Skip to content

Tennessee · Nonprofit

FORWARD MEMPHIS

FORWARD MEMPHIS (Tennessee) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $264,322 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($110,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$586k
Funders on record
7
Grants received
$264k
Net assets
$540k
3/7 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%
01What it does

What Forward Memphis does

Mission

Forward Memphis provides responsible lending opportunities and financial empowerment resources to underserved individuals and families in the Memphis community in order to reduce reliance on predatory lending practices and promoting long-term financial stability.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Provided access to responsible small-dollar loans and financial assistance programs for underserved individuals and families in the Memphis community who may otherwise rely on high-interest or predatory lending sources. The organization worked to improve financial stability by offering affordable lending alternatives, financial guidance, and support services designed to help clients address emergency expenses, avoid excessive debt burdens, and build healthier financial outcomes. Services supported community members facing housing, transportation, utility, and other essential living expense challenges.

    $285,819 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $285,819.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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.

100 = 20222022 Revenue 100 ($26k) Expenses 100 ($57) Net assets 100 ($26k)2023 Revenue 2389 ($612k) Expenses 638323 ($364k) Net assets 1070 ($274k)2024 Revenue 2402 ($615k) Expenses 755060 ($430k) Net assets 1794 ($459k)2025 Revenue 2288 ($586k) Expenses 885267 ($505k) Net assets 2113 ($540k)
2022202320242025
Revenue (2288)Expenses (885267)Net assets (2113)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $26k to $276k (+980%).

$26k
$276k
$464k
$542k
2022202320242025
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2024 83%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

78% of FORWARD MEMPHIS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (62% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,439 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.

$26k
’22
$248k
’23
$185k
’24
$82k
’25
12
months of
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

Travis Moody

Executive director-CEO

Board chair

Ephie Johnson

Chairperson

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

202320242025
Listed789
Joined·+1+1
No longer listed·00
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.

3 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 52% 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 FORWARD MEMPHIS’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

FORWARD MEMPHIS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

52% 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 FORWARD MEMPHIS.

42%
largest funder
77%
top three
~4
effective funders

“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.

Where its funders are

52% of FORWARD MEMPHIS'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 $128k that is directly attributable, 80% of it comes from Tennessee funders.

TN
FL

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $137k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

FORWARD MEMPHIS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 7,175 community improvement nonprofits its size.

Operating margin14% · above the median
Months of reserve12.1mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)184% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,175 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like FORWARD MEMPHIS

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

57% of spending goes to programs.

Program 57%Management 28%Fundraising 15%

Governance

8
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

71%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FORWARD MEMPHIS: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 FORWARD MEMPHIS?
FORWARD MEMPHIS (Tennessee) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $264,322 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC ($110,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 52% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does FORWARD MEMPHIS have?
IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $264,322 in grants to FORWARD MEMPHIS, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FORWARD MEMPHIS?
AMERICAN ONLINE GIVING FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $110,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FORWARD MEMPHIS 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.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), and the filings of 7 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