· Private foundation
The Allen Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $8k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $73k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ACTORS BRIDGE ENSEMBLE | $27,000 |
| SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK | $26,000 |
| GREENWOOD MUSIC CAMP | $20,000 |
| CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL | $8,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
US giving: 81% of grant dollars ($438k). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 19% that went abroad ($105k) is mapped below.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 79% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Beyond the US: 19% of all-years giving ($105k)
1 country, by the recipient’s country on the filing.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
11 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- GMGreenwood Music Camp Inc3× · 2020–2025 · $56k · revenue +585%
- ABACTORS BRIDGE ENSEMBLE THEATER OF NASHVILLE INC2× · 2023–2025 · $43k · revenue +63%
- SPSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC2× · 2017–2018 · $33k · revenue +10%
Funded once
- PVPIONEER VALLEY WALDORF SCHOOLone grant, 2017 · $17k
- IRInternational Rescue Committee INCone grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue -4%
- OCOASIS CENTER INCgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $6k · revenue +50%
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. 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 bar association is organized to improve the practice of law through education, service & fellowship
To be north carolina's state orchestra, an orchestra achieving the highest level of artistic quality and performance standards, and embracing its dual legacies of statewide service and music education.
The tennessee justice center (tjc) advocates on behalf of low-income tennesseans in areas of public policy having the greatest impact on their health and welfare.
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…
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…
The mission of the humane society is to save and enhance the lives of pets through cooperative and innovative approaches to adoption, spay/neuter, sheltering and community engagement.
Legal aid of east tennessee provides legal representation, legal education, and other civil legal services for the low-income population in our community through advocacy of all types.
See Disclosure Above.
The Southern Center for Human Rights is working for equality, dignity, and justice for people impacted by the criminal legal system in the Deep South. SCHR fights for a world free from mass incarceration, the death penalty, the…
The Equal Justice Society (EJS) is transforming the nations consciousness on racethrough law, social science, and the arts. EJS works to dismantle structural andinstitutional racism to advance robust equal protection under the Fourteenth…
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.
How this is measured
10 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 19 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Greenwood Music Camp Inc ↗
- Who funds ACTORS BRIDGE ENSEMBLE THEATER OF NASHVILLE INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NASHVILLE ↗
- Who funds International Rescue Committee INC ↗
- Who funds FRANKIE'S FRIENDS INC ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE HUMANE ASSOCIATION AKA NASHVILLE HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds OASIS CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds ST MARYS SEWANEE A CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL ↗
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 Boult Family Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Allen Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Allen Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Allen Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Allen 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.
Play a game based on Allen’s filings →