FundersTennessee

Blair J Wilson Charitable Trust

Nashville, TN · EIN 62-1498117. Reported 110 grants totalling $3,053,846 to 34 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$10,000median grant
$3,053,846granted, 2021-2024
34organizations funded
90%of grantees funded again the next year
$21.3Massets, 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. Blair J Wilson Charitable Trust 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 $10,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $5,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $250,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
11 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
18 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
42 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
21 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
8 grants
$100,000 and Up
10 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
Montgomery Bell AcademyNashville, TN$448,000332024
Teach for AmericaNashville, TN$394,000332024
CheekwoodNashville, TN$314,563442024
KIPP AcademyNashville, TN$300,000222024
Boy ScoutsNashville, TN$280,000332024
Lead AcademyNashville, TN$125,000332024
Rocketship Public SchoolsNashville, TN$125,000442024
Nashville ClassicalNashville, TN$110,000442024
Purpose PrepNashville, TN$100,000442024
Valor CollegiateNashville, TN$100,000222024
Intrepid College PrepAntioch, TN$85,000442024
STEM Preparatory AcademyNashville, TN$85,000442024
Vanderbilt PsychiatricNashville, TN$75,000332024
East End PrepNashville, TN$45,000442024
Aventura Community SchoolNashville, TN$40,000442024
Explore Community SchoolNashville, TN$40,000442024
First Presbyterian ChurchNashville, TN$40,000442024
Smithson Craighead AcademyMadison, TN$40,000442024
Strive Collegiate AdacemyNashville, TN$40,000442024
The HermitageNashville, TN$40,000442024
Blair School of MusicNashville, TN$35,000112023
Tennessee Nature AcademyNashville, TN$30,000332024
Vanderbilt Commodore ClubNashville, TN$30,000332024
Adventure Science CenterNashville, TN$20,000442024
Bill Wilkerson Center at Vanderbilt HospitalNashville, TN$20,000442024
Republic Schools NashvilleNashville, TN$20,000222022
University School of NashvilleNashville, TN$20,000442024
Vanderbilt University School of MedicineNashville, TN$20,000442024
Tennessee Financial Literacy ComissionNashville, TN$10,000112021
Leota Church of GodSpringfield, TN$5,283442024
Friends of Radnor LakeNashville, TN$5,000112023
Vanderbilt AthleticsNashville, TN$5,000112021
Ensworth SchoolNashville, TN$4,000442024
FiftyforwardNashville, TN$3,000332023

30 of 34 (88%) 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 90%, 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 50 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Education
34 grants
Arts & Culture
8 grants
Religion
4 grants
Human Services
3 grants
Environment
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202126$608,906$10,000
202226$758,657$10,000
202330$825,634$10,000
202428$860,649$10,000

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

Nashville, TN
$2.9M
Antioch, TN
$85K
Madison, TN
$40K
Springfield, TN
$5K

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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.

Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program16 shared recipientsThe Community Foundation of Middle11 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund11 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc8 shared recipientsAmerican Endowment Foundation8 shared recipientsScarlett Family Foundation8 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $10,000. 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 Tennessee.
  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.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Blair J Wilson Charitable Trust'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: 104 Woodmont Blvd 310, Nashville, TN, 37205. 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 62-1498117 · 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 [email protected] and we will correct it.