Skip to content
Lillian L Colby Charitable Fdn Ia at a glance

· Private foundation

Lillian L Colby Charitable Fdn Ia

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$400k
Granted FY2025still arriving
16
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$55k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$510kEducation$392kCommunity Improvement$266kReligion$260kHealth$254kHousing & Shelter$220kYouth Development$161kHuman Services$160kOther$0
02FY2025 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $10k–50k13 grants · $283k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $110k
$25,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$8.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LA PAZ DE DIOS INC - CHATTANOOGA$55,000
CHATTANOOGA SYMPHONY & OPERA$55,000
METROPOLITAN MINISTRIES$35,000
CHATTANOOGA AREA FOOD BANK$30,000
ARTSBUILD$25,000
CHATTANOOGA GIRLS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY INC$25,000
PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION$25,000
NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE$25,000
LAUNCH$25,000
CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER OF HAMILTON$20,000
LAUNCH PAD$15,000
CHATTANOOGA PREPARATORY SCHOOL$15,000
THE CHATTERY$15,000
URBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER CHATTANOOGA$15,000
CHAMBLISS CENTER FOR CHILDREN$12,500
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 (FY20–25, $182k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, 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%NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $25k → 14%NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $25k → 14%CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER OF HAMILTON: $20k → 12%NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $25k → 14%NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $25k → 14%NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $25k → 14%CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER OF HAMILTON: $8k → 12%LA PAZ CHATTANOOGA: $10k → 12%NET RESOURCE FOUNDATION: $9k → 12%HELP RIGHT HERE: $10k → 12%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 grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

82%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.1M · 30 repeat orgs$461k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +34% since the first grant, against +32% for those funded once.

30 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 19 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

30
25

Total granted

$2.1M
$353k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+34%
+32%

Still filing today

80%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $108k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementArts & CultureHousing & ShelterOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • CS
    CHATTANOOGA SYMPHONY & OPERA ASSOCIATION
    6× · 2020–2025 · $373k · revenue +21%
  • MM
    METROPOLITAN MINISTRIES INC
    5× · 2020–2025 · $135k · revenue +4%
  • NN
    NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE
    5× · 2020–2025 · $125k · revenue +107%

Funded once

  • CE
    CORNER EVOLUTION DBA BRIDGE CITY
    one grant, 2023 · $25k
  • HC
    HAMILTON COUNTY SCHOOLS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $25k · revenue +4%
  • KF
    Kelcurt Foundation Incgraduated
    one grant, 2024 · $25k · revenue +34%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its 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
Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition Inc

To advocate for people who are homless or near homeless, strategically planning for housing and services in the community, maximizing resources and collaboarating with community partners to implement housing and services within the…

Community Improvement
2
Chattanooga Design Studio

Chattanooga design studio seeks to elevate the quality of life for all citizens through guidance, collaboration, innovation, and education that promotes livable, accessible, walkable, and humane urban design.

Community Improvement
3
Chattacademy Community Schools Inc

The mission of chattacademy is to reimagine what public education can look like in chattanooga, tennessee. chattacademy's mission is to graduate bilingual, biliterate critical thinkers ready to make an impact on the world through top…

Education
4
Family Promise of Greater Chattanooga Inc

Family promise of greater chattanooga's mission is to provide help for homeless families with children be housed and self-sufficient.

Human Services
5
Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise

Mission: to create economically diverse neighborhoods filled with financially empowered citizens and housing for all.vision: all chattanoogans can afford a safe place in a strong neighborhood to call home. belief: we believe the future of…

Housing & Shelter
6
Chattanooga Technology Council Inc

Our mission is to connect chattanooga's technology sector to drive regional economic growth.

Community Improvement
7
Invest Chattanooga

Invest chattanooga uses flexible, low-cost capital and strategic public-private partnerships to produce financially sustainable, mixed-income housing with deep permanent affordability that the market alone cannot deliver.

Housing & Shelter
8
Chattanooga Christian Community Foundation

We guide and encourage donors who are motivated toward kingdom-building generosity. our mission is carried out through four primary initiatives: providing donor-advised funds, inspiring and encouraging generosity within families along the…

Philanthropy
9
Chattanooga Chamber Foundation

Education regarding matters of public concern to improve the quality and increase the quantity of economic growth and employment opportunities.

Philanthropy
10
Carter Street Corporation

Encourage economic development

Community Improvement
11
The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc

Together with our community and partners, we transform generosity into lasting change towards a prosperous and just chattanooga where all can thrive and achieve their full potential.

Philanthropy
12
Tennesseans for Quality Early Education

To advance state policies and practices that ensure all tennessee children from birth through 3rd grade get the high quality early education they need to power our state's future.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chattanooga Room in the Inn Inc; the most unlike its peers is Kelcurt Foundation Inc. 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

40 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. 40 of the 60 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
40/40
Grantees still filing
33/40
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

