Tennessee · Nonprofit
ABE'S GARDEN
ABE'S GARDEN (Tennessee) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,518,682 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($2,180,876). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $19M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $6.5M
- Net assets
- $28M
What Abe's Garden does
Mission
The purpose of Abe's Garden is to establish a replicable model for senior life that is focused on brain health, wellness and purposeful living.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Abe's Garden community provides services to improve engagement, personal support, and the quality of life for older adults locally and nationally. These services are provided on a residential campus, through home care, advising other organizations, and through educational sessions. We have had over 47,000 total residential nights through independent living, assisted living, and memory support services. The home care program has benefited the lives of over 75 people throughout middle tennessee. The blend of services have allowed people to continue to live in place or have a smooth transition from one level of care to another. Abe's Garden community continues to participate in research with universities related to medication reduction and integrate an array of services from local universities and hospitals to benefit the people that are part of the community.
$12,271,170 spentof which $155,778 as grants$14,818,985 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $12,271,170.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $36M to $43M (+20%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
20% of ABE'S GARDEN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Susannah Dwyer
CEO
Board chair
Michael Shmerling
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018, and between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $210k → $1.8M.
14 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 ABE'S GARDEN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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
ABE'S GARDEN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 33% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
59% 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 ABE'S GARDEN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 38% · 2018 44% · 2019 47% · 2020 18% · 2021 42% · 2022 27% · 2023 61% — 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
40% of ABE'S GARDEN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% give in more than one year at all.
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
58% of ABE'S GARDEN'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 $2.7M that is directly attributable, 90% of it comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 states is 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.
Against its field
ABE'S GARDEN runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 818 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 818 housing & shelter nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like ABE'S GARDEN
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Tennessee
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Hearthstone Education Institute LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ABE'S GARDEN: 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.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ABE'S GARDEN?
- ABE'S GARDEN (Tennessee) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,518,682 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($2,180,876). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ABE'S GARDEN have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $6,518,682 in grants to ABE'S GARDEN, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ABE'S GARDEN?
- THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,180,876 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ABE'S GARDEN 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.
Play a game about who funds Abe's Garden →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 66 funders 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 October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing