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Tennessee · Nonprofit

NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION

NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $987,284 to it, the largest being MSB COCKAYNE FUND INC ($236,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$508k
Funders on record
23
Grants received
$987k
Net assets
$1.2M
14/23 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 79%
01What it does

What Nashville Parks Foundation does

Mission

Nasvhille parks foundation enhances public parks and expands recreational opprotunities whiles promoting sustainable growth of the park system.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Nashville Parks Foundation enhances metro's 189 parks and expands recreational opportunities in the 27 community centers while promoting sustainable growth of the park system throughout davidson county.

    $255,301 spentof which $90,425 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $255,301.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($268k) Expenses 100 ($108k) Net assets 100 ($385k)2018 Revenue 139 ($373k) Expenses 138 ($149k) Net assets 158 ($609k)2019 Revenue 227 ($608k) Expenses 535 ($576k) Net assets 170 ($654k)2020 Revenue 90 ($242k) Expenses 164 ($176k) Net assets 187 ($720k)2021 Revenue 64 ($172k) Expenses 398 ($429k) Net assets 120 ($463k)2022 Revenue 103 ($276k) Expenses 116 ($125k) Net assets 160 ($614k)2023 Revenue 137 ($367k) Expenses 114 ($122k) Net assets 223 ($859k)2024 Revenue 189 ($508k) Expenses 184 ($198k) Net assets 303 ($1.2M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (189)Expenses (184)Net assets (303)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $861k to $1.2M (+36%).

$385k
$609k
$654k
$720k
$463k
$617k
$861k
$1.2M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 99% · 2021 9% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

106% of NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,629 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$161k
’17
$224k
’18
$31k
’19
$66k
’20
−$257k
’21
$151k
’22
$244k
’23
$310k
’24
70
months of
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

Louise Bryan

President & CEO(end 10/22/25)

Board chair

Jillian Frist

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed44121212121312
Joined·+0+8+0+2+4+2+0
No longer listed·0002411
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 9 funders, grant income rose $500 → $171k.

7 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 PARKS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 22 of 23 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 PARKS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left

39% 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 PARKS FOUNDATION.

24%
largest funder
55%
top three
~7
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2020 59% · 2021 74% · 2022 49% · 2023 44% — 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

50% of NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

70% of NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.

MO
KY
TN
LA
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’20
’21
’22
’23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $350k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin61% · top quartile
Months of reserve70.4mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)10% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

75% of spending goes to programs.

Program 75%Management 19%Fundraising 6%

Governance

11
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

65%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION: 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.

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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 PARKS FOUNDATION?
NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $987,284 to it, the largest being MSB COCKAYNE FUND INC ($236,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $987,284 in grants to NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION?
MSB COCKAYNE FUND INC is the largest funder on record, with $236,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like NASHVILLE PARKS FOUNDATION 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.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 23 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