· Private foundation
Tucker Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
Read this first · the figures below need context
52% of Tucker Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to The Community Foundation Of Greater Chattanooga Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 54 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year Tucker Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 56 organizations, $4M. 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 FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k28 grants · $98k
- $10k–50k28 grants · $538k
- $50k–250k16 grants · $1.6M
- $250k+5 grants · $2.1M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF CLEVELAND AND BRADLEY CO | $817,819 |
| VANDERBILT MEDICAL CENTER | $500,000 |
| ON POINT | $266,700 |
| OPEN SPACE INSTITUTE LAND TRUST | $250,000 |
| YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP ACADEMY FOUNDATION | $250,000 |
| THE LAND TRUST FOR TENNESSEE | $225,000 |
| ERLANGER HEALTH SYSTEMS FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| UT FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN CONSERVANCY | $140,000 |
| BUFFALO BILL CENTER OF THE WEST | $138,644 |
| BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION WORKFORCE CENTER | $125,000 |
| SOUTHEASTERN GRASSLANDS INSTITUTE | $100,000 |
| THE CARING PLACE | $60,000 |
| LEE UNIVERSITY | $60,000 |
| BRADLEY CLEVELAND PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION | $55,000 |
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 (FY20–24, $234k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% 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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 19% of Tucker Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 87% of the giving stays in TN; read by stated purpose it is 80% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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.
92 repeat relationships — 67 still active in FY2022, 25 since wound down; 50 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call). Read against FY2022, 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, 77% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $540k 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
- OPON POINT5× · 2020–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +6%
- OSOPEN SPACE INSTITUTE LAND TRUST INC2× · 2021–2022 · $500k · revenue +65%
- TLTHE LAND TRUST FOR TENNESSEE INC3× · 2020–2023 · $260k · revenue +76%
Funded once
- CHCHATTANOOGA HISTORY CENTERone grant, 2020 · $500k
- TTTHE TENNESSEE RIVER GORGE TRUST INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $300k · revenue +107%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $75k
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.
To restore and protect clean water and healthy ecosystems for rivers in tennessee by employing scientific expertise and collaborative relationships to develop, promote, and support broad community stewardship and action.
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.
The mission of the lake champlain land trust is to save the scenic beauty, natural communities, and recreational amenities of lake champlain by permanently preserving significant islands, shoreline areas, and natural communities in the…
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.
Founded in 1902, barton college is a four-year, private, liberal arts college located in wilson, n.c. the barton experience focuses on academic excellence within a wide range of professional and liberal arts programs leading to…
The tulsa regional chamber transforms the tulsa region by attracting and retaining employers, talent and tourism for long-term prosperity.
Conservation legacy engages future leaders who protect, restore, and enhance our nation's lands through community-based service.in 2024, conservation legacy engaged 2,524 participants who completed over 1.5 million service hours on public…
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…
Cheekwood's mission is to celebrate and preserve cheekwood as a historical landmark where beauty and excellence in art and horticulture nurture the spirit and serve as inspiration for a diverse and broad audience.cheekwood will be a…
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,…
The mission of the association is to inspire "deeper connection, better understanding, and enduring support for our public lands."
To explore the world through authentic experiences, empowering students to engage deeply and be ready for what is next.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc and the most unlike its peers is Hands of Hope the Foundation of Cancer and Hematology Centers of Western Mi. 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 34 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% 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.
109 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. 109 of the 176 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 COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF CLEVELAND AND BRADLEY COUNTY ↗
- Who funds The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc ↗
- Who funds ON POINT ↗
- Who funds OPEN SPACE INSTITUTE LAND TRUST INC ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds THE TENNESSEE RIVER GORGE TRUST INC ↗
- Who funds THE LAND TRUST FOR TENNESSEE INC ↗
- Who funds LEE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds THE NEW MUSEUM AT THE BRADFORD BRINTON RANCH ↗
- Who funds CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds BRADLEY CLEVELAND PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Creative Discovery Museum ↗
- Who funds THE CARING PLACE ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH ↗
- Who funds ST ANDREW'S-SEWANEE SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds WYOMING STOCK GROWERS LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds CHAMBLISS CENTER FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds FIRST THINGS FIRST INC ↗
- Who funds Teach for America Inc ↗
- Who funds DOUBLEDAY SPORTS COMPLEX INC ↗
- Who funds SKYUKA HALL ↗
- Who funds BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION WORKFORCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds CITY FIELDS ↗
- Who funds BRIGHT SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds YELLOW BIRD INITIATIVES ↗
- Who funds PLACE OF HOPE INC ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds NORTHSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE ↗
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: Chattanooga Christian Community Foundation · Benwood Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc · Robert F Stone Foundation AKA Bobby Stone Foundation · Weldon F Osborne Foundation Inc · The Maclellan Foundation Inc · George R Johnson Family Foundation · Hamico Inc · Robert L & Kathrina H Maclellan Founda Foundation · Lyndhurst Foundation Inc · McKenzie Foundation D/B/A the McKenzie Foundation · Lillian L Colby Charitable Fdn Ia
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 Tucker 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.
- Caridad Center Inc — 0% of income from government
- Place of Hope Inc — 0% 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 Tucker Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Tucker 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.