Tennessee · Private foundation
Lawson Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $82k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 7
- Grants FY2025
- 84
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 75%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $5,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $30,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 13 to 84
- FY2021 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 1
- Total assets, FY2025
- $121k
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 75% of the organizations Lawson Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 54% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 46% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.3M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 7 | $82k | 86% |
| FY2024 | 84 | $2.4M | 75% |
| FY2023 | 40 | $1.1M | 80% |
| FY2022 | 23 | $830k | 91% |
| FY2021 | 13 | $423k | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2021 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald Charter Schools | $1,000,000 | 3 | 7% |
| Helen Ross McNabb Foundation | $300,000 | 2 | 4% |
| The University of Tennessee Foundation Inc | $200,000 | 1 | 0% |
| United Way of Greater Knoxvilleinc | $175,000 | 1 | 1% |
| Knoxville Leadership Foundation Inc | $120,000 | 2 | 1% |
| North Point Productions Inc | $100,000 | 1 | n/a |
| Williams Creek Youth Foundation | $100,000 | 1 | 7% |
| Raising a Voice | $75,000 | 2 | 10% |
| Free Medical Clinic of America | $75,000 | 2 | 5% |
| Interfaith Health Center | $75,000 | 3 | 1% |
Show all 84 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 51 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.2M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Lawson Family Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 4 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 78 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: East Tennessee Foundation · United Way of Greater Knoxvilleinc · The Clayton Homes Foundation · Haslam Family Foundation Inc · Stowers Machinery Foundation Inc · Thompson Charitable Foundation · Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation · Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee · Akima Club Inc · Gene & Florence Monday Foundation Inc · The Boyd Foundation · University Health System Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Lawson Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Lawson Family Foundation 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.
About Lawson Family Foundation
- How much does Lawson Family Foundation give?
- Lawson Family Foundation reported 7 grants totaling $82,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 84 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2024.
- What does Lawson Family Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2021 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (29%), Health (16%), Community Improvement (8%).
- Who are Lawson Family Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2021 to FY2025: Emerald Charter Schools ($1.0M), Helen Ross McNabb Foundation ($300k), The University of Tennessee Foundation Inc ($200k).
- Does Lawson Family Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 75% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Lawson Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Lawson Family Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include East Tennessee Foundation, United Way of Greater Knoxvilleinc, The Clayton Homes Foundation.
- Where is Lawson Family Foundation based?
- Lawson Family Foundation is based in TN.
Play a game based on Lawson Family’s filings →