Lead with the Trust's values, not your impact metrics. Competitive inquiries use the language of the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan: dignity, agency, inclusion, self-sufficiency, systemic change. An organization that quantifies outputs ('served 500 veterans') but never addresses how its model promotes agency and self-determination will score below one that does both.

Pre-qualify rigorously before submitting. The Trust will rarely fund organizations with annual budgets under $250,000 or with more than 70% government revenue (including Medicaid, Medicare, and vocational rehabilitation reimbursements). Calculate your government revenue percentage before submitting — state it proactively. Organizations with two or fewer years of documented outcomes should wait.

Think multi-year from day one. The Trust's typical grant is 2-3 years. Frame your inquiry around a sustained initiative — not a one-time project — and indicate what continued organizational capacity looks like beyond the grant period. The Trust values 'long-term, sustainable impact.'

One inquiry per year per area. If you cover multiple populations (e.g., both veterans and older adults), you may submit to each relevant address separately — but limit yourself to one inquiry per focus area per calendar year. Quarterly trustee meetings mean decisions take 4-6 months; plan your timeline accordingly and do not follow up before 30 days have elapsed.