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Foundation DossiersMostly funded, not a grantmaker — see who funds it →
Plinth

· Public charity

Nashville Zoo Inc

In fulfillment of our mission to inspire a culture of understanding and discovery of our natural world through conservation, innovation and leadership, our goal is to build a first class zoo for middle tennessee and to develop a facility that is recognized for excellence in animal care and global conservation with strong community value…

$848k
Granted FY2024still arriving
8
Grants FY2024still arriving
7
States reached
$75k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.

Animals$1.8MEnvironment$83kCommunity Improvement$25k
02FY2024 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 8 grants below total $257,083 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $848,174 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $591,091 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 · FY2024

  • $10k–50k5 grants · $76k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $181k
$25,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$183M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY$75,000
SAVE GIRAFFES NOW$55,654
INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION$50,000
MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION$25,000
ASSOCIATION OF ZOOS AND AQUARIUMS$16,669
CENTER FOR ECOSYSTEM SENTINELS$14,760
TURTLE SURVIVAL ALLIANCE$10,000
RED PANDA NETWORK$10,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 43% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 11%AMERICAN ASSOCATION OF ZOO KEEPERS: $24k → 15%NEBRASKA WILDLIFE REHAD INC: $25k → 12%MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION: $25k → 6%LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY: $10k → 8%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK: $50k → 10%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $75k → 28%INTERNATIONAL RHINO FDN: $59k → 11%SAVE GIRAFFES NOW: $56k → 14%HOUSTON ZOO INC: $30k → 16%SIA: $10k → 19%TURTLE SURVIVAL ALLIANCE: $10k → 12%PANTHER RIDGE CONSERVATION CENTER INC: $22k → 11%FRIENDS OF ASA WRIGHT NATURE CENTER: $53k → 12%ZOO MIAMI: $25k → 15%UTOPIA FOUNDATION: $25k → 7%RED PANDA NETWORK: $50k → 15%DIAN FOSSEY GORILLA FUND: $50k → 13%GRACE CENTER: $50k → 12%CLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ANDEAN BEAR CONSERVATION ALLIANCE: $25k → 17%CENTER FOR ECOSYSTEM SENTINELS: $15k → 9%CHEETAH CONSERVATION FUND: $27k → 9%GORILLA REHABILITATION & CONSERVATION EDUCATION: $85k → 7%MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION: $25k → 6%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK: $50k → 10%INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION: $50k → 11%SAVE GIRAFFES NOW: $33k → 14%HOUSTON ZOO INC: $23k → 16%FRIENDS OF THE ASA WRIGHT NATU: $25k → 12%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION GLOBAL: $15k → 14%RED PANDA NETWORK: $15k → 15%CLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ANDEAN BEAR CONSERVATION ALLIANCE: $25k → 17%CHEETAH CONSERVATION FUND: $15k → 9%GORILLA REHABILITATION & CONSERVATION EDUCATION: $75k → 7%MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION: $25k → 6%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK: $25k → 10%INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION: $50k → 11%HOUSTON ZOO INC: $11k → 16%GORILLA REHABILITATION & CONSERVATION EDUCATION: $30k → 7%MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION: $25k → 6%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK: $25k → 10%INTERNATIONAL RHINO FDN: $50k → 11%GORILLA REHABILITATION & CONSERVATION EDUCATION: $25k → 7%MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION: $25k → 6%THE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FDN: $25k → 11%MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION: $25k → 6%THE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FDN: $25k → 11%THE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FDN: $25k → 11%THE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FDN: $25k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

Which US states your grants reach

ME
WA
MN
MI
NY
OR
OH
CA
CO
NE
KY
VA
MD
AZ
NC
SC
OK
GA
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region — $492k on the FY2024 return

Schedule F, as filed: 4 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Sub-Saharan Africa$202k · 41% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: AFRICAN TAXA, AFRICAN VULTURES, GRAUERS GORILLAS, KOMODO, LEMUS, MOUNTAIN BONGO, OPHANAGE, PAINTED DOG, AND LEWA CONSERVATION

