Tennessee · Nonprofit
EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION
EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,818,066 to it, the largest being NEW VENTURE FUND ($3,867,814). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $7.8M
- Net assets
- $225k
What Equal Chance for Education does
Mission
Our goal is to provide an equal opportunity to achieve the american dream through the completion of a college education by providing direct payment scholarships to education institutions.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Ece provides programming, mentorship, career guidance and scholarships in partnership with colleges and universities across the state of tn. Partner colleges provide a negotiated institutional rate for ece scholars to create pathways for college persistence. Each ece scholarship is 6,250, the ece scholar and family are asked to contribute 4,000 toward tuition, and the partner college provides institutional funding toward the remaining balance, on average this is an in-kind gift of 21,000 per student per year. Ece commits to supporting scholars beyond the scholarship dollars by creating programming and providing resources to retain and foster career ready graduates.
$1,532,782 spentof which $1,368,847 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,532,782.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $441k to $309k (−30%).
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: 2023 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Richard Rhoda
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $249k → $1.4M.
16 of 50 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 65% 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 EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% 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
68% 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 EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 40% · 2018 58% · 2019 70% · 2020 58% · 2021 50% · 2022 52% · 2023 48% — 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
57% of EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION'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
65% of EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION'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, 89% of it comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION's revenue grew 26% between 2020 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION: 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 EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION?
- EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,818,066 to it, the largest being NEW VENTURE FUND ($3,867,814). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 65% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $7,818,066 in grants to EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION?
- NEW VENTURE FUND is the largest funder on record, with $3,867,814 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EQUAL CHANCE FOR EDUCATION 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 Equal Chance for Education →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 50 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