· Private foundation
The Ward & Shelley Cammack Family Foundation
Its FY2022 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
94% of The Ward & Shelley Cammack Family Foundation’s FY2022 grant dollars went to American Endowment Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 3 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
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 FY2017–2022.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k4 grants · $10k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $160k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION | $159,608 |
| HISTORIC NASHVILLE INC | $2,500 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF TENNESSEE AND NORTH MISSISSIPPI | $2,500 |
| BELCOURT THEATRE | $2,500 |
| JOHN LAIRD CEMETERY ASSOCIATION | $2,500 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 96% of your 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.
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.
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.
The mission of the Tennessee Aquarium is to connect people with nature and empower them to make informed decisions about water and wildlife.
The Nashville Symphony inspires and engages a diverse and growing community with extraordinary live orchestral music experiences. As Middle Tennessee continues to grow and transform, the Nashville Symphony will be a financially robust,…
The nashville tree foundation works to preserve and enhance nashville's urban forests by planting trees in urban areas, identifying the oldest and largest trees in davidson county, and educating the public about the value of trees. all…
Greenways for nashville promotes, supports, and enhances a system of greenways and open space in nashville and davidson county.
The national trust for historic preservation in the united states protects significant places representing our diverse cultural experiences by taking direct action and inspiring broad public support.
To sustain the vibrancy of nashville's centennial park, home to the historic parthenon, by supporting metro parks in revitalizing & activating this public green space to ensure the park remains a welcoming destination for recreation,…
The georgia trust works for the preservation and revitalization of georgia's diverse historic resources and advocates for their appreciation, protection, and use.
The battle of nashville preservation society, inc. (bonps) was formed in 1992 by a group of nashvillians who recognized that the last remnants of the battlefield were quickly disappearing, and that the battle of nashville was poorly…
Theatre can lead to extraordinary moments of shared imagination. it enables us to stand in anothers shoes to better understand ourselves and the world around us. it shows us who we are, who we have been, who we could be. the nt delivers on…
Protect, preserve, and plant urban tree canopy.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Belcourt Theatre Inc and the most unlike its peers is Casa Chirilagua. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 14 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
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 AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR EMPOWERMENT ↗
- Who funds Historic Nashville Inc ↗
- Who funds BELCOURT THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds Forest Park Forever Inc ↗
- Who funds CASA CHIRILAGUA ↗
- Who funds GIDEONS ARMY GRASSROOTS ARMY FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds APPALACHIAN TRAIL CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER ↗
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: The Frist Foundation · The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
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 Ward & Shelley Cammack Family 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.
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 Ward & Shelley Cammack Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Ward & Shelley Cammack Family 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.