South America$169k · 34% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: ANDEAN BEAR, ANTEATER PROJECT, TAPIR, PROYECTO TITI, AND RAREC

East Asia and the Pacific$98k · 20% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: ASIAN HORNBILLS, BABIRUSA, GINNON TAXA, MALEO, PANGOLIN, SAOLA, TOMPOTIKA, AND KOMODO

Central America and the Caribbean$22k · 5% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: TOUCAN CONSERVATION

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. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.6M · 19 repeat orgs$279k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +57% since the first grant, against +52% for the ones you funded once.

19 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 13 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

19
10

Total granted

$1.6M
$189k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+57%
+52%

Still filing today

95%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 65% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $90k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
AnimalsEnvironmentEducationPublic BenefitInternationalCommunity ImprovementOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • TI
    THE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION
    8× · 2017–2024 · $309k · revenue +27%
  • GR
    GORILLA REHABILITATION CONSERVATION EDUCATION (GRACE) CENTER INC
    5× · 2017–2021 · $265k · revenue +87%
  • MZ
    MINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION
    7× · 2017–2024 · $160k · revenue +158%

Funded once

  • DF
    Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International Inc
    one grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue +20%
  • UF
    UTOPIA FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +9%
  • ZM
    ZOO MIAMI FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue -3%

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

04Your field

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.

1
Zoo Outreach Organisation

Wildlife conservation, research and education.

Environment
2
World Wildlife Fund Inc

Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)

Environment
3
African Wildlife Foundation Inc

Awf's mission is to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern africa. we work to equip african governments, institutions, business, and communities with the tools, insights, and support they need to define, own, and realize a…

Animals
4
Zambia Carnivore Programme

To safeguard large carnivores, their prey, and habitat in zambia through applied research, conservation, and education.

Animals
5
International Primate Protection League

Protecting the world's remaining primates by monitoring and exposing illegal trade, supporting a worldwide network of overseas sanctuaries and ngo's, publicising the plight of abused primates, and operating a sanctuary for resued gibbons.

Animals
6
Panthera Corporation

Panthera's mission is the conservation of the world's 40 wild cat species, many of which are endangered or threatened. panthera develops, implements and oversees wild cat conservation strategies on a global scale.

Animals
7
Wildlife Alliance Inc

Wildlife alliance is the leader in direct protection of forests and wildlife in tropical asia. our mission is to combat deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and poverty by partnering with local communities and governments.…

Animals
8
Wilderness Conservation Foundation
Environment
9
Conservation International Foundation

Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.

Environment
10
Dazzle Africa

Dazzle africa's mission is to partner with local organizations to provide programs in conservation, education and community development. the organization aims to ensure that future generations are self-sufficient and iconic african…

Animals
11
Mozparks Initiative Inc

Mozparks initiativ, inc has been established to address and defeat the onslaught on elephant, rhino, and other species of wildlife and the habitat of wildlife in mozambique. mozparks partners with non-governmental organizations, local…

—
12
Wildlife Protection Solutions

To protect endangered species.

Animals

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Wildlife Conservation Network Inc and the most unlike its peers is Southeastern Bat Diversity Network. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%7%5–10yr19%10%10–20yr16%40%20–35yr13%23%35–55yr16%20%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%5%5–10yr19%20%10–20yr16%41%20–35yr13%18%35–55yr16%17%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/31
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,534

