Tennessee · Nonprofit
MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC
MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,166,832 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS INC ($3,130,901). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $7.2M
- Net assets
- $8.0M
What Memphis Opportunity Scholarship Trust Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to give parents the opportunity to choose the most appropriate school for their children. By providing educational opportunities to families in need, most seeks to promote excellence in education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Provide educational opportunities and assitance to children who are unable to achieve the same or have difficulty doing so for financial reasons. The main form of assitance provided by most is scholarships to help students from low-income families have the opportunity to attend private schools in the memphis area that charge tuition.
$1,086,164 spentof which $1,086,164 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,086,164.
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 2017 to 2018, from $3.6M to $6.2M (+72%).
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.
86% of MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% 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
Josefina Shirley
Current executive director
Board chair
E Carl Krausnick Jr
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021, and between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $369k → $1.4M.
10 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
79% 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 OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 36% · 2019 81% · 2020 73% · 2021 23% · 2022 25% · 2023 37% — 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
68% of MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
69% of MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC'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 $2.2M that is directly attributable, 65% of it comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 9,398 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC
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
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
62%
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 OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC: 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 OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC?
- MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,166,832 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS INC ($3,130,901). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $7,166,832 in grants to MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,130,901 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC 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 Opportunity Scholarship →
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 34 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