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Tennessee · Nonprofit

A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC

A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,804,122 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS INC ($10,208,085). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$2.3M
Revenue FY2025
42
Funders on record
$15M
Grants received
$3.6M
Net assets
28/42 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year

Against its field

A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 5,983 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−3% · below the median
Months of reserve16.9mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)4% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,983 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.7M) Expenses 100 ($1.9M) Net assets 100 ($1.3M)2018 Revenue 105 ($1.8M) Expenses 111 ($2.1M) Net assets 79 ($1.0M)2019 Revenue 135 ($2.3M) Expenses 111 ($2.1M) Net assets 97 ($1.3M)2020 Revenue 148 ($2.5M) Expenses 92 ($1.7M) Net assets 158 ($2.1M)2021 Revenue 141 ($2.4M) Expenses 87 ($1.6M) Net assets 219 ($2.9M)2022 Revenue 135 ($2.3M) Expenses 86 ($1.6M) Net assets 273 ($3.6M)2023 Revenue 124 ($2.1M) Expenses 102 ($1.9M) Net assets 290 ($3.8M)2024 Revenue 124 ($2.1M) Expenses 122 ($2.3M) Net assets 278 ($3.7M)2025 Revenue 136 ($2.3M) Expenses 128 ($2.4M) Net assets 274 ($3.6M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (136)Expenses (128)Net assets (274)Peer revenue range

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2019 1% · 2020 0% · 2021 2% · 2022 1% · 2023 4% · 2024 4% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

14% of A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,740 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$154k
17
$272k
18
$229k
19
$805k
20
$800k
21
$702k
22
$228k
23
$153k
24
$61k
25
17
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $414k → $1.8M.

7 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)71% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 69% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

73% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC.

69%
largest funder
81%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 31% · 2019 73% · 2020 66% · 2021 66% · 2022 77% · 2023 76%growing more concentrated.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

65% of A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

71% of A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $4.3M that is directly attributable, 94% of it comes from Tennessee funders.

IL
VA
DE
TN

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $11M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 statesis excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 42 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Tennessee

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

73% of spending goes to programs.

Program 73%Management 13%Fundraising 13%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC?
A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,804,122 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS INC ($10,208,085). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC have?
IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $14,804,122 in grants to A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC?
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS INC is the largest funder on record, with $10,208,085 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Tennessee. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 42funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing