Tennessee · Nonprofit
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE (Tennessee) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,750,241 to it, the largest being MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF AMERICA ($4,201,740). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 66
- Grants received
- $7.8M
- Net assets
- $556k
What Make-A-Wish Foundation of Middle Tennessee does
Mission
Together we create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
It is the founding principle of our vision to grant the wish of every eligible child, between the ages of 2 1/2 and 18. For wish kids, just the act of making their wish come true can give them the courage to comply with their medical treatments. With our wish making process we strive to bring a sense of excitement and hope during extremely difficult times and deliver a joyful life changing experience whether the wish is a princess party, an art barn, or the countless other possibilities dreamed up by the magical mind of a child. The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Middle Tennessee granted 130 life changing wishes in the fiscal year ending august 31, 2025. This was a record number of wishes granted in a single fiscal year. The total cost of wishes granted for the fiscal year was $1,628,509. Of this amount, $228,919 was contributed by various vendors who provided in-kind contributions such as travel and travel services, transportation, lodging, and other services and use of facilities to complete a child's wish. For financial statement purposes, these amounts are included as contribution revenue and granted wish expense. For form 990, however, the irs requires this amount be excluded from…
$1,965,584 spentof which $1,399,590 as grants$60,314 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,965,584.
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 2021 to 2022, from $852k to $1.3M (+51%).
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 13% · 2022 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Board chair
R Jeffrey Williams
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 29 funders, grant income rose $705k → $776k.
16 of 66 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% 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 MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 66 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
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 58% · 2019 57% · 2020 58% · 2021 60% · 2022 45% · 2023 63% — 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
47% of MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE draws 74% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $961k arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE's funding base is broadening — from 16 funders to 29 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE: 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 MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE?
- MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE (Tennessee) receives grants from 66 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,750,241 to it, the largest being MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF AMERICA ($4,201,740). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE have?
- IRS filings report 66 organizations giving $7,750,241 in grants to MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE?
- MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF AMERICA is the largest funder on record, with $4,201,740 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE 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 Make-A-Wish Foundation of Middle Tennessee →
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 66 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing