· Private foundation
The Frist Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
Read this first · the figures below need context
52% of The Frist Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 111 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year The Frist Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 104 organizations, $18M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k48 grants · $203k
- $10k–50k80 grants · $1.4M
- $50k–250k35 grants · $2.8M
- $250k+8 grants · $14M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FRIST ART MUSEUM | $5,895,125 |
| THE CROSSROADS CAMPUS | $1,999,672 |
| OPERATION STAND DOWN TENNESSEE | $1,500,000 |
| FRIENDS OF MILL RIDGE PARK | $1,092,844 |
| FRIST ART MUSEUM | $1,068,021 |
| RENEWAL HOUSE INC | $1,002,441 |
| FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE | $999,836 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE | $250,000 |
| HANDS ON NASHVILLE | $175,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE | $150,000 |
| TEACH FOR AMERICA | $150,000 |
| FRIENDS OF SHELBY PARKS AND BOTTOMS | $150,000 |
| NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT | $130,000 |
| CROSSBRIDGE | $125,000 |
| CHEEKWOOD | $115,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $15.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 97% 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +67% since the first grant, against +24% for the ones you funded once.
209 repeat relationships — 102 still active in FY2023, 107 since wound down; 52 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.3M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
FRIST ART MUSEUM8× · 2017–2024 · $52M · revenue +40% · 47% of their budget- NZNASHVILLE ZOO INC6× · 2017–2022 · $25M · revenue +23% · 28% of their budget
- NPNASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION6× · 2018–2024 · $5.1M · revenue +238% · 38% of their budget
Funded once
- AHALIVE HOSPICE INCone grant, 2022 · $500k · revenue -10%
- NCNASHVILLE CARESgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $300k · revenue +109%
- GFGREENWAYS FOR NASHVILLE INCone grant, 2018 · $150k · revenue -3% · 36% of their budget
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
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.
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…
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.
Leadership tennessee fosters collaborative, non-partisan dialogue on issues of state importance, by connecting and deploying a network of diverse leaders and engaged citizens.
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…
Our mission is to serve our members through education, professionalism, and legislative involvement
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,…
New level community development corporation advocates for low-to-moderate income community by working with legislators, other non-profits, and private developers to create more affordable homes in nashville.
Nashville bar association is organized to improve the practice of law through education, service & fellowship
Civictn and its partners are working individually and collectively to create a more accessible, inclusive, and representative democracy by lifting up the voices of the disenfranchised, restoring the power and accessibility of the vote, and…
Girls write nashville empowers expression through songwriting, production, mentorship and creative community for teen artists. we are an artist and educator-led 501(c)(3) creative youth development program in nashville, tn allied with…
To foster a sustainable network of community health workers and to train frontline public health professionals who possess a deep understanding of and strong ties to the local community.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Rebuilding Together Nashville Inc and the most unlike its peers is Access Services of Middle Tennessee. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.9% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
331 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. 331 of the 421 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 FRIST ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE ZOO INC ↗
- Who funds GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC ↗
- Who funds THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE WARNER PARKS INC ↗
- Who funds Belmont University ↗
- Who funds CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF GREATER NASHVILLE ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE RESCUE MISSION ↗
- Who funds THE HCA HOPE FUND ↗
- Who funds PROJECT RETURN INC ↗
- Who funds THE CROSSROADS CAMPUS ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT INC ↗
- Who funds Young Men's Christian Association of Middle Tennessee (6273) ↗
- Who funds OPERATION STAND DOWN TENNESSEE ↗
- Who funds THE ENSWORTH SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE ↗
- Who funds MARTHA O'BRYAN CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Teach for America Inc ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds SENIOR CITIZENS INC ↗
- Who funds FAITH FAMILY MEDICAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HANDS ON NASHVILLE INC ↗
- Who funds Friends of Mill Ridge Park ↗
- Who funds SILOAM HEALTH ↗
- Who funds RENEWAL HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF MIDDLE TN INC ↗
- Who funds THISTLE FARMS INC ↗
- Who funds ST LUKE'S COMMUNITY HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds CENTENNIAL PARK CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE STATE MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS COALITION ↗
- Who funds THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE JUSTICE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds NEEDLINK NASHVILLE ↗
- Who funds CONEXION AMERICAS ↗
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: Memorial Foundation Inc · Hca Healthcare Foundation · United Way of Middle Tennessee Inc · Dorothy Cate and Thomas F Frist Foundation · The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · Joe C Davis Foundation · Nashville Predators Foundation · The Healing Trust Formerly Baptist Healing Hospital Trust · The Steven & Laurie Eskind Family Foundation · The Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund Inc · Carolyn Smith Foundation · Louie M & Betty M Phillips Foundatn
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 The Frist 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.
- The Trustees of Princeton University — 11% of income from government
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 The Frist Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Frist 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.