Tennessee · Nonprofit
NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC
NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 129 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,843,145 to it, the largest being THE FRIST FOUNDATION ($1,270,792). 68 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.9M
- Funders on record
- 129
- Grants received
- $9.8M
- Net assets
- $6.6M
What Nashville Food Project Inc does
Mission
The nashville food project brings people together to grow, cook, and share nourishing food to cultivate community and alleviate hunger. Through community food access, agriculture, education, and strategic partnerships, we work toward a more just and sustainable food system where everyone has access to the food they want and need.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The nashville food project builds community food infrastructure to increase equitable access to nourishing food across nashville. Rather than operating as a traditional emergency food provider, tnfp connects agriculture, meal production, food recovery, healthcare partnerships, volunteers, and neighborhood organizations into an integrated system that strengthens community food security. Food access: the food access program prepares, recovers, and distributes nourishing food through a coordinated network of nonprofit, healthcare, and community partners. Scratch-made meals, recovered food, and locally grown produce are shared with organizations serving children, older adults, individuals experiencing homelessness, immigrant communities, and families experiencing food insecurity. Through initiatives including community meals, food recovery, produce rx, and community markets, tnfp strengthens equitable food access while reducing food waste and supporting community health. Community engagement: the community engagement program builds long-term community food security by expanding access to land, food-growing knowledge, volunteer opportunities, and civic participation. Through the…
$3,514,511 spent$991,395 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,514,511.
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 $2.9M to $6.0M (+106%).
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: 2018 6% · 2019 1% · 2020 3% · 2025 3%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
77% of NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Charles J Sentell
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 51 funders, grant income rose $981k → $1.2M.
21 of 129 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% 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 NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 129 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
NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
46% 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 NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 44% · 2019 21% · 2020 17% · 2021 12% · 2022 12% · 2023 11% — 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
47% of NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC'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
76% of NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 655 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 655 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $401k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$401k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT 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
75% 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 NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT 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 NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC?
- NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 129 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,843,145 to it, the largest being THE FRIST FOUNDATION ($1,270,792). 68 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC have?
- IRS filings report 129 organizations giving $9,843,145 in grants to NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC, 68 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT INC?
- THE FRIST FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,270,792 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NASHVILLE FOOD PROJECT 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 Nashville Food Project →
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 129 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