· Private foundation
Watkins Family Foundation Inc
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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2023–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k4 grants · $20k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $75k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART | $15,000 |
| LAKESHORE PARK CONSERVANCY | $10,000 |
| YWCA KNOXVILLE | $10,000 |
| HELEN ROSS MCNABB FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| KNOXVILLE BOTANICAL GARDENS | $10,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF THE TN VALLEY | $10,000 |
| ZOO KNOXVILLE | $10,000 |
| THE JOY OF MUSIC SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| SHANGRI-LA THERAPEUTIC ACADEMY | $5,000 |
| LEGACY PARKS FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
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 (FY23–25, $48k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 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.
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 +14% since the first grant, against +9% for the ones you funded once.
12 repeat relationships — 11 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- KMKNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART3× · 2023–2025 · $65k · revenue +17%
- TYTHE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION3× · 2023–2025 · $45k · revenue +57%
- HRHELEN ROSS MCNABB FOUNDATION3× · 2023–2025 · $20k · revenue +76%
Funded once
- TUTHE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue +9%
- KLKNOXVILLE LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue +14%
- RMRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIESone grant, 2023 · $5k
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.
Knoxville botanical gardens and arboretum provides and maintains gardens for the benefit and enjoyment of the general public.
To provide financial support for the knoxville museum of art.
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 identify, select, train, and nurture individuals in the knoxville, tennessee area capable of fulfilling future leadership positions.
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…
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,…
Knoxville entrepreneur center was formed for educational and charitable purpose to provide resources and assist entrepreneurs and small business owners in knoxville, tennessee and the surrounding community to transform their business…
Knoxville college is a private, church related coeducational liberal arts institution. the college is open to students of diverse backgrounds and cultures who seek a quality liberal arts education.
To provide no-cost health care to families who have no insurance and do not qualify for the states low income insurance program.
To encourage lifelong physical well-being through running and walking. the vision statement for the knoxville track club is healthy living, healthy community - one step at a time.
To support the young women's christian association and its activities, consistent with its mission in eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. ywca knoxville foundation is conducting a…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Emerald Youth Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Carecuts Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
11 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. 11 of the 17 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 KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds LAKESHORE PARK CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds HELEN ROSS MCNABB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE TENNESSEE VALL ↗
- Who funds LEGACY PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EMERALD YOUTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds JOY OF MUSIC YOUTH MUSIC SCHOOL CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CARECUTS INC ↗
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 Melrose Foundation · Lawson Family Foundation · Thompson Charitable Foundation · The Clayton Homes Foundation · Haslam Family Foundation Inc · Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Akima Club Inc · The Aslan Foundation · The Clayton Family Foundation · The Boyd Foundation · Food City Charitable 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 Watkins Family Foundation Inc 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 Watkins Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Watkins Family Foundation Inc 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.