Tennessee · Nonprofit
CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART
CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART (Tennessee) receives grants from 132 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,156,081 to it, the largest being THE ANN AND MONROE CARELL FOUNDATION ($3,039,535). 92 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 132
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $69M
What Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art does
Mission
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 locally celebrated and nationally recognized destination renowned for its distinctive beauty, historical significance, and excellence in art and horticulture.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Art, exhibitions, and programming: cheekwood maintains permanent collections focused on american art from the 18th to mid-20th centuries as well as monumental outdoor sculpture. The institution also hosts significant temporary exhibitions and interactive educational experiences for all ages to complement its permanent and traveling exhibitions, both in cheekwood's historic mansion and museum, and across the estate grounds. During 2025, cheekwood hosted robert indiana's "love" sculpture, one of the most celebrated works in the pop art movement, as part of its tradition to bring high-quality masterworks to nashville. In addition, it presented enchanted castles at cheekwood, featuring five large-scale castles. Cheekwood also offers an annual artist in residence program and interventions, which places contemporary works within the mansion's historic period rooms. Year-round public programs include workshops, classes, lectures, story times, youth summer camps, and live music and dance. Cheekwood hosts four annual cultural celebrations (el dia de los muertos, black arts bash, japanese moon viewing, and holi) and provides community and access initiatives for thousands of students,…
$13,417,119 spent$5,874,382 earned by the program91% of program spendingRestaurant, rentals & gift shop: cheekwood offers visitor amenities through its onsite cafe and gift shops. Visitors enjoy the convenience of food and beverages including in-cafe dining or takeaway options for picnics on the grounds. The gift shops offer educational and interpretive items focused on art and nature as well as items representing cheekwood's unique programs and estate offerings. Cheekwood also provides rental and catering facilities to further open cheekwood to the public through the hosting of meetings and events in its beautiful and inspiring environment.
$1,385,590 spent$1,024,761 earned by the program9% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,802,709.
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 $61M to $73M (+21%).
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: 2017 1% · 2018 2% · 2019 2% · 2020 9% · 2021 1% · 2022 1% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
66% of CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Jane Macleod
President & CEO
Board chair
Ronald Roberts
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 46 funders to 67 funders, grant income rose $604k → $1.5M.
20 of 132 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $6.5M from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Frist Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART raised.
From the IRS filings of CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 132 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
CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
25% 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 CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 36% · 2019 22% · 2020 23% · 2021 63% · 2022 9% · 2023 17% — 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
54% of CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
93% of CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 550 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 550 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $116k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$116k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART
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
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART: 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 CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART?
- CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART (Tennessee) receives grants from 132 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,156,081 to it, the largest being THE ANN AND MONROE CARELL FOUNDATION ($3,039,535). 92 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART have?
- IRS filings report 132 organizations giving $14,156,081 in grants to CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART, 92 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART?
- THE ANN AND MONROE CARELL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,039,535 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART 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 Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art →
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 132 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