Tennessee · Nonprofit
NEEDLINK NASHVILLE
NEEDLINK NASHVILLE (Tennessee) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,177,278 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($1,462,200). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $2.4M
What Needlink Nashville does
Mission
Provide needy families and individuals with rent and utilities assistance in order to prevent their eviction or termination of utility services. Also provide food and other assistance to needy families and individuals.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Provide needy families and individuals with rent and utilities assistance through the various programs and donations in order to prevent their eviction or termination of utility services. The organization also provides food and other assistance to needy families and individuals. During the year, the organization accepted over 12,300 applications for assistance, ultimately helping over 5,500 households avoid homelessness, with electric deposits and reconnections and stop evictions.
$2,090,204 spentof which $1,767,138 as grants100% of program spendingProvide needy families and individuals with rent and utilities assistance through the various programs and donations in order to prevent their eviction or termination of utility services. The organization also provides food and other assistance to needy families and individuals.
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,090,204.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $743k to $2.3M (+205%).
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: 2017 18% · 2018 11% · 2019 10% · 2020 2% · 2021 94% · 2022 57% · 2024 1% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Lee Anne Wills
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $177k → $233k.
6 of 27 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.
From the IRS filings of NEEDLINK NASHVILLE’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
NEEDLINK NASHVILLE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 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 NEEDLINK NASHVILLE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 35% · 2019 30% · 2020 61% · 2021 56% · 2022 19% · 2023 22% — 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
53% of NEEDLINK NASHVILLE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
98% of NEEDLINK NASHVILLE's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $281k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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.
Organizations like NEEDLINK NASHVILLE
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
98% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 NEEDLINK NASHVILLE: 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 NEEDLINK NASHVILLE?
- NEEDLINK NASHVILLE (Tennessee) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,177,278 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($1,462,200). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NEEDLINK NASHVILLE have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $3,177,278 in grants to NEEDLINK NASHVILLE, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NEEDLINK NASHVILLE?
- UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,462,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NEEDLINK NASHVILLE 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 Needlink Nashville →
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 27 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