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Mountain Ways Inc at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Mountain Ways Inc

Sharing and preserving appalachian culture and heritage by giving back and loving our neighbor and to provide financial aid and support to those facing loss from natural disasters.

$5.5M
Granted FY2025still arriving
20
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$902k
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, FY2024 to 2025.

Housing & Shelter$1.5MPublic Safety & Disaster$1.1MHuman Services$660kFood & Nutrition$328kHealth$215kPhilanthropy$200kEducation$15k
02FY2025 · 20 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 20 grants below total $3,920,746, the rows itemized in this filing. The $5,513,617 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $1,592,871 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k7 grants · $185k
  • $50k–250k8 grants · $1.1M
  • $250k+5 grants · $2.7M
$100,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$60k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
APPALACHIA SERVICE PROJECT INC$902,315
FTDD FOUNDATION INC$560,000
BEYOND ALL BORDERS$500,000
HOLSTON HABITAT FOR HUMANITY$400,000
THE HOPE HOUSE OF COCKE COUNTY$297,500
NOLACHUNCKY BAPTIST ASSOCIATION INC$233,853
UNICOI COUNTY EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES$215,078
UNITED WAY OF EAST TENNESSEE HIGHLANDS$200,000
THE ASHEVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT FOUNDATION$130,000
AIDNET OF GREENE COUNTY INC$100,000
GOD'S WAREHOUSE$75,000
NEWPORT RESCUE SQUAD$70,000
SERENITY POINTE INC$52,000
GRASSY FORK VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT$45,000
LONG CREEK VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT$25,000
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 (FY24–25, $1.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 64% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%BEYOND ALL BORDERS: $500k → 12%FTDD FOUNDATION INC: $560k → 14%THE HOPE HOUSE OF COCKE COUNTY: $298k → 23%THE CENTRAL CHARITIES COMMITTEE OF NEWPORT & COCKE CO INC: $30k → 23%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
Townsend Area Volunteer Fire D

Volunteer fire department

Public Safety & Disaster
2
East Roane County Volunteer Fire Dept

The department provides volunteer fire and EMS service to approximately 3800 residents (and those passing through on I-40) in East Roane County Tennessee.

Public Safety & Disaster
3
Catons Chapel Richardson Cove Volunteer Fire Department Inc

Provides fire protection for all of Sevier County, Tennessee and more specifically, the Catons Chapel and Richardson Cove areas of unincorporated Sevier County, Tennessee.

Public Safety & Disaster
4
Soddy Daisy Firefighters Associatio

For the protection from fire in soddy daisy tn

Public Safety & Disaster
5
Buckingham County Vol Fire Department Dba Dillwyn Fire Department

The purpose of the Buckingham County Vol. Fire Dept. is to provide fire protection to the citizens of Buckingham County and surrounding counties if needed. We also respond to automobile accidents as well as any other request for assistance.

Public Safety & Disaster
6
East Howellsville Volunteer Fire Department Inc

Fire & rescue for the east howellsville township in robeson county, nc.

Public Safety & Disaster
7
Coalton Volunteer Fire Department

Volunteer fire department

Public Safety & Disaster
8
Cooleemee Volunteer Fire Department

Provide fire protection services and fire prevention education for the community of cooleemee, nc.

Public Safety & Disaster
9
Northview Volunteer Fire Department

Volunteer fire department which services parts of knox and sevier counties in tennessee.

Public Safety & Disaster
10
Volunteer Fire Services Inc

Fire protectin and related emergency services for citizens of bedford county, tennessee

Public Safety & Disaster
11
Hawtree Volunteer Fire Department Inc

To provide fire department services for the community of wise, nc and surrounding areas

Public Safety & Disaster
12
Avoca Volunteer Fire Department

Fire protection and safety and rescues services for the residents of Sullivan County Tennessee

Public Safety & Disaster
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Central Charities Committee of Newport and Cocke County Incorporat; the most unlike its peers is Beyond All Borders. 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

17 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. 17 of the 22 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
4/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FIRST TENNESSEE DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT FOUNDATION: $560,000 · Human ServicesFIRST TENNESSEE DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT FOUND…BEYOND ALL BORDERS: $500,000 · Human ServicesBEYOND ALL BORDERSHOPE HOUSE OF COCKE COUNTY: $297,500 · Human ServicesHOPE HOUSE OF COCKE COUNTYAIDNET OF GREENE COUNTY INC: $100,000 · Human ServicesAIDNET OF GREENE COUNTY INC+1 more: $30,000 · Human ServicesAPPALACHIA SERVICE PROJECT INC: $902,315 · Housing & ShelterAPPALACHIA SERVICE PROJECT…SERENITY POINTE INC: $52,000 · Housing & ShelterSERENITY POINTE INCHolston Habitat for Humanity Inc: $400,000 · OtherHolston Habitat for Human…NOLACHUNCKY BAPTIST ASSOCIATION INC: $308,853 · OtherNOLACHUNCKY BAPTIST ASSOC…NEWPORT EMERGENCY & RESCUE SQU: $70,000 · OtherNEWPORT EMERGENCY & RESCU…NUWAY CUSTOM PORTABLE BUILDINGS: $47,667 · OtherNUWAY CUSTOM PORTABLE BUI…+3 more: $60,000 · Other+3 moreUNICOI COUNTY EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES: $215,078 · HealthCENTERVIEW VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMEN T INC: $25,000 · HealthUNITED WAY OF EAST TENNESSEE HIGHLANDS INC: $200,000 · PhilanthropyThe Asheville Police Department Foundation: $130,000 · Crime & LegalGRASSY FORK VOL FIRE DEP: $45,000 · Public Safety & DisasterPARROTTSVILLE VOLUNTEER FIRE: $25,000 · Public Safety & DisasterDEL RIO COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC: $25,000 · Public Safety & DisasterKIWANIS CLUB OF NEWPORT FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · Education
Human Services$1,487,500Housing & Shelter$954,315Other$886,520Health$240,078Philanthropy$200,000Crime & Legal$130,000Public Safety & Disaster$95,000Education$15,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFIRST TENNESSEE DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT FOUNDATION: $560,000 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetBEYOND ALL BORDERS: $500,000 over 1y, 51% of budgetHolston Habitat for Humanity Inc: $400,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetUNICOI COUNTY EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES: $215,078 over 1y, 7.9% of budgetUNITED WAY OF EAST TENNESSEE HIGHLANDS INC: $200,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetTHE CENTRAL CHARITIES COMMITTEE OF NEWPORT AND COCKE COUNTY INCORPORAT: $30,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetPARROTTSVILLE VOLUNTEER FIRE: $25,000 over 1y, 6.5% of budgetCENTERVIEW VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMEN T INC: $25,000 over 1y, 48% of budgetKIWANIS CLUB OF NEWPORT FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 1y, 18% 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.

Paypal Charitable Giv…Amazonsmile Foundation
Paypal Charitable Giving FundDC5.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Mountain Ways Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mountain Ways Inc. 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%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
    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 Mountain Ways Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Mountain Ways Inc 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 22 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Mountain Ways’ 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