· Private foundation
The Melrose Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
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.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| INTERFAITH HEALTH CENTER | $5,000 |
| KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART | $5,000 |
| VOLUNTEER MINISTRY CENTER | $2,000 |
| SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF EAST TN | $2,000 |
| EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION | $1,500 |
| UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM INC | $1,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE TN VALLEY | $1,000 |
| BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF EAST TN | $1,000 |
| TENNESSEE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY | $1,000 |
| SHANGRI-LA THER ACADEMY OF RIDING | $1,000 |
| FISH HOSPITALITY PANTRIES | $1,000 |
| WESLEY HOUSE COMMUNITY CENTER | $1,000 |
| HELEN ROSS MCNABB FOUNDATION | $900 |
| LEGAL AID OF EAST TENNESSEE | $750 |
| COMMUNITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS | $500 |
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 (FY17–25, $12k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-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 +48% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
51 repeat relationships: 32 still active in FY2025, 19 since wound down; 2 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, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $800 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- IHINTERFAITH HEALTH CENTER9× · 2017–2025 · $44k · revenue +256%
- KMKNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART9× · 2017–2025 · $37k · revenue +41%
- VMVOLUNTEER MINISTRY CENTER9× · 2017–2025 · $18k · revenue +142%
Funded once
- KZKNOXVILLE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS INCone grant, 2024 · $300 · revenue 0%
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.
The academy serves as the local medica society for physicians of knox county and surrounding counties in east tennessee. its purpose is to afford a medium for free discussion and exchange of ideas among physicians.
To provide no-cost health care to families who have no insurance and do not qualify for the states low income insurance program.
To provide affordable housing to low and moderate income persons in east tennessee through first-time homebuyer education; assist with mortgage loans, downpayments, and closing costs; build new single family housing; develop multi-family…
Knoxville montessori association, inc. prepares children for the world. our goal is to help your child become an independent, responsible adult with a passionate lifelong love of learning.
To promote, assist, and support the development, growth, and sustainability of child advocacy centers in their service to at-risk, abused, and neglected children and their families.
The Childrens Center of Knoxvilles program is planned to help each child build upon his or her strengths and to enhance the childs opportunities for growth where needed. Social skills, emotional health, self development and education are…
Tennessee children's home, inc. is a not-for-profit organization that provides a home for neglected and pre-delinquent children who have an unstable family situation and who are beginning to develop problems which cannot be solved in their…
Educate preschool through twelfth grade children in a Christian environment while developing them spiritually,academically, emotionally, and physically with Jesus Christ as their standard and the Bible as their foundation.
To provide services for senior citizens in knox county
Primarily to spread the gospel of jesus christ in downtown knoxville, tennessee by serving the community of the greater knoxville area through the provision of services, resources, worship, teaching, fellowship and networking capabilities.
To put christian principles into practice through programs and activities that develop the spirit, mind and body of youth, adults and families in knoxville, tn and surrounding communities. the ymca encourages growth for youth development,…
By creating a safe and structured two year residential program the Hope House of Tennessee will aim to equip and empower personal and educational growth economic self-sufficiency and a deeper understanding of Christs unconditional love.
How this is measured
32 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. 32 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 INTERFAITH HEALTH CENTER ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds VOLUNTEER MINISTRY CENTER ↗
- Who funds EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM INC ↗
- Who funds WESLEY HOUSE COMMUNITY CENTER CO ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE TENNESSEE VALL ↗
- Who funds SHANGRI-LA THERAPEUTIC ACADEMY OF RIDING INC ↗
- Who funds HELEN ROSS MCNABB CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HOLSTON HOME FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds IJAMS NATURE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds SERTOMA CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds THE FLORENCE CRITTENTON AGENCY INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER ↗
- Who funds SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF EAST TENNESSEE ↗
- Who funds LEGAL AID OF EAST TENNESSEE ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUT COUNCIL OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS INC ↗
- Who funds JOY OF MUSIC YOUTH MUSIC SCHOOL CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds Tennessee Lions Charities Inc ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY SOCIETY INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds THE MUSE KNOXVILLE ↗
- Who funds KNOX AREA RESCUE MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF EAST TENNESSEE INC ↗
- Who funds HOSPITALITY PANTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds HELEN ROSS MCNABB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Young Mens Christian Association ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION ↗
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: East Tennessee Foundation · Akima Club Inc · Haslam Family Foundation Inc · The Clayton Homes Foundation · United Way of Greater Knoxvilleinc · Thompson Charitable Foundation · The Clayton Family Foundation · Trinity Health Foundation of East Tennessee · The Aslan Foundation · Lawson Family Foundation · The Boyd Foundation · Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Melrose Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Melrose Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Melrose Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Melrose 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 Melrose’s filings →