· Private foundation
Sharpe Family Foundation Inc
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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
55% of Sharpe Family Foundation Inc’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Chattanooga Christian Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 20 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year Sharpe Family Foundation Inc named its own grantees at scale: 11 organizations, $50k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| KELCURT FOUNDATION | $4,000 |
| THE EXCEPTIONAL BEAN | $4,000 |
| CAMP HORIZON | $4,000 |
| FRIENDS OF THE TROOPS | $3,000 |
| RENEW A NATION | $3,000 |
| RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE | $3,000 |
| BRIGHT SCHOOL | $2,002 |
| CHATTANOOGA HEART ASSOCIATION | $2,001 |
| AUSTIN HATCHER FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,000 |
| KIDNEY FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,000 |
| RHEA COUNTY BEEKEEPERS ASSOC | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,500 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–20, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +34% since the first grant, against +33% for the ones you funded once.
35 repeat relationships — 24 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 65% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $74k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- EBEXCEPTIONAL BEAN4× · 2022–2025 · $26k · revenue +33%
- RRENEWANATION4× · 2022–2025 · $16k · revenue +25%
- KFKelcurt Foundation Inc2× · 2024–2025 · $13k · revenue +34%
Funded once
- BUburk un methodist churcone grant, 2020 · $21k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2019 · $17k
- NUnew union baptist churcone grant, 2020 · $2k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
King's academy is a pre-k-8th grade independent christian school in nashville, tennessee, providing a classically inspired education to a racially and socioeconomically balanced student body.
Christ-centered school educating children of diverse racial & socioeconomic backgrounds by establishing a biblical worldview & preparing each child to flourish academically, emotionally, socially & spiritually.
Harding academy of memphis, inc. is a private school providing education from pre kindergarten through grade twelve.
The king's christian school is a k-12 prepatory school that equips and strengthens students through education and example, that they might stand firmly upon the word of god and to become effective servant-leaders who impact the world…
To prepare students to lead and serve with distinction while representing christ and his kingdom in all areas of home, church, society and culture.
Christian day school with pre-k thru 12
Through excellence in education, charlotte country day school develops the potential of each student by fostering intellectual curiosity, principled character, ethical leadership and a responsibility to serve. the key values and…
The mission of harrells christian academy is to prepare each student for higher education within an environment that instills judeo-christian values, fosters self-discipline, enhances creativity, and promises a love and respect for…
Cookson hills christian school has been providing home, school, and therapy for kids who are at-risk, since 1957.
To partner with families in providing students a christ-centered and academically challenging education equipping them with a biblical worldview as they grow in understandings, attitudes, skills, and in favor with god and man.
The organization is a christian school with the purpose of educating students in grades pre-k-12 with a christian curriculum with christian teachers in a christian environment.
Christian education
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Young Life and 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.
Your grantees are a median of 23 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 14% of your grantees by number, and just 9% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
25 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. 25 of the 73 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EXCEPTIONAL BEAN ↗
- Who funds RENEWANATION ↗
- Who funds Kelcurt Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE TROOPS ↗
- Who funds ON POINT ↗
- Who funds SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC ↗
- Who funds YOUNG LIFE ↗
- Who funds AUSTIN HATCHER FOUNDATION FOR PEDIATRIC CANCER ↗
- Who funds BOYD BUCHANAN SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds BLAZING HOPE RANCH ↗
- Who funds BRIGHT SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds Habitat for Humanity ↗
- Who funds THE 247 MOVEMENT ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC SCHOOL BIBLE STUDY COMMITTEE ↗
- Who funds CHAMBLISS CENTER FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds SKYUKA HALL ↗
- Who funds RHEA OF SUNSHINE INCORPORATED ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Chattanooga Christian Community Foundation · The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc · Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation · George R Johnson Family Foundation · Jack and Charlotte Frost Family Foundation · Hamico Inc · Weldon F Osborne Foundation Inc · Benwood Foundation Inc · McKenzie Foundation D/B/A the McKenzie Foundation · Tucker Foundation · Steve and Lisa Frost Family Foundation · Frank Jb & Emma S Varallo Foundation
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 Sharpe Family Foundation 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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.