· Private foundation
The Ayers Foundation Trust
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, FY2023 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k15 grants · $30k
- $10k–50k9 grants · $234k
- $50k–250k6 grants · $707k
- $250k+6 grants · $9.8M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DECATUR CO BOARD OF EDUCATION | $5,000,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TN | $1,784,000 |
| BELMONT UNIVERSITY | $1,500,250 |
| UNICOI COUNTY UNITED WAY | $1,020,000 |
| VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER | $250,000 |
| BILL DANCE FRIENDS AND FAMILY FOUNDATION | $250,000 |
| FREED-HARDEMAN UNIVERSITY | $200,000 |
| EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LEADERSHIP | $106,600 |
| STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION | $100,000 |
| ST JUDES CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL | $50,000 |
| GIRL SCOUTS OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE | $50,000 |
| UNICOI AND COCKE COUNTIES | $37,648 |
| SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK | $35,500 |
| FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH | $32,905 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY24–25, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +13% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
11 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 24 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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, 24% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6.8M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BUBelmont University2× · 2024–2025 · $3.0M · revenue +11%
- VUVanderbilt University Medical Center2× · 2024–2025 · $500k · revenue +13%
- FUFREED-HARDEMAN UNIVERSITY2× · 2024–2025 · $400k · revenue +13%
Funded once
- ETEast TN State University Foundationone grant, 2024 · $200k
- L-Lipscomb -LdrshpPublServiceone grant, 2024 · $160k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $150k
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.
To be a successful physician led, professionally managed medical practice that benefits our patients and our community, while supporting the UT Health Science Center's mission through clinical excellence, financial responsibility and a…
See Disclosure Above.
To promote and support literacy, scientific, educational,scholarship,research, and developmental goals at tennessee state university.
Cumberland Medical Center provides quality healthcare, in alignment with Covenant Health's mission to serve the community by improving the quality of life through better health, regardless of the patient's ability to pay.
To maintain high standards for nursing homes in the state of tennessee and to seek the solutions to problems common to members of the association.
To facilitate innovative research and education, improve healthcare programs that benefit our nation's veterans, and provide outstanding support and advocacy to the research, education, and training endeavors of the tennessee valley…
The foundation enriches the lives of the students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university of tennessee through alumni engagement, financial stewardship and private gift support.
Methodist Medical Center provides quality healthcare, in alignment with Covenant Health's mission to serve the community by improving the quality of life through better health regardless of a patient's ability to pay.
The organizations mission is to promote and maintain a business climate favorable to businesses in tennessee.
The tennessee independent colleges and universities association (ticua) engages tennessee's private colleges and universities to work collaboratively in areas of public policy, cost containment, and professional development to better serve…
The mission of tccn is to support, educate, and represent non-profit organizations that provide charitable healthcare services to low-income, uninsured, and underserved tennesseans. tccn envisions a strong, compassionate healthcare safety…
The united way of south central tennessee's mission is to improve lives by advancing opportunities for education, health, and financial stability for all. its vision is to be the primary community solutions leader for human services.
How this is measured
23 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. 23 of the 54 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 THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ↗
- Who funds Belmont University ↗
- Who funds Vanderbilt University Medical Center ↗
- Who funds FREED-HARDEMAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUTS OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION ↗
- Who funds BALLAD HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LANE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds THE FOUNDATION FOR THE COLLEGE SYSTEM OF TENNESSEE ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF UNICOI COUNTY ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE WILDLIFE RESOURCES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MEN OF VALOR ↗
- Who funds CENTERSTONE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF WEST TENNESSEINC STARKS ↗
- Who funds SMALL MIRACLES THERAPEUTIC EQUESTRIAN CENTER INC ↗
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: Ayers Foundation · The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · Tennessee Health Foundation Inc · The Frist Foundation · United Way of Middle Tennessee Inc · West Tn Healthcare Foundation Inc · Stowers Machinery Foundation Inc · Joe C Davis Foundation · Memorial Foundation Inc · Hca Healthcare Foundation · AT&T Foundation · Chattanooga Christian Community Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Ayers Foundation Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ayers Foundation Trust. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Ayers’ filings →