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Tennessee · Nonprofit

NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION

NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 93 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,301,254 to it, the largest being DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION ($6,302,702). 67 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$14M
Revenue FY2025
93
Funders on record
$16M
Grants received
$39M
Net assets
67/93 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 51%

Against its field

NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,681 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin67% · top quartile
Months of reserve38.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)21% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,681 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The 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 ($3.0M) Expenses 100 ($3.3M) Net assets 100 ($11M)2018 Revenue 138 ($4.2M) Expenses 101 ($3.3M) Net assets 109 ($12M)2019 Revenue 186 ($5.7M) Expenses 111 ($3.7M) Net assets 130 ($15M)2020 Revenue 141 ($4.3M) Expenses 126 ($4.2M) Net assets 134 ($15M)2021 Revenue 178 ($5.4M) Expenses 107 ($3.5M) Net assets 163 ($18M)2022 Revenue 153 ($4.7M) Expenses 118 ($3.9M) Net assets 148 ($17M)2023 Revenue 118 ($3.6M) Expenses 105 ($3.5M) Net assets 159 ($18M)2024 Revenue 439 ($13M) Expenses 116 ($3.9M) Net assets 257 ($29M)2025 Revenue 467 ($14M) Expenses 142 ($4.7M) Net assets 347 ($39M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (467)Expenses (142)Net assets (347)Peer revenue range

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
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

88% of NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,261 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$274k
17
$864k
18
$2.0M
19
$117k
20
$1.9M
21
$735k
22
$105k
23
$9.5M
24
$9.5M
25
38
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 23 funders to 48 funders, grant income rose $825k → $1.8M.

15 of 93 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)9% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

Left out of every figure on this page: $7.7M from 6 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Frist Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION raised.

From the IRS filings of NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 93 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 39% 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

61% 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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION.

39%
largest funder
56%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 57% · 2018 41% · 2019 28% · 2020 42% · 2021 39% · 2022 57% · 2023 31%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

52% of NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

95% of NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.

NY
WY
OH
RI
CA
KY
DE
TN
NC
SC
DC
MS
FL

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

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 93 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.2M on record.

Federal$1.2M
grants $1.2Mcontracts $0
17
18
21
23
Top agencies
  • Institute of Museum and Library Services$999k
  • Federal Communications Commission$200k
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$6k

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 PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Tennessee

Nationally

04Profile & governance

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

Where the money goes

67% of spending goes to programs.

Program 67%Management 14%Fundraising 19%

Governance

31
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 93 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,301,254 to it, the largest being DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION ($6,302,702). 67 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION have?
IRS filings report 93 organizations giving $16,301,254 in grants to NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION, 67 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION?
DOLLAR GENERAL LITERACY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,302,702 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 93funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing