Tennessee Bar Foundation
Nashville, TN · EIN 62-6074501. Reported 87 grants totalling $5,617,892 to 40 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, 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 Tennessee Bar Foundation, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for crime & legal (NTEE I128).
- How spread out its giving is. 40 distinct organizations, with 21% 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. 70% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $13,000 and $75,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $699,222. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Aid of East Tennessee Inc | Knoxville, TN | $1,171,106 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands | Nashville, TN | $1,089,354 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Tennessee Justice Center Inc | Nashville, TN | $663,200 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Memphis Area Legal Services Assoc | Memphis, TN | $548,528 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| West Tennessee Legal Services Incorporated | Jackson, TN | $391,414 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Community Legal Center | Memphis, TN | $192,800 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors Inc | Nashville, TN | $162,500 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Tennessee Court Appointed Special Advocate Association Inc | Murfreesboro, TN | $120,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Choosing Justice Initiative | Nashville, TN | $110,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Nashville Conflict Resolution Center | Nashville, TN | $110,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services | Nashville, TN | $110,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Tennessee Justice Centergeneral Sessions Gps | Nashville, TN | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ao Advocating Opportunity Inc | Toledo, OH | $70,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Kindred Place Inc | Memphis, TN | $65,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Aging Services for the Upper Cumberlands | Cookeville, TN | $55,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Tennessee Innocence Project | Nashville, TN | $55,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| YWCA Knoxville Foundation | Knoxville, TN | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Domestic Violence Program Inc | Murfreesboro, TN | $48,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville Inc | Nashville, TN | $39,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Fenton Center of Hope | Fenton, MI | $39,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Homesafe of Sumner Wilson and Robertson Counties Inc | Gallatin, TN | $38,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Catholic Charities USA | Alexandria, VA | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Tennessee Fair Housing Council | Nashville, TN | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Memphis Public Interest Law Center | Germantown, TN | $32,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Memphis and Shelby County Bar Foundation | Memphis, TN | $32,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Avalon Center Inc | Crossville, TN | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Bridges Domestic & Sexual Violence Support Services Inc | Nashua, NH | $29,200 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community Mediation Services | Oak Ridge, TN | $27,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| All Saints Immigration Services | Jackson, TN | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Agape Love From Above to Our Community | Bloomsburg, PA | $22,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community Mediation Center Inc | Knoxville, TN | $22,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Center of Hope | Columbia, TN | $20,290 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Womens Resource & Rape Assistance Program | Jackson, TN | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Bridges of Williamson County | Franklin, TN | $16,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Catholic Charities of East Tennessee Inc | Knoxville, TN | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence | Nashville, TN | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Vorp Community Mediation Center Inc | Crossville, TN | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Association for Guidance Aid Placement & Empathy | Nashville, TN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Guardianship and Trusts Corporation | Forest Hills, TN | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Family Reconciliation Center | Nashville, TN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
27 of 40 (68%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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.
- Legal Aid Society of Middle Tn and the Cumberlands
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE - Community Legal Centerremote Immigrant
USE TECHNOLOGY AND COLLABORATIVE SERVICES TO COORDINATE REPRESENTATION AT MEMPHIS IMMIGRATION COURT FOR CLIENTS FROM MIDDLE/EAST TENNESSEE. - Choosing Justice Initiativeall Around Justice
IMPLEMENT WRAPAROUND PROGRAM TO PAY COURT-APPOINTED, CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS TO HANDLE CLIENT CIVIL LEGAL NEEDS. - Nashville Conflict Resolution Centermediation
PROVIDE ACCESS TO MEDIATION THROUGH CONFERENCING TECHNOLOGY THAT LINKS RURAL AND UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS WITH COMMUNITY MEDIATION CENTERS. - Tennessee Justice Centergeneral Sessions Gps
DEVELOP EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND TRAIN VOLUNTEERS TO ASSIST GENERAL SESSIONS COURT LITIGANTS WHO CANNOT AFFORD AN ATTORNEY. - Tennessee Justice Centerindependence
REFORM SYSTEMIC POLICIES AND PROCEDURES SURROUNDING LONG TERM SERVICES AND SUPPORTS PORTION OF THE TENNCARE PROGRAM, KNOWN AS CHOICES.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 32 of 40 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28 | $1,347,000 | $24,400 |
| 2022 | 27 | $1,273,890 | $20,000 |
| 2023 | 32 | $2,997,002 | $25,000 |
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
97% of its giving went to organizations in Tennessee. 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.
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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 the strongest signal available 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.
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 $25,000 -- 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 Tennessee.
- 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 Tennessee Bar Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 3 returns (tax years 2021-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 33 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: 618 Church Street Suite 120, Nashville, TN, 37219.
EIN 62-6074501 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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