· Private foundation
Sowell Family Foundation
Its FY2023 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k29 grants · $78k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $35k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CROSSROADS CAMPUS (CAPITAL PLEDGE 50 OVER 2 YEARS) | $25,000 |
| CROSSROADS CAMPUS (OPERATIONAL) | $10,000 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS (TIFFANY CIRCLE) | $5,000 |
| THIS IS NOTEWORTHY | $5,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD | $5,000 |
| FRIST ART MUSEUM | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| UNITED WAY | $5,000 |
| HOPE FUND | $5,000 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS (TIFFANY CIRCLE) | $5,000 |
| OUR LITTLE ROSES FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $3,000 |
| EQUITY ALLIANCE | $2,500 |
| RITI | $2,500 |
| NASHVILLE BALLET | $2,500 |
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 (FY23–23, $6k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 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.
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.
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.
Nashville banner is a locally owned, community supported, civic news organization. we exist to empower the people of nashville to make informed decisions by providing non-partisan journalism from an independent, nonprofit newsroom. we are…
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.
To bravely imagine the power and passion of opera and who can sing and enjoy it.
To provide facilities, services, and programs of the highest quality for the greatest benefit of the people, institutions, and communities of the state, and to take a leadership role in fostering the performing arts, arts education,…
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.
The nashville food project brings people together to grow, cook, and share nourishing food, with the goals of cultivating community and alleviating hunger in our city.
Nashville bar association is organized to improve the practice of law through education, service & fellowship
Tirrc is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration. our mission is to build power, amplify our voices, and organize communities to advocate for our rights. our vision is a stronger, more inclusive tennessee where people of all…
Nashville cares exists to end the hiv epidemic, promote comprehensive sexual health and end sexual health stigmatization and discrimination through prevention, education, treatment, support, advocacy, and strategic partnership.
National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…
Nashville conflict resolution center (ncrc) works to provide access to justice for all tennesseeans. through a restorative approach of mediation, we help people resolve legal crises quickly, safely, and effectively outside of a courtroom.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Equity Alliance 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.
12 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. 12 of the 30 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 THIS IS NOTEWORTHY ↗
- Who funds FRIST ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE BALLET ↗
- Who funds RALLY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE EQUITY ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE JUSTICE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT ↗
- Who funds Impact100 Nashville ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE ZOO INC ↗
- Who funds INTERFAITH DENTAL CLINIC OF NASHVILLE ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE PUBLIC TELEVISION INC ↗
- Who funds PROJECT REDESIGN INC ↗
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: Hca Healthcare Foundation · The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · Dorothy Cate and Thomas F Frist Foundation · Memorial Foundation Inc · James R Meadows Jr Foundation · Enchiridion Foundation · The Steven & Laurie Eskind Family Foundation · Eden Foundation · Sandra Schatten Foundation · The Blum Family Foundation · Dettwiller Foundation · The Healing Trust Formerly Baptist Healing Hospital Trust
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 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Sowell Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Sowell Family Foundation 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.