Tennessee · Nonprofit
MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE
MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE (Tennessee) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,587,795 to it, the largest being MEMPHIS EDUCATION FUND INC ($3,500,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $798k
- Funders on record
- 12
- Grants received
- $7.6M
- Net assets
- $3.0M
What Memphis Lift Parent Institute does
Mission
To build widespread demand for high quality schools and radical changes in public education to disrupt systematic educational inequality throgh choice and healthy competition.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Public advocate fellowship provides 100 parents annually from all over the city with the education and tools they need to become active participants in the public conversation about education in memphis. The course is 10 weeks long with a curriculum that becomes more compelling and comprehensive with each cohort.
$257,505 spent40% of program spendingThe surge team is the memphis lift's team of parent organizers. The surge team devotes themselves to meeting and educating parents where they are-at their doors, at a school pick up line or at church-and builds that initial conversation into a relationship that can be leveraged to make the voice of parents even greater in the conversation about memphis schools. From canvassing to hosting speaker series to rallying parents on quick turnarounds to make their presence known at the legislature in nashville, the surge team is constantly in the organizing business.
$152,597 spent24% of program spendingChoice counseling helps build awareness in priority school communities that parents have educational options and provides parents with the resources and education they need to navigate the complex education system and make the best educational choice for their child. In addition to offering resources and education, choice counseling offers the much needed sounding board to many parents.
$75,087 spent12% of program spendingSpecial education - the memphis lift special education department (sped) team is here to help families when schools often don't meet the individual academic and behavioral needs of students even though they have a clearly defined individualized education plan (iep) or 504. Parents get frustrated and angry and have unproductive meetings with principals, teachers and support staff. We teach, support and guide parents to show them how to move from emotion to advocacy so your child can succeed. Sped helps any parent who believes their child may need to be tested for services, has a child who already carries a document (iep or 504), and/or supports a child with special needs.
$156,252 spent24% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $641,441.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $1.7M to $3.3M (+92%).
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: 2020 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Sarah Carpenter
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $400k → $600k.
3 of 12 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 29% 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 MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE’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
MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
88% 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 MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 82% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 47% · 2022 60% · 2023 58% — 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.
How long its funders stay
40% of MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 33% 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
79% of MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M 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
MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE is better cushioned than half of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE
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
59% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE: 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 MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE?
- MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE (Tennessee) receives grants from 12 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,587,795 to it, the largest being MEMPHIS EDUCATION FUND INC ($3,500,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 12 organizations giving $7,587,795 in grants to MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE?
- MEMPHIS EDUCATION FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MEMPHIS LIFT PARENT INSTITUTE 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 Memphis Lift Parent Institute →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 12 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