Tennessee · Nonprofit
EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE
EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE (Tennessee) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $904,908 to it, the largest being CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($285,382). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $391k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $905k
- Net assets
- $124k
What East Lake Expression Engine does
Mission
Elee is an el sistema inspired after school and summer music program that seeks to develop the creativity, discipline, problem solving skills, social skills, and spiritual maturity of its students through musical instruction and collaboration in a gospel-centered environment.expression engine offers music instruction and use of instruments free of charge. The organization provides a continuous k-12th program, with classes in choir, bucket band, musicianship, and various instruments. Students aged 14 and up have the opportunity to become paid interns, learning transferable and musical job skills while continuing their studies.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Expression engine's after school program provides after school music classes for students k-12th grade during the fall and spring.
$227,234 spent64% of program spendingExpression engine's summer program provides a full day summer camp with musical instruction for students k-12th grade.
$125,490 spent35% of program spendingExpression engine's recording project allowed students, staff, and guest artists to record original music written by expression engine students in summer 2024; this music was released in summer 2025.
$4,888 spent$22 earned by the program1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $357,612.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $21k to $127k (+516%).
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 20% · 2022 9% · 2023 8% · 2024 9% · 2025 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 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.
Board chair
Charley Crichton
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $17k → $191k.
5 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
56% 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 EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 87% · 2018 67% · 2019 42% · 2020 40% · 2021 60% · 2022 52% · 2023 39% — 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
57% of EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
84% of EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $344k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE has grown faster than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE
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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
68%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 4 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE: 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 EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE?
- EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE (Tennessee) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $904,908 to it, the largest being CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($285,382). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $904,908 in grants to EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE?
- CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $285,382 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EAST LAKE EXPRESSION ENGINE 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 East Lake Expression Engine →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 17 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