METROPOLITAN MINISTRIES INC: $135,000 · OtherMETROPOLITAN MINISTRIES INCCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GC: $121,400 · OtherCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GCPURSUIT OF HAPPINESS FOR UNDERSERVED: $75,000 · OtherPURSUIT OF HAPPINESS FOR UNDERSERVEDBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHATTANOOGA INC: $75,000 · OtherBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHATTANOOGA INCWAYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $59,500 · OtherWAYSIDE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHLA PAZ DE DIOS INC - CHATTANOOGA: $55,000 · OtherLA PAZ DE DIOS INC - CHATTANOOGALOOKOUT MOUNTAIN LAND TRUST: $47,500 · OtherBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER: $40,000 · OtherCHAMBLISS CENTER FOR CHILDREN: $37,500 · OtherHABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF GREATER GREATER: $35,000 · OtherCHATTANOOGA ROOM IN THE INN INC: $50,000 · Other+19 more: $296,718 · Other+19 moreCHATTANOOGA SYMPHONY & OPERA ASSOCIATION: $373,000 · Arts & CultureCHATTANOOGA SYMPHONY…ARTSBUILD: $75,000 · Arts & CultureARTSBUILD+2 more: $22,000 · Arts & CultureTeach for America Inc: $100,000 · EducationTeach for Ameri…CHATTANOOGAHAMILTON COUNTY PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND: $50,000 · EducationCHATTANOOGAHAMI…PREP PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $45,000 · EducationPREP PUBLIC SCH…SKYUKA HALL: $35,000 · EducationSKYUKA HALLCHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL INC: $35,000 · EducationCHATTANOOGA CHR…CHATTANOOGA GIRLS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY: $35,000 · EducationCHATTANOOGA GIR…HAMILTON COUNTY SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $25,000 · EducationHAMILTON COUNTY…THE CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $18,000 · Education+1 more: $10,000 · EducationLAUNCH INC: $122,500 · Community ImprovementLAUNCH INCURBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER CHATTANOOGA: $93,000 · Community ImprovementURBAN LEAGUE…Kelcurt Foundation Inc: $25,000 · Community ImprovementKelcurt Foun…PARTNERSHIP FOR FAMILIES CHILDREN AND ADULTS INC: $18,000 · Community ImprovementPARTNERSHIP …THE CHATTERY: $15,000 · Community ImprovementTHE CHATTERYA STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION CHATTANOOGA INC: $87,500 · HealthA STEP AH…FIRST THINGS FIRST INC: $53,000 · HealthFIRST THI…LIFESPRING COMMUNITY HEALTH: $26,400 · HealthLIFESPRIN…THE LAUNCH PAD: $15,000 · HealthTHE LAUNC…VOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE CHATTANOOGA INC: $15,000 · HealthVOLUNTEER…Survivor Fitness Foundation: $8,000 · HealthNORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $125,000 · Human ServicesTHE CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER OF HAMILTON COUNTY INC: $28,000 · Human ServicesLA PAZ DE DIOS INC: $10,000 · Human ServicesHELP RIGHT HERE: $10,000 · Human ServicesNET RESOURCE FOUNDATION: $8,500 · Human ServicesChattanooga Area Food Bank Inc: $69,600 · Food & Nutrition
Other$1,027,618Arts & Culture$470,000Education$353,000Community Improvement$273,500Health$204,900Human Services$181,500Food & Nutrition$69,600

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCHATTANOOGA SYMPHONY & OPERA ASSOCIATION: $373,000 over 6y, 5.2% of budgetMETROPOLITAN MINISTRIES INC: $135,000 over 5y, 2.1% of budgetNORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $125,000 over 5y, 0.8% of budgetLAUNCH INC: $122,500 over 5y, 2.6% of budgetTeach for America Inc: $100,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetURBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER CHATTANOOGA: $93,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetA STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION CHATTANOOGA INC: $87,500 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetARTSBUILD: $75,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHATTANOOGA INC: $75,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetChattanooga Area Food Bank Inc: $69,600 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetFIRST THINGS FIRST INC: $53,000 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetCHATTANOOGA ROOM IN THE INN INC: $50,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetCHATTANOOGAHAMILTON COUNTY PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND: $50,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetPREP PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $45,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetCHAMBLISS CENTER FOR CHILDREN: $37,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSKYUKA HALL: $35,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetCHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL INC: $35,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCHATTANOOGA GIRLS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY: $35,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER OF HAMILTON COUNTY INC: $28,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetCHATT FOUNDATION: $27,800 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetLIFESPRING COMMUNITY HEALTH: $26,400 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ZOO INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetHAMILTON COUNTY SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 6.0% of budgetKelcurt Foundation Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 17% of budgetSIGNAL CENTERS INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetChattanooga Cares Inc: $19,800 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CHATTANOOGA PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $18,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetPARTNERSHIP FOR FAMILIES CHILDREN AND ADULTS INC: $18,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetVOLUNTEERS IN MEDICINE CHATTANOOGA INC: $15,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetHunter Museum of American Art: $12,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLA PAZ DE DIOS INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetCOLAB: $10,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetHELP RIGHT HERE: $10,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetELLA LIBRARY: $10,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetNET RESOURCE FOUNDATION: $8,500 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetSLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC: $8,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSurvivor Fitness Foundation: $8,000 over 1y, 1.3% 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.

Chattanooga Christian…Weldon F Osborne Foun…The Community Foundat…Robert F Stone Founda…Benwood Foundation IncRobert L & Kathrina H…Tucker FoundationLyndhurst Foundation …The Maclellan Foundat…The Howard FundUnited Way of Greater…McKenzie Foundation D…
Chattanooga Christian Community FoundationTN57.2× affinity27 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Chattanooga Christian Community Foundation · Weldon F Osborne Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc · Robert F Stone Foundation AKA Bobby Stone Foundation · Benwood Foundation Inc · Robert L & Kathrina H Maclellan Founda Foundation · Tucker Foundation · Lyndhurst Foundation Inc · The Maclellan Foundation Inc · The Howard Fund · United Way of Greater Chattanooga · McKenzie Foundation D/B/A the McKenzie Foundation

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 Lillian L Colby Charitable Fdn Ia funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lillian L Colby Charitable Fdn Ia. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    21report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    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.

    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 60 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Lillian L Colby Charitable Fdn Ia’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