· Public charity
Academy of Country Music
To improve lives by connecting and engaging fans, artists and the industry.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2021.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ACM LIFTING LIVES | $400,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +44% since the first grant, against +10% for the ones you funded once.
3 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2021, 2 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2021, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- ALACM LIFTING LIVES5× · 2017–2021 · $2.5M · revenue +55% · 64% of their budget
- LMLEADERSHIP MUSIC2× · 2017–2018 · $60k · revenue +44%
- NSNASHVILLE SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL2× · 2017–2018 · $25k · revenue +32%
Funded once
- CRCountry Radio Broadcasters Incone grant, 2018 · $36k · revenue -3%
- STSAINT THOMAS HEALTH FOUNDATIONSgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +40%
- AOASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC PUBLISHERSone grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue +25%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
1. heighten awareness and grow the business of country music.2. serve as the information and communication center for industry and consumer trends.3. provide a forum for industry leadership to advance country music.4. recognize excellence…
Nashville public radio's mission is to be the most trusted & independent nashville voice, connecting our communities through non-partisan journalism, compelling storytelling, civil conversation and music discovery.
To develop a viable music industry in memphis for the future by providing a structured learning environment to enrich and equip our talents with proven tools to build the next generation of successful music professionals. the consortium…
Nashville banner is a locally owned, community supported, civic news organization. we exist to empower the people of nashville to make informed decisions by providing non-partisan journalism from an independent, nonprofit newsroom. we are…
Nmpa promotes, protects, and advances the interests of music publishers and songwriters in matters relating to domestic and global protection of copyrights.
The american coalition for public radio ("acpr") supports the educational mission of publicly funded, noncommercial, educational radio stations, networks, and systems (collectively, "public radio"). acpr's principal activities focus on…
National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…
To educate, archive and celebrate songwriting that is uniquely associated with the nashville songwriting community.
Providing research, education and practical information all aimed at optimizing newspapers' business operations, deepening their community engagement and enhancing the quality of their journalism.
Guided by the generosity of the country music community, the cma foundation focuses on improving and sustaining music education programs everywhere while supporting worthwhile causes important to the country music association.
NAMM's mission is to strengthen the music products industry and promote the pleasures and benefits of making music.
The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Leadership Music and the most unlike its peers is Valley Relics. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
13 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 13 of the 15 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds ACM LIFTING LIVES ↗
- Who funds LEADERSHIP MUSIC ↗
- Who funds Country Radio Broadcasters Inc ↗
- Who funds SAINT THOMAS HEALTH FOUNDATIONS ↗
- Who funds ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC PUBLISHERS ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL ↗
- Who funds CITY OF HOPE ↗
- Who funds TJ MARTELL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PENCIL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OPRY TRUST FUND INC ↗
- Who funds LOS ANGELES PRESS CLUB ↗
- Who funds POSSIBILITIES INC ↗
- Who funds VALLEY RELICS ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · Country Music Association Inc · Gibson Gives Foundation Dba Gibson Gives · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Academy of Country Music funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.