· Public charity
Cornerstone Foundation of Knoxville
To serve as a catalyst to reach our god-given potential as a community with funding, activities, and effective strategic actions focused on the greater knoxville geographic area.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of Cornerstone Foundation of Knoxville’s FY2018 grant dollars went to East Tennessee Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2018 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2017, the last year Cornerstone Foundation of Knoxville named its own grantees at scale: 20 organizations, $1M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2018.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 22 grants below total $1,373,066 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,499,288 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $126,222 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k2 grants · $14k
- $10k–50k13 grants · $221k
- $50k–250k6 grants · $838k
- $250k+1 grant · $300k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GREAT SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP | $300,000 |
| EMERALD AVENUE YOUTH FOUNDATION | $200,250 |
| EAST TENNESSEE FOUNDATION | $187,873 |
| COMPASSION COALITION | $160,000 |
| YOUNG LIFE - TN REGION | $107,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF GREATER KNOXVILLE | $100,000 |
| LEADERSHIP KNOXVILLE | $83,000 |
| NATIONAL CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION | $36,023 |
| JONI & FRIENDS | $25,000 |
| CEDAR SPRINGS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $25,000 |
| ARTS & CULTURE ALLIANCE | $20,000 |
| VINE INTERNATIONAL | $20,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOUNDATION | $18,320 |
| FRIENDS OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN | $15,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF BLOUNT COUNTY | $11,000 |
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 (FY17–18) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 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.
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.
Klf promotes collaboration across congregations, neighborhoods, business, philanthropy, and government to connect people in need with resources needed to thrive. the current focus is on safe affordable housing, mentoring youth and adults,…
The purpose of the knoxville museum of art is to support and promote public interest, awareness, knowledge and education in the visual arts in east tennessee . to this end, the corporation shall, among other things, develop permanent…
The academy serves as the local medica society for physicians of knox county and surrounding counties in east tennessee. its purpose is to afford a medium for free discussion and exchange of ideas among physicians.
Committed to serving members of our parish and our larger community with outreach, financial support and prayer
To put christian principles into practice through programs and activities that develop the spirit, mind and body of youth, adults and families in knoxville, tn and surrounding communities. the ymca encourages growth for youth development,…
To cultivate healthy communities by supporting relationships between local farmers, producers, and the public.
To serve the jewish people locally, in israel, and throughout the world.
Knoxville college is a private, church related coeducational liberal arts institution. the college is open to students of diverse backgrounds and cultures who seek a quality liberal arts education.
Educate preschool through twelfth grade children in a Christian environment while developing them spiritually,academically, emotionally, and physically with Jesus Christ as their standard and the Bible as their foundation.
Union university provides christ-centered education that promotes excellence and character development in service to church and society.
To provide services for senior citizens in knox county
To provide no-cost health care to families who have no insurance and do not qualify for the states low income insurance program.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Leadership Knoxville Inc and the most unlike its peers is Lincoln Memorial University. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
20 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. 20 of the 22 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 EAST TENNESSEE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE GREAT SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP CHARITABLE TRUST ↗
- Who funds EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YOUNG LIFE ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF GREATER KNOXVILLEINC ↗
- Who funds LEADERSHIP KNOXVILLE INC ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds JONI AND FRIENDS ↗
- Who funds ARTS AND CULTURE ALLIANCE OF GREATER KNOXVILLE ↗
- Who funds Vine International Inc ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF BLOUNT COUNTY ↗
- Who funds Yoke Youth Ministries ↗
- Who funds ALL SOULS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds HOPE RESOURCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds KNOX HERITAGE INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE TENNESSEE VALL ↗
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: East Tennessee Foundation · Haslam Family Foundation Inc · Stowers Machinery Foundation Inc · University Health System Inc · The Aslan Foundation · The Clayton Family Foundation · The Boyd Foundation · Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation · Food City Charitable Foundation · The Clayton Homes Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · The Charlie & Moll Anderson 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 Cornerstone Foundation of Knoxville 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.
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Find your warmest path to Cornerstone Foundation of Knoxville through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
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