Tennessee · Nonprofit
CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Tennessee) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,063,983 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($5,071,724). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.1M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Chalmers Center for Economic Development does
Mission
The chalmers center equips the church to address the broken relationships at the root of material poverty, living out jesus' kingdom today. We seek to communicate god's redeeming story and how it relates to poverty alleviation, enabling people who are materially poor to enjoy reconciled relationships with god, self, others, and the rest of creation.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Foundational principles and innovation - through books, online courses, speaking engagements, and the ambassadors program, the chalmers framework equips churches, christian nonprofits, and individual christians to understand and address the root causes of material poverty. Through innovation, christian leaders are equipped to develop poverty alleviation ministry that foster real change.
$1,391,381 spent$99,234 earned by the program61% of program spendingFaith and finances and work life: developing curriculum in financial education, individual development accounts, and job preparedness for local churches and christian noprofits, equipping them to impact low-income populations. Including the development and deployment of online curriculum for these courses.
$451,308 spent$152,911 earned by the program20% of program spendingWest africa program and international program: training local leaders in economic development strategies in west african countries and beyond, specifically savings-led microfinance groups in local churches; developing of materials for use by high impact partners and denominational leaders.
$437,281 spentof which $193,242 as grants$20,865 earned by the program19% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,279,970.
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 2024 to 2025, from $930k to $1.8M (+95%).
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: 2020 11% · 2021 12% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 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
Coy Buckley
President, CEO, director
Board chair
Jeff Galley
Director, board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $1.8M.
15 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 73% 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 CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT’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
CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
76% 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 CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 65% · 2019 41% · 2020 43% · 2021 42% · 2022 39% · 2023 50% — diversifying over time.
“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
56% of CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
73% of CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT'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 $3.3M that is directly attributable, 76% of it comes from funders outside Tennessee, across 17 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.8M 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
CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 718 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 718 international nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
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
66% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 6 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: 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 CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
- CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Tennessee) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,063,983 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($5,071,724). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $12,063,983 in grants to CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $5,071,724 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHALMERS CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 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 Chalmers Center for Economic Development →
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 42 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing