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Mike Curb Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Mike Curb Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.7M
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$1.1M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$3.1MEducation$1.8MPublic Benefit$393kHousing & Shelter$345kHealth$324kHuman Services$312kReligion$300kYouth Development$200kOther$0
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $50k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $588k
  • $250k+1 grant · $1.1M
$100,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$35M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BELMONT UNIVERSITY$1,100,000
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION - NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY$200,000
MIDDLE TENNESSEE COUNCIL$112,600
Grammy Museum Foundation Inc$100,000
NASHVILLE PUBLIC MEDIA$100,000
NORTH CAROLINA MUSIC HALL OF FAME$75,000
White House Historical Association$30,000
SAFE HAVEN FAMILY SHELTER$20,000
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 (FY22–24, $50k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, 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%Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association: $20k → 17%Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association: $10k → 17%Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association: $10k → 17%The Crossroads Campus: $10k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

MI
MA
CA
AZ
TN
NC
DC
FL
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.
$5.9M · 19 repeat orgs$1.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +42% since the first grant, against +7% for those funded once.

19 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 13 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

19
12

Total granted

$5.9M
$1.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+42%
+7%

Still filing today

89%
58%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $213k went to new ones.

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

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

’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHousing & ShelterInternationalHuman ServicesFood & NutritionOther
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

  • BU
    Belmont University
    5× · 2021–2025 · $1.5M · revenue +43%
  • GM
    GRAMMY MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $640k · revenue +53%
  • TS
    TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC
    2× · 2021–2023 · $600k · revenue +308%

Funded once

  • BC
    BETHANY CHRISTIAN SERVICES
    one grant, 2021 · $300k
  • TN
    THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC
    one grant, 2021 · $250k · revenue -16%
  • DS
    DAYTONA STATE COLLEGE
    one grant, 2023 · $107k
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
Nashville Public Radio

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.

Arts & Culture
2
Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

The nashville area chamber of commerce facilitates community leadership to create economic prosperity.

—
3
Union University

Union university provides christ-centered education that promotes excellence and character development in service to church and society.

Education
4
Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau

The mission of the NCVB is to maximize the economic contribution of the hospitality industry to the total community by developing and marketing Nashville as a premier domestic and international destination for visitors. This is the second…

Community Improvement
5
Nashville Technology Council

Ntc mission is to advance the diverse technology ecosystem by connecting and promoting members, attracting, growing and retaining tech talent, and providing opportunities to reinvest in the greater nashville community.

Community Improvement
6
The Nashville Chamber Public Benefit Foundation

The nashville chamber public benefit foundation supports the work of the nashville area chamber of commerce through efforts to improve the quality of education, encourage public and private efforts around education, and to facilitate the…

—
7
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
8
Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation

To develop, foster, promote and protect programs for the general welfare, including economic, social, educational and political well-being of farm people of the great state of tennessee.

—
9
Middle Tennessee Research Institute

To facilitate innovative research and education, improve healthcare programs that benefit our nation's veterans, and provide outstanding support and advocacy to the research, education, and training endeavors of the tennessee valley…

Health
10
University of Memphis Foundation

The foundation accepts, manages, and disburses private support to the university of memphis.

Education
11
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
12
News Media Alliance

The news media alliance (nma) is a nonprofit organization representing nearly 2,000 news media organizations and their multi-media platform businesses in the us, canada and europe.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Nashville Rescue Mission; the most unlike its peers is Mifa Corporation. 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

26 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. 26 of the 34 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
26/26
Grantees still filing
18/26
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION - NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY: $800,000 · OtherSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION - NATIONAL…SAINT THOMAS HEALTH FOUNDATIONS: $300,000 · OtherSAINT THOMAS HEALTH FOUNDATIONSBETHANY CHRISTIAN SERVICES: $300,000 · OtherBETHANY CHRISTIAN SERVICESROOM IN THE INN INC: $262,075 · OtherROOM IN THE INN INCMIDDLE TENNESSEE COUNCIL: $112,600 · OtherDAYTONA STATE COLLEGE: $107,143 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $100,000 · Other+8 more: $224,000 · Other+8 moreBelmont University: $1,507,266 · EducationBelmont UniversityTHE RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION AND INSTITUTE: $280,000 · EducationTHE RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL …BETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY: $100,000 · EducationARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $100,000 · EducationGRAMMY MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC: $640,000 · Arts & CultureGRAMMY MUSEUM FOUNDATION INCTENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC: $600,000 · Arts & CultureTENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM FOUNDAT…THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC: $250,000 · Arts & CultureTHE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN…Nashville Symphony Association: $200,000 · Arts & CultureNashville Symphony AssociationNASHVILLE PUBLIC MEDIA INC: $100,000 · Arts & CultureWHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: $65,000 · Arts & Culture+2 more: $92,500 · Arts & CultureJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF MIDDLE TN: $200,000 · InternationalJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INC: $200,000 · InternationalNASHVILLE RESCUE MISSION: $200,000 · Housing & ShelterNASHVILLE SAFE HAVEN FAMILY SHELTER INC: $90,000 · Housing & ShelterMEMPHIS UNION MISSON: $10,000 · Housing & ShelterNorth Carolina Music Hall of Fame Inc: $267,000 · Public BenefitTENNESSEE IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS COALITION: $100,000 · Civil Rights
Other$2,205,818Education$1,987,266Arts & Culture$1,947,500International$400,000Housing & Shelter$300,000Public Benefit$267,000Civil Rights$100,000

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 budgetBelmont University: $1,507,266 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetGRAMMY MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC: $640,000 over 5y, 1.6% of budgetSAINT THOMAS HEALTH FOUNDATIONS: $300,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetTHE RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION AND INSTITUTE: $280,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetNorth Carolina Music Hall of Fame Inc: $267,000 over 4y, 52% of budgetTHE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC: $250,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetNashville Symphony Association: $200,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF MIDDLE TN: $200,000 over 2y, 6.9% of budgetNASHVILLE RESCUE MISSION: $200,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INC: $200,000 over 2y, 2.9% of budgetBETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY: $100,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTENNESSEE IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS COALITION: $100,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNASHVILLE SAFE HAVEN FAMILY SHELTER INC: $90,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetWHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: $65,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMUSIC CENTER FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMATTHEW 25 INC: $45,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetNASHVILLE HISTORICAL FOUNDATION: $42,500 over 3y, 38% of budgetMetropolitan Inter-Faith Association: $40,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetSECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF MIDDLE TN INC: $35,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CROSSROADS CAMPUS: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMEMPHIS UNION MISSON: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPET COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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…Memorial Foundation I…The Frist FoundationRyman Hospitality Pro…The Steven & Laurie E…Gibson Gives Foundati…United Way of Middle …Hca Healthcare Founda…Dollar General Litera…Enchiridion FoundationThe Wade-Buntin Famil…Louie M & Betty M Phi…
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee IncTN26.6× affinity12 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 · Memorial Foundation Inc · The Frist Foundation · Ryman Hospitality Properties Foundation · The Steven & Laurie Eskind Family Foundation · Gibson Gives Foundation Dba Gibson Gives · United Way of Middle Tennessee Inc · Hca Healthcare Foundation · Dollar General Literacy Foundation · Enchiridion Foundation · The Wade-Buntin Family Foundation · Louie M & Betty M Phillips Foundatn

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 Mike Curb Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mike Curb Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 6%
  • Bethune-Cookman University: 6% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
8report 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.

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 34 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 Mike Curb’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