FundersTennessee

Gail C Link Education Trust

Chattanooga, TN · EIN 81-6158233. Reported 39 grants totalling $264,000 to 17 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$6,000median grant
$264,000granted, 2021-2024
17organizations funded
78%of grantees funded again the next year
$1,405,027assets, 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. Gail C Link Education 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 $6,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $3,000 and $9,000; the smallest was $3,000 and the largest $18,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
16 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
15 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
8 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
University of Tennessee - KnoxvilleKnoxville, TN$51,000442024
University of Tennessee - ChattanoogaChattanooga, TN$49,500442024
East Tennessee State UniversityJohnson City, TN$31,500442024
Tennessee Tech UniversityCookeville, TN$27,000442024
Tennessee State UniversityNashville, TN$24,000332024
University of MemphisMemphis, TN$18,000332024
Austin Peay State UniversityClarksville, TN$15,000332023
Alabama A&m UniversityHuntsville, AL$9,000332024
Carson Newman UniversityJefferson City, TN$6,000222022
University of AlabamaTuscaloosa, AL$6,000112022
University of Alabama - BirminghamBirmingham, AL$6,000112021
University of Alabama in HuntsvilleHuntsville, AL$6,000222024
Elizabeth City State UniversityElizabeth City, NC$3,000112024
Middle Tennessee State UniversityMurfreesboro, TN$3,000112024
Southern Adventist UniversityCollegedale, TN$3,000112024
University of Alabama - HuntsvilleHuntsville, AL$3,000112021
Wingate UniversityWingate, NC$3,000112023

10 of 17 (59%) 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 78%, 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 the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 17 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Education
17 grants

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
20219$76,500$6,000
202210$64,500$6,000
20239$54,000$6,000
202411$69,000$3,000

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

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 86% of this one's giving went to organizations in Tennessee. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Tennessee
$228K
Alabama
$30K
North Carolina
$6K

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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.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund9 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc8 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program7 shared recipientsCharities Aid Foundation America7 shared recipientsEnterprise Holdings Foundation7 shared recipientsThe Blackbaud Giving Fund7 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $6,000. 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 Gail C Link Education 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: 7800 Stones River Road, Chattanooga, TN, 37421. 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 81-6158233 · 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 hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.