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· Private foundation
SOWELL FAMILY FOUNDATION
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$108k
Granted FY2023
30
Grants
5
Communities
$25k
Largest
01What you fund
01FY2023 · 30 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k28 grants · $73k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $35k
$2,500
Median grant
5
States reached
$1.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
- CROSSROADS CAMPUS (CAPITAL PLEDGE 50 OVER 2 YEARS)$25,000
- CROSSROADS CAMPUS (OPERATIONAL)$10,000
- AMERICAN RED CROSS (TIFFANY CIRCLE)$5,000
- OUR LITTLE ROSES FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY$5,000
- HOPE FUND$5,000
- THIS IS NOTEWORTHY$5,000
- NASHVILLE BANNER$5,000
- UNITED WAY$5,000
- FRIST ART MUSEUM$5,000
- PLANNED PARENTHOOD$5,000
- ST GEORGES - GENERAL$3,000
- RITI$2,500
- EQUITY ALLIANCE$2,500
- TN INNOCENCE PROJECT$2,500
- ST LUKES$2,500
02The need
02
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:
Your human-services grants (FY23–23, $6k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12% — the area typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your 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
Nashville Public Radio
Nashville public radio is a non-profit, non-commercial public media service. nashville public radio's mission is to create and deliver content essential to understanding your world.
Arts & Culture
2
Stars Nashville
Supports young people through the social and emotional barriers they face. our five evidence-based school and community programs address issues like bullying prevention, substance misuse, violence and other mental health issues. in…
Health
3
Nashville Technology Council
Leading voice & advocate for middle tn's information technology ecosystem & tech professionals.
Community Improvement
4
Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville Inc
Arts & business council of greater nashville supports and promotes the arts by driving collaboration between arts and business that contribute to the creativity, vitality, and prosperity of greater nashville/the regions/the city.
Crime & Legal
5
Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau
The mission of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau is to maximize the economic contribution of the convention & tourism industry to Nashville, TN, which is the city's second largest industry. This industry provides jobs to…
Community Improvement
6
Tennessee Performing Arts Center (Tpac)
Create experiences through performing arts; provide arts entertainment/education to tn
Arts & Culture
7
Nashville Academy Theatre and
Nashville children's theatre is a professional theatre company providing the children, families, and educators of middle tennessee with extraordinary shared theatrical experiences that inspire imagination, develop creativity, and build…
Arts & Culture
8
National Public Radio Inc
Arts & Culture
9
Nashville Repertory Theatre Inc
See schedule onashville repertory theatre exists to serve through creating "ah-ha!" moments that inspire empathy, prod intellectual and emotional engagement, and expand the creative capacity of audience and artists though the dynamic…
Arts & Culture
10
Npr Foundation
—
11
Nashville Symphony Association
The Nashville Symphony inspires and engages a diverse and growing community with extraordinary live orchestral music experiences.
Arts & Culture
12
Nashville Public Library Foundation
To enhance the programs, facilities and collections of the nashville public library.
Education
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Nashville Public Television Inc and the most unlike its peers is Nashville Ballet. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
03the grantee network
9 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
9/9
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$85,100Arts & Culture$8,500Human Services$5,500Philanthropy$4,500Civil Rights$2,500Animals$1,500
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.
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.
The Community Foundation of MiddleTN15.1× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Middle · Sandra Schatten Foundation · The Steven & Laurie Eskind · Hca Healthcare Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · American Endowment Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 organisation SOWELL FAMILY FOUNDATION 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.
2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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. 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.
04Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: THIS IS NOTEWORTHY.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
high risk
~2 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 4 filed years.
Track record & reputation
medium risk
4 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 4.2× since.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 352467643 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on THIS IS NOTEWORTHY, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- FlagFinancial stability— Roughly 2 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 8% of their budget — diversified.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Sowell Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Sowell Family Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
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