GrantmakersTennessee

Variety of Eastern Tennessee

Knoxville, TN · EIN 33-1025696. Reported 49 grants totalling $562,895 to 31 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

31organizations funded
$10,000median reported grant
$562,895granted, 2021-2023
96%of grantees funded again the next year
13%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Variety of Eastern Tennessee, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for youth development (NTEE O125).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 31 distinct organizations, with 13% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 96% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. 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 $6,000 and $15,000; the smallest was $1,750 and the largest $35,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
Under $5,000
4 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
19 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
22 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Hospitality Pantries IncKnoxville, TN$75,000332023
The Dream Connection IncKnoxville, TN$70,000222023
Aid to Distressed Families of Appalachian Counties Inc-Adfac IncOak Ridge, TN$55,000332023
Covenant Health FoundationKnoxville, TN$55,000332023
Friends of Tennessees Babies With Special NeedsAlcoa, TN$35,000332023
Big Brothers-Big Sisters of East TennesseeKnoxville, TN$30,000222023
Soar Youth MinistriesKnoxville, TN$30,000222023
Catholic Charities of East Tennessee IncKnoxville, TN$20,000222023
Friends of the Knox County Public LibraryKnoxville, TN$20,000222023
CASA Corridor of East TennesseeAthens, TN$17,000222023
CASA of Bradley County TennesseeCleveland, TN$17,000222023
CASA of the Tennessee HeartlandOak Ridge, TN$17,000222023
CASA MonroeMadisonville, TN$16,800222023
Childhelp IncScottsdale, AZ$10,000112022
Epilepsy Foundation of East TennesseeKnoxville, TN$8,800112023
Wesley House Community CenterKnoxville, TN$7,500112023
CASA of Northeast TennesseeJohnson City, TN$7,000112023
CASA of the Tennessee ValleyLoudon, TN$7,000112023
Hoof & Harness Experiential Learning IncStraw Plains, TN$6,550212023
Shiloh Riders AssociationKodak, TN$6,000112023
Small Miracles Therapeutic Equestrian Center IncKingsport, TN$6,000112023
Childrens Advocacy Center of Hamilton County IncChattanooga, TN$5,245112023
Bijou Theater CenterKnoxville, TN$5,000112023
CASA of East Tennessee IncKnoxville, TN$5,000112023
Emerald Youth FoundationKnoxville, TN$5,000112023
Girl Talk IncKnoxville, TN$5,000112023
Mission of Hope IncKnoxville, TN$5,000112023
Nourish One Child Program - Keith Memorial ChurchAthens, TN$5,000112023
Second Harvest Food Bank of East TennesseeMaryville, TN$5,000112023
Morristown Hamblen Central ServicesMorristown, TN$3,500112023
Great Smoky Mountain InstituteTownsend, TN$2,500112023

13 of 31 (42%) 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.

It also reported 4 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 24 of 31 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.

Human Services
8 orgs
Health Care
4 orgs
Youth Development
3 orgs
Crime & Legal
2 orgs
Food & Nutrition
1 org
Education
1 org
Civil Rights
1 org
Diseases & Disorders
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20214$55,000$15,000
202214$219,800$12,500
202331$288,095$7,000

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

98% 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.

Tennessee
$553K
Arizona
$10K

Down to the city

Knoxville, TN
$341K
Oak Ridge, TN
$72K
Alcoa, TN
$35K
Athens, TN
$22K
Cleveland, TN
$17K
Madisonville, TN
$17K

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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.

East Tennessee Foundation22 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund14 shared recipientsThe Thompson Charitable Foundation13 shared recipientsUnited Way of Greater Knoxvilleinc13 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc11 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program10 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Tennessee.
  4. 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

Foundations funding health care in TennesseeEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Variety of Eastern Tennessee's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 31 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: 101 E Blount Ave, Knoxville, TN, 37920.

EIN 33-1025696 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.