Tennessee · Nonprofit
DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS
DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS (Tennessee) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $825,841 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($104,562). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $598k
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $826k
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Dolphin Aquatics Dba Nashville Dolphins does
Mission
It is the nashville dolphins' mission to improve the health and quality of life for children and adults with special needs and combat the alarmingly high statistic of drowning deaths. The nashville dolphins provide adaptive aquatic lessons ranging from water safety and survival through competitive swim team programming at no cost to the participant. In addition, we empower our swimmers to experience the joy and pride of being a lifetime member of the nashville dolphins family. Our programs aim to enhance the quality, health, and safety of the daily lives of both our participants and their family members, within a safe and socially supportive community environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The future dolphins, our largest program, provides one-on-one learn-to-swim lessons and water safety to 227 children and adults with intellectual disabilities each semester at no cost to any participant. Drowning is the number one cause of accidental death in people with special needs. Autistic people are 160 times more likely to drown than their neuro-typical peers. The nashville dolphins aims to reduce this tragic statistic by teaching water safety awareness skills to all enrolled participants at no cost. Additionally, having water safety and swimming skills allows the participants to enjoy the many benefits of water recreation and fitness within a safer environment. People with disabilities need individualized instruction and attention in the pool which we provide, and each lesson is customized to each swimmer's needs and abilities. All our lead instructors are certified as "swim whisperers" with swim angelfish, the global leader in adaptive swim instruction. Every instructor has now taken the 16+ hour online course to add to their knowledge of adaptive swimming. Our lead instructors are also certified in starfish aquatic institute which is a nationally and internationally…
$105,724 spent41% of program spendingThe nashville dolphins swim team provides year-round swim practices and competition to over 100 children and adults with intellectual disabilities at no cost to any participant. Swimmers must be able to swim 25 yards independently and take direction from a coach on deck to participate on the swim team. We currently offer practices two times a week year-round. The dolphins swim team competes in special olympics locally, regionally, and nationally and our swimmers take great pride in being part of a team like their siblings and peers. Opportunities for adults with disabilities diminish after the age of 21, leaving many sedentary, lonely, and often overweight and unhealthy. We not only make available weekly aerobic exercise, but we also provide many out-of-water socializing opportunities for our team members including parties, movie outings, a prom, a triathlon, swim across america, usms grown up swimming, and more. We also encourage our swimmers to give back to the community, so we volunteer with various non-profits around nashville.
$86,682 spentof which $1,000 as grants33% of program spendingThe junior dolphins program provides swim instruction to those participants with disabilities who can swim several yards independently but need more experience before they are able to join our swim team. The junior dolphins lead instructors and volunteers are in the water with our swimmers, teaching proper technique on all four strokes and proper breathing. They also work to build each swimmer's endurance and confidence. Typically, volunteers are positioned down the swim lane, so swimmers begin to do laps during practice with rest and instruction all along the way. The junior dolphins classes help prepare the swimmers to gain the skills needed to join the swim team.
$67,259 spent26% of program spendingThe little phins, our newest program, is designed for our smallest swimmers, ages 1-3. This class empowers parents to engage in an aquatic experience with their little ones, with emphasis on safety and exploration of the many ways we can start to teach small children the fundamentals of swimming.
$499 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $260,164.
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 $904k to $1.1M (+27%).
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 8% · 2022 7% · 2023 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (18% 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
Brenda Vroon
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $46k → $116k.
8 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% 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 DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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
DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% 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
44% 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 DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 18% · 2019 42% · 2020 20% · 2021 12% · 2022 18% · 2023 26% — 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
55% of DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 79% 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
74% of DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $251k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 10,453 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 10,453 recreation & sports nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS: 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 DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS?
- DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS (Tennessee) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $825,841 to it, the largest being THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($104,562). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $825,841 in grants to DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS, 41 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS?
- THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $104,562 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DOLPHIN AQUATICS DBA NASHVILLE DOLPHINS 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 Dolphin Aquatics Dba Nashville Dolphins →
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 52 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