Tennessee · Nonprofit
GAINING GROUND
GAINING GROUND (Tennessee) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $226,832 to it, the largest being Robert F Stone Foundation aka Bobby Stone Foundation ($126,880). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
GAINING GROUND has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,749 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,749 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Footprint Foundation Incshared funderslocal
- Fair Food Network Incportfolio match
- Nourish Coloradoportfolio match
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.
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: 2022 52% · 2023 81% · 2024 52% · 2025 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
67% of GAINING GROUND’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $25k → $84k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 GAINING GROUND’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
GAINING GROUND leans on a few funders — its largest provides 56% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
28% 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 GAINING GROUND.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 32% — 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.
Where its funders are
GAINING GROUND draws 78% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $64k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 6 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Footprint Foundation Incshared funderslocalTN · backs 53 organizations that share your funders · funds 9 organizations near you
- Fair Food Network Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Nourish Coloradoportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Oregon Farmers Markets Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Pennsylvania Certified Organicportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- UNFI Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Florida Certified Organic Growers and Consumers Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Food Well Allianceportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Farmers Market Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- United Way of Greater Chattanoogashared funderslocalTN · backs 52 organizations that share your funders · funds 15 organizations near you
- Arthur Skodnek Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Carolina Farm Stewardship Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like GAINING GROUND
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GAINING GROUND: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds GAINING GROUND?
- GAINING GROUND (Tennessee) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $226,832 to it, the largest being Robert F Stone Foundation aka Bobby Stone Foundation ($126,880). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GAINING GROUND have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $226,832 in grants to GAINING GROUND, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GAINING GROUND?
- Robert F Stone Foundation aka Bobby Stone Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $126,880 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GAINING GROUND 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 6funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing