May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
ActiveMutual & Membership Benefit
About May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
The May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust gives very large, largely unrestricted sums to a small number of recipients, often issued as multi-year or annual funding tranches. The grant descriptions are generically labeled (e.g., "GENERAL" or "VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS"), indicating a preference for broad general operating support or pooled distributions rather than narrowly restricted program grants. This pattern suggests the foundation funds a diverse set of nonprofits via consolidated awards or fiscal-sponsor/pooled mechanisms instead of targeting specific programmatic niches.
Focus Areas
Unrestricted general operating support to nonprofitsPooled or multi-recipient distributions (grants to 'various organizations')Annual or multi-year tranche funding cycles (yearly approved grants)Large institutional grants/fiscal-sponsor support
Who They Fund
nonprofit organizations (broad, unspecified)fiscal sponsors / intermediary organizationsmultiple small recipients aggregated under pooled grants
Giving Approach
About May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust’s recent grantmaking is defined by very large, broadly labeled awards such as $23,813,878 to Various Organizations and $21,731,709 to Various Organizations, both in 2023. The pattern points to a funder that moves substantial capital through general support rather than narrowly specified project grants. Across the latest grants list, award descriptions are often recorded simply as “GENERAL,” and several entries are framed as future-year funding approved in earlier cycles. That makes the trust useful to researchers trying to understand a donor that operates through consolidated tranches instead of many small, named program grants. The trust appears to distribute money through pooled or aggregated recipient structures as well as direct organizational awards. Another large recent example is $20,262,917 to Various Organizations in 2024, followed by $18,991,726 to Various Organizations in 2025. Those figures suggest a repeated cadence of sizable institutional disbursements. The same pattern shows up in the trust’s future-year grants, which point to multi-year planning rather than one-off awards. The recipient set in the recent grants list is concentrated and institutional, with grantees presented in generalized terms rather than as highly individualized project partners.
What May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Funds
A clear theme in the trust’s recent giving is unrestricted support. In 2025, it gave $18,991,726 to Various Organizations for GENERAL purposes, and in 2024 it gave $20,262,917 to Various Organizations for the same broad designation. That language indicates a preference for flexible funding over tightly scoped project grants. A second pattern is consolidated, multi-recipient grantmaking. The trust awarded $23,813,878 to Various Organizations in 2023, also marked GENERAL, which suggests pooled distribution across multiple beneficiaries under one grant entry. Multi-year funding is another visible feature. Grants recorded as “Grants Approved in 2021 (FUTURE YEARS)” received $10,575,500 in 2023, while “Grants Approved in 2024 (FUTURE YEARS)” received $8,575,000 in 2025. Those entries show that the trust commits capital across later years rather than limiting its awards to a single grant cycle.
How May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Gives
Typical grant size is high: the p25 is $8,741,375, the median is $15,419,208, and the p75 is $21,364,511. The recent grants list is dominated by large institutional awards, with multiple entries in the eight-figure range. The trust also shows a recurring pattern of future-year disbursements, including grants approved in earlier years and paid out later. It is classified as a Regular Funder, and it does not fund individuals or make program-related investments. The award descriptions are consistently broad, which fits a general-support approach rather than project-specific grantmaking.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$120.1M
Total Assets
$456.1M
Total Revenue
$26.8M
Total Expenses
$29.5M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $8.7M and $21.4M, with a median of $15.4M.
25th Percentile
$8.7M
Median
$15.4M
75th Percentile
$21.4M
Geographic Reach
Local1 state funded
About 100% of grants go to recipients in CA.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust Funds
Top 2 recipient countries by grant volume for May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 8 | $120.1M | 80.0% |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 2 | $600K |
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