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Action Tn at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Action Tn

ACTION TN is dedicated to helping grassroots groups across tennessee expand and coordinate their civic and political engagement efforts in service of building power around our shared values, with a particular focus on empowering underrepresented and disenfranchised communities, from black and brown communities to rural tennesseans.

$692k
Granted FY2024still arriving
8
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$167k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Public Benefit$460kCivil Rights$205kHealth$152kEnvironment$50kPublic Safety & Disaster$10k
02FY2024 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k3 grants · $78k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $615k
$102,500
Median grant
2
States reached
$593k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE EQUITY ALLIANCE FUND$167,000
TN ADVOCATES FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD$152,000
TN PROGRESS$105,000
TIRRC VOTES$102,500
MEMPHIS FOR ALL$88,000
CIVIC TN$37,500
SOUTHERN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN ENERGY$30,000
EMERGE ACTION FUND$10,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY18–18, $14k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%URBAN LEAGUE: $14k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Tennessee Workers Alliance

The tennessee worker's alliance is establised primarily to further the common good and social welfare of the working citizens of the united states of america by engaging in research, education and communication efforts regarding policy…

Employment
2
Tennessee Geographic Alliance

Education

Education
3
Action Tn

Action tn is dedicated to helping grassroots groups across tennessee expand and coordinate their civic and political engagement efforts in service of building power around our shared values, with a particular focus on empowering…

—
4
Memphis for All Education Fund

Memphis for All Education Fund (MFAED)seeks to build community-based civic partnerships to increase and secure voting access in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee. MFAED works to decrease disparities in voter

Education
5
Tennessee Democracy Network

The Tennessee Democracy Network is a nonprofit civic incubator for relational organizing and civic literacy initiatives that develop and deepen cultures of nonpartisan democratic engagement in Tennessee.

Public Benefit
6
Tennessee Investor Fund

The tennessee investor fund (tif) is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to supporting organizations that conduct research, voter education, advocacy on legislative and economic issues, and voter turnout.

Public Benefit
7
Tennessee Advocacy Talk

Our mission is to increase the access and quality of social service resources through bettering norms and culture with advocacy, performance improvement strategies, and technology.

Health
8
Tennessee Alliance for Progress

To create a sustainable green economy that benefits all

Health
9
Organize Tennessee

Voter protection and education

Civil Rights
10
Imagine Tennessee Better Inc

Social Welfare

—
11
Tennessee Public Safety Network

The Tennessee Public Safety Network was established to address the growing stress and trauma experienced by law enforcement and public safety personnel. We believe untreated stress profoundly impacts their physical and emotional well-being.

Public Safety & Disaster
12
African American Clergy Collective of Tennessee

Advance policies driven by community voices that dismantle systemic and structural barriers to equity and justice

Civil Rights
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Equity Alliance; the most unlike its peers is Association of University Cardiologists. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

15 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 15 of the 19 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/15
Grantees still filing
9/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE EQUITY ALLIANCE FUND: $167,000 · Civil RightsTHE EQUITY ALLIANCE FUNDTIRRC VOTES: $102,500 · Civil RightsTIRRC VOTESMemphis for All: $88,000 · Civil RightsMemphis for AllTHE EQUITY ALLIANCE: $57,050 · Civil RightsTHE EQUITY ALLIANCECIVIC TN: $44,301 · Civil RightsCIVIC TN+2 more: $18,050 · Civil RightsTENNESSEE PROGRESS: $105,000 · OtherTENNESSEE PROGRESSCENTER FOR VOTER INFORMATION: $20,346 · OtherCENTER FOR VOTER INFORMA…NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE: $20,100 · OtherNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR…ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY CARDIOLOGISTS: $20,000 · OtherASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSIT…EMERGE ACTION FUND: $10,000 · OtherUnified: $9,050 · OtherMEMPHIS FOR ALL: $7,500 · OtherTENNESSEE ADVOCATES FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD INC: $152,000 · EducationTENNESSEE ADVOCATES…SOUTHERN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN ENERGY: $30,000 · EnvironmentURBAN LEAGUE OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE: $13,550 · Human ServicesFORWARD TN: $6,500 · Community ImprovementSEEED INC: $6,000 · Community Improvement
Civil Rights$476,901Other$191,996Education$152,000Environment$30,000Human Services$13,550Community Improvement$12,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE EQUITY ALLIANCE FUND: $167,000 over 1y, 41% of budgetTENNESSEE ADVOCATES FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD INC: $152,000 over 1y, 87% of budgetTENNESSEE PROGRESS: $105,000 over 1y, 31% of budgetTIRRC VOTES: $102,500 over 1y, 10% of budgetMemphis for All: $88,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetCIVIC TN: $44,301 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetSOUTHERN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN ENERGY: $30,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetURBAN LEAGUE OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE: $13,550 over 1y, 4.7% of budgetTENNESSEE IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS COALITION: $10,050 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetUnified: $9,050 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetTENNESSEE EQUALITY PROJECT FOUNDATI: $8,000 over 1y, 7.3% of budgetFORWARD TN: $6,500 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetSEEED INC: $6,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Community Foundat…Tennessee Investor Fu…Civic TnUnited Way of Middle …State Power FundSouthern Coalition fo…The Healing Trust For…The Community Foundat…NEO Philanthropy IncNew Venture FundTides FoundationAmerican Online Givin…
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee IncTN17.5× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · Tennessee Investor Fund · Civic Tn · United Way of Middle Tennessee Inc · State Power Fund · Southern Coalition for Social Justice · The Healing Trust Formerly Baptist Healing Hospital Trust · The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc · NEO Philanthropy Inc · New Venture Fund · Tides Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Action Tn funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Action Tn. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Action Tn?

    Find your warmest path to Action Tn through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 19 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Action Tn’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home