Tennessee · Nonprofit
MARK MAKING
MARK MAKING (Tennessee) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $784,600 to it, the largest being The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc ($613,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $164k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $785k
- Net assets
- $389k
What Mark Making does
Mission
Mark Making serves and transforms communities through creative art making that empowers individuals, with a focus on the underserved.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
SCENIC CITY ANGELS: We have football and cheerleader teams for youth aged 7-15. Our football coach manages a lawn care business employing 10 young people paid biweekly. We are providing assistance for basic needs for rent, food, and utilities. We are focusing on one time needs to help in an emergency. Lately, we gave money to a senior citizen to help her relocate after losing everything in a fire. We donated to the Chattanooga Food Bank to assist with growing food insecurity in our community. We just paid an electric bill for a senior about to lose her home. We helped Northside Neighborhood House purchase caps and gowns for 3 Hamilton county high schools for seniors who couldn't afford them, and couldn't graduate without them. We supply ongoing support to the Chattanooga Public Library for "CharlieCart", their program to feed children after school and to have cooking lessons for them. We support the Seed Theater monthly with funding for their hygiene closet for elderly Patten Towers residents. We also have ongoing support for two caregiver/cleaners for a disabled artist so he can live independently as long as possible. SCA tries to respond quickly as needs arise, when someone…
$140,540 spent89% of program spendingHISTORY ADVENTURES hosts lessons and activities in schools, libraries, and in the community, with social studies-based content that connects pivotal periods in American history with landmarks, lessons, and people from Chattanooga's history. Community partnerships with organizations like National Park Partners, RISE Chattanooga, and the Chattanooga Historical Society support increases in reach and audiences. Lessons and content are aligned with social studies curriculum and standards, with local landmarks students can recognize. A multi-media approach supports the "three touch" theory to increase retention and support success in school.
$700 spent0% of program spendingOutreach initiatives
$17,036 spent11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $158,276.
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 $516k to $396k (−23%).
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: 2017 0% · 2019 0% · 2021 11% · 2023 3% · 2024 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
59% of MARK MAKING’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Frances McDonald
Executive Director
Board chair
Erskine Oglesby
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 4 funders, grant income rose $72k → $144k.
3 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 93% 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 MARK MAKING’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
MARK MAKING leans on a few funders — its largest provides 78% of grant income and the top three 93%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
94% 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 MARK MAKING.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 97% · 2019 100% · 2020 99% · 2021 91% · 2022 91% · 2023 84% — 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
40% of MARK MAKING's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% 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
93% of MARK MAKING'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 $57k that is directly attributable, 93% of it comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $728k 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.
Against its field
MARK MAKING's revenue grew 34% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like MARK MAKING
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.
Public support
79%
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 MARK MAKING: 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 MARK MAKING?
- MARK MAKING (Tennessee) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $784,600 to it, the largest being The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc ($613,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MARK MAKING have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $784,600 in grants to MARK MAKING, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MARK MAKING?
- The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc is the largest funder on record, with $613,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MARK MAKING 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 Mark Making →
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 10 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