Tennessee · Public charity
Tennessee Bar Foundation
The mission of the TENNESSEE BAR FOUNDATION, a philanthropic organization founded by tennessee lawyers, is to honor lawyers who have distinguished themselves in the profession and community and to support, with monetary grants, organizations that provide civil legal assistance to the indigent and organizations that work to improve the…
- $3.6M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 38
- Itemized grants FY2025
- 32
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 16%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Itemized, FY2025
- $3.2M
- The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
- Median grant, FY2025
- $40,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $408,401
- Organizations funded a year
- 12 to 32
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 1
- Total assets, FY2025
- $34M
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 16% of the organizations Tennessee Bar Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 3% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $97k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 38 | $3.2M | 18% |
| FY2024 | 32 | $3.0M | 16% |
| FY2023 | 26 | $1.3M | 27% |
| FY2022 | 24 | $1.3M | 25% |
| FY2021 | 22 | $1.4M | 5% |
| FY2020 | 27 | $1.0M | 33% |
| FY2019 | 17 | $1.6M | 47% |
| FY2018 | 12 | $451k | 17% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Aid of East Tennessee | $2,374,695 | 9 | 8% |
| Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands | $2,223,262 | 9 | 5% |
| Tennessee Justice Center Inc | $1,625,200 | 9 | 6% |
| Memphis Area Legal Services Inc | $1,244,605 | 9 | 27% |
| West Tennessee Legal Services INC | $846,586 | 9 | 3% |
| Community Legal Center | $456,300 | 9 | 12% |
| Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors | $380,207 | 6 | 17% |
| Nashville Conflict Resolution Ctr | $309,864 | 5 | 9% |
| Tennessee Court Appointed Special Advocate Assoc | $295,700 | 9 | 12% |
| Choosing Justice Initiative | $295,000 | 5 | 28% |
Show all 55 grantees
Plus 1 recipient with no EIN on record ($1.1M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Tennessee Bar Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 4 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 46 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · United Way of Middle Tennessee Inc · The Frist Foundation · Memorial Foundation Inc · The Healing Trust Formerly Baptist Healing Hospital Trust · Community Foundation of Greater Memphis Inc · Hca Healthcare Foundation · Dorothy Cate and Thomas F Frist Foundation · Vanderbilt University · Nashville Predators Foundation · Justice Frank F Drowota Trust · The Assisi Foundation of Memphis Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Tennessee Bar Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Tennessee Bar 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.
About Tennessee Bar Foundation
- How much does Tennessee Bar Foundation give?
- Tennessee Bar Foundation reported 38 itemized grants totaling $3,159,034, out of $3,632,343 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 12 and 32 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Tennessee Bar Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (100%).
- Who are Tennessee Bar Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Legal Aid of East Tennessee ($2.4M), Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands ($2.2M), Tennessee Justice Center Inc ($1.6M).
- Does Tennessee Bar Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 16% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Tennessee Bar Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc, United Way of Middle Tennessee Inc, The Frist Foundation.
- Where is Tennessee Bar Foundation based?
- Tennessee Bar Foundation is based in TN.
Play a game based on Tennessee Bar’s filings →