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

30 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. 30 of the 31 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
30/30
Grantees still filing
24/30
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION — $309,075 · AnimalsTHE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATIONGORILLA REHABILITATION CONSERVATION EDUCATION (GRACE) CENTER INC — $265,000 · AnimalsGORILLA REHABILITATION CONSERVATION EDUCATION (GRACE) CENTER INCMINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION — $160,000 · AnimalsMINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATIONWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC — $158,771 · AnimalsWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INCSAVE GIRAFFES NOW — $88,619 · AnimalsSAVE GIRAFFES NOWAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ZOOLOGICAL PARKS AND AQUARIUMS INC — $81,311 · AnimalsRED PANDA NETWORK — $80,000 · AnimalsWildlife Conservation Society — $75,000 · AnimalsHouston Zoo Inc — $63,600 · AnimalsCLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $60,000 · AnimalsPOINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $60,000 · Animals+8 more — $186,828 · Animals+8 moreFRIENDS OF THE ASA WRIGHT NATURE CENTRE INC — $88,000 · EnvironmentProyecto Titi Inc — $15,000 · EnvironmentCONSERVATION ALLIES — $8,202 · EnvironmentDian Fossey Gorilla Fund International Inc — $50,000 · OtherSia Inc — $35,000 · OtherBAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL — $10,000 · OtherDUKE UNIVERSITY — $25,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION — $14,760 · EducationAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ZOO KEEPERS — $29,000 · Public BenefitUTOPIA FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 · Community ImprovementSOUTHEASTERN BAT DIVERSITY NETWORK — $7,293 · Science & TechRAINFOREST TRUST — $6,850 · International
Animals$1,588,204Environment$111,202Other$95,000Education$39,760Public Benefit$29,000Community Improvement$25,000Science & Tech$7,293International$6,850

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION — $309,075 over 8y, 1.7% of budgetGORILLA REHABILITATION CONSERVATION EDUCATION (GRACE) CENTER INC — $265,000 over 5y, 13% of budgetMINNESOTA ZOO FOUNDATION — $160,000 over 7y, 0.6% of budgetWILDLIFE CONSERVATION NETWORK INC — $158,771 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetSAVE GIRAFFES NOW — $88,619 over 2y, 11% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ASA WRIGHT NATURE CENTRE INC — $88,000 over 3y, 87% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ZOOLOGICAL PARKS AND AQUARIUMS INC — $81,311 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetRED PANDA NETWORK — $80,000 over 4y, 5.6% of budgetWildlife Conservation Society — $75,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHouston Zoo Inc — $63,600 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $60,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetPOINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $60,000 over 6y, 1.1% of budgetCheetah Conservation Fund — $51,883 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetDian Fossey Gorilla Fund International Inc — $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ZOO KEEPERS — $29,000 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetTHE TURTLE SURVIVAL ALLIANCE FOUNDATION — $25,345 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetUTOPIA FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY — $25,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetZOO MIAMI FOUNDATION INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNEBRASKA WILDLIFE REHAB INC — $25,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetPANTHER RIDGE CONSERVATION CENTER INC — $22,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetLewa Wildlife Conservancy USA — $17,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetProyecto Titi Inc — $15,000 over 2y, 9.8% of budgetWildlife Conservation Global Inc — $15,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION — $14,760 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBAT CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL — $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCONSERVATION ALLIES — $8,202 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetSOUTHEASTERN BAT DIVERSITY NETWORK — $7,293 over 1y, 19% of budgetRAINFOREST TRUST — $6,850 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ZOO VETERINARIANS CO — $5,100 over 1y, 0.4% of budget
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.

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.

Houston Zoo IncUtah Zoological Socie…Dallas Zoo Management…Jacksonville Zoologic…Detroit Zoological So…Columbus Zoological P…Zoological Society of…Dallas Zoological Soc…East Coast Zoological…Jpmorgan Chase Founda…Network for GoodMorgan Stanley Global…
Houston Zoo IncTX17.9× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Houston Zoo Inc · Utah Zoological Society · Dallas Zoo Management Inc · Jacksonville Zoological Society Inc · Detroit Zoological Society · Columbus Zoological Park Association · Zoological Society of San Diego · Dallas Zoological Society · East Coast Zoological Society of Florida Inc · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Network for Good · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc

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 Nashville Zoo Inc 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 60%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Zoo Miami Foundation Inc — 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
6get no government money at all
1report 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

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 31 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines