University Health System Inc
Knoxville, TN · EIN 31-1626179. Reported 84 grants totalling $1,759,500 to 43 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, 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 University Health System Inc, the IRS classifies it under health care rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE E220) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 43 distinct organizations, with 15% 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. 74% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $5,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $200,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The University of Tennessee (graduate School of Medicine) | Knoxville, TN | $268,500 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| American Heart Association Inc | Dallas, TX | $200,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The University of Tennessee Foundat Ion Inc | Knoxville, TN | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Free Medical Clinic of America | Knoxville, TN | $147,000 | 4 | 2 | 2024 |
| United Way of Greater Knoxville Inc | Knoxville, TN | $105,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Interfaith Health Center Inc | Knoxville, TN | $100,750 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Cancer Support Community East Tennessee | Knoxville, TN | $67,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| American Cancer Society | Knoxville, TN | $62,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Emerald Youth Foundation | Knoxville, TN | $55,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| East Tennessee Economic Development Agency Inc | Knoxville, TN | $54,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley | Knoxville, TN | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Loudon Entertainment LLC | Knoxville, TN | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Knoxville Zoological Gardens Inc | Knoxville, TN | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Parkinsons Foundation Inc | New York, NY | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Metro Drug Coalition Inc | Knoxville, TN | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Knoxville Academy of Medicine | Knoxville, TN | $21,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Boy Scouts of America | Knoxville, TN | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Upsilon Chi Chapter - Chi Eta Phi Sorority | Knoxville, TN | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Breakthrough Corporation | Knoxville, TN | $18,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| East Knox Free Medical Clinic Inc | Knoxville, TN | $17,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Surgery on Sunday - Knoxville | Knoxville, TN | $17,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Centro Hispano De East Tennessee | Knoxville, TN | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Junior Achievement of East Tennessee | Clinton, TN | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Leadership Knoxville Inc | Knoxville, TN | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Pellissippi State Technical | Knoxville, TN | $15,000 | 2 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of Knoxville Tennessee Inc | Knoxville, TN | $10,250 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Arthritis Foundation Inc | Atlanta, GA | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Blood Cancer United Inc | Rye Brook, NY | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| East Tennessee Childrens Hospital Association Inc | Knoxville, TN | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Girl Talk Inc | Knoxville, TN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Knox County Cac Transportation | Knoxville, TN | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Knox County Schools | Knoxville, TN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Knoxville Area Urban League | Knoxville, TN | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Random Acts of Flowers | Knoxville, TN | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Knoxville Jazz Orchestra | Knoxville, TN | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Breakthrough T1D | New York, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dr Martin Luther King JR Commemorative Commission Inc | Knoxville, TN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association | Knoxville, TN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Great Smoky Mountain Institute | Townsend, TN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| International Association of Fire Fighters | Knoxville, TN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee | Maryville, TN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Helen Ross Mcnabb Center | Knoxville, TN | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
27 of 43 (63%) 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 kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 31 of 43 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 | 14 | $397,500 | $21,500 |
| 2023 | 36 | $810,000 | $10,000 |
| 2024 | 34 | $552,000 | $6,750 |
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
85% 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 $10,000 -- 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.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from University Health System Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). 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 1 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: 2121 Medical Center Way 200, Knoxville, TN, 37920.
EIN 31-1626179 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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