Tennessee · Nonprofit
PENCIL FOUNDATION
PENCIL FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,155,762 to it, the largest being TENNESSEE STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION ($2,126,113). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.7M
- Funders on record
- 82
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $4.2M
What Pencil Foundation does
Mission
Pencil's mission is linking community resources to metro nashville public schools (mnps) to help young people achieve academic success and prepare for life. At pencil, we are committed to enriching student success through tangible, active, and robust community partnerships.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The dg pencil box exists to remove barriers to learning for metro students by ensuring classrooms are stocked with necessary supplies and so educators don't have to spend their own funds on supplies. Through generous donations, the box is stocked with pencils, pens, notebooks, crayons, scissors, books, backpacks and more. Every mnps educator is invited to shop once a month at our west nashville location throughout the school year. Pencil also provides access to supplies through deliveries, pop-ups, and large-scale teacher appreciation projects including together 4 teachers. In fy25, the box distributed almost $3m in product. The box steam lending library provides hands-on resources to empower students to meet state computer science standards.
$3,320,107 spentof which $2,800,487 as grants56% of program spendingGrants to mnps pencil continued to be a grantmaking partner to mnps by passing through significant funds to support high-impact literacy tutoring and its focus on student academic growth. In fy25, pencil-managed tutors provided 1,600+ students in grades k-3 with reading support. In addition, pencil was chosen to act as financial fiduciary for reimagining community spaces, a public-private partnership created to support the expansion of certain community spaces within three mnps elementary schools. Our grantmaking partnership work will continue to evolve as we support the strategic plan of mnps by recruiting financial resources to support key initiatives that directly impact student success.
$1,738,154 spentof which $200,115 as grants$11,285 earned by the program29% of program spendingPencil partners are businesses and organizations committed to student success through organized, coordinated activities that match the attributes of each partner with the specific needs of each school. We leverage our wide network of contacts and comprehensive knowledge of mnps to connect businesses and schools in customized, meaningful ways that directly help metro students achieve success in school and in life. We manage these relationships by facilitating communication, providing activity ideas, supporting volunteer management, and helping the school and partner develop action plans. In fy25, pencil engaged 650+ partners in this work. Pencil also hosts pencil connect and pencilmein where schools, partners, and individuals post and log volunteer activities.
$878,925 spent15% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,937,186.
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 2023 to 2024, from $4.0M to $8.5M (+110%).
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 33% · 2018 9% · 2019 10% · 2020 10% · 2021 17% · 2022 5% · 2023 24% · 2024 25% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of PENCIL FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (48% 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
Christiane Buggs
President/CEO
Board chair
Robyn Williams
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 37 funders, grant income rose $507k → $1.3M.
16 of 82 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 PENCIL FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 82 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
PENCIL FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
69% 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 PENCIL FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 39% · 2019 29% · 2020 21% · 2021 18% · 2022 66% · 2023 34% — 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
63% of PENCIL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
92% of PENCIL FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
PENCIL FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like PENCIL 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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
90% 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 PENCIL 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.
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 PENCIL FOUNDATION?
- PENCIL FOUNDATION (Tennessee) receives grants from 82 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,155,762 to it, the largest being TENNESSEE STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION ($2,126,113). 54 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PENCIL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 82 organizations giving $10,155,762 in grants to PENCIL FOUNDATION, 54 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PENCIL FOUNDATION?
- TENNESSEE STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,126,113 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PENCIL 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 82 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