Tennessee · Nonprofit
PROJECT RETURN INC
PROJECT RETURN INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,042,622 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($2,429,923). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.3M
- Funders on record
- 51
- Grants received
- $9.0M
- Net assets
- $5.7M
What Project Return Inc does
Mission
People who have just been released from prison are typically stigmatized, overlooked, and pigeonholed by society. When they walk into project return, they discover that here they are valued, heard, and encouraged. While reduction of incarceration and other criminal justice reform continues to elude the u.s., project return serves as part of the solution. Project return is solely dedicated to the successful new beginnings of people returning to our community after incarceration. Now in its 45th year of service to tennessee, project return provides reentry assistance, including workforce development, to hundreds of men and women each year. We place employment at the core of our work, because it is the best predictor of a successful future for the people we serve, and all of our program services and business development are woven together to ensure maximal employment opportunity. The mission of project return is to provide services and connect people with resources needed to return succes
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Job readiness program and wraparound services: every week, project return conducts a 2.5-day course that equips our participants with the soft skills needed to be successful in the workplace. For people being released from prison and returning to the community, this program provides skills, individualized support, and oportunities to find and keep a job. Our curriculum incorporates financial literacy, relapse prevention, and digital literacy. Completion of our job readiness classes leads to a structured day of individualized assistance, including resume development, mock interviewing, and job search planning. (continued on schedule o)during class completion day, project return staff evaluates and address participants' immediate, critical needs, providing wraparound supportive services such as: purchasing birth certificates and photo ids; housing assistance in the form of referrals; paying for medical, dental, and vision exams; bus passes and food bags; and tools and clothing for work. Additional programs at Project Return Include child support services, job retention services, hard skills training courses, and an entrepreneurship program.
$1,376,162 spentof which $199,470 as grants$49,561 earned by the program41% of program spendingPro housing: the typical housing trajectory we see for our people is that they are fortunate to reside in temporary housing for the first few months of their release, but it eventually comes to an end and they must look for affordable rental opportunities. Despite the fact that these individuals earn satisfactory wages and are reliable taxpayers in our community, stigma often leads to exclusion from the private market, as landlords are free to use conviction history as a basis for rejecting their applications. It can be practically impossible for them to get on a lease, despite their steady income, solid references, careful financial management, and overall wherewithal. (continued on schedule o)additionally, research shows that those who have been to prison just once experience homelessness at a rate 7 times higher than the general public, while those who have been incarcerated multiple times experience homelessness at a rate 13 times higher than those who haven't been incarcerated at all. Recognizing this severe need for accessible affordable rental housing for people with a conviction history, and following the success of proe project return launched its second social…
$308,631 spent$283,788 earned by the program9% of program spendingPro employment (proe) and pro property solutions (props): despite increasing awareness and willingness of employers to hire people with conviction histories, there is still tremendous reluctance to hire people immediately after their release from incarceration. Project return offers innovative, employment-creating social enterprises as a solution. Proe (project return opportunities for employment), launched in 2013, functions as a transitional jobs program that bridges the gap between incarceration and employment. Through proe, project return hires eligible participants temporarily and places them in jobs on the worksites of partnering employers. (continued on schedule o)those companies gain much-needed workers, while project return's motivated job seekers gain an immediate income and valuable work experience, propelling them into long-term employment. Project return outfits them for the job, and provides transitional employees with job coaching, training, transportation, and wraparound support. Through proe, our participants gain real-world work experience on the job, as well as our individualized coaching and feedback, transportation, and other critical assistance, and project…
$1,665,516 spent$1,083,211 earned by the program50% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,350,309.
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 2021 to 2022, from $5.3M to $7.9M (+48%).
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 61% · 2018 66% · 2019 59% · 2020 61% · 2021 56% · 2022 41% · 2023 57% · 2024 46%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Rico X
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $137k → $1.1M.
13 of 51 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 PROJECT RETURN INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 51 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
PROJECT RETURN INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 27% of grant income and the top three 63%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
55% 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 PROJECT RETURN INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 46% · 2019 45% · 2020 62% · 2021 21% · 2022 55% · 2023 46% — growing more concentrated.
“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
62% of PROJECT RETURN INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
85% of PROJECT RETURN 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. $805k arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.
Government funding PROJECT RETURN INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.4M on record.
- Department of Labor$1.5M
- Department of Justice$900k
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 PROJECT RETURN 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
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Innovestments LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for PROJECT RETURN 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 PROJECT RETURN INC?
- PROJECT RETURN INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,042,622 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($2,429,923). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PROJECT RETURN INC have?
- IRS filings report 51 organizations giving $9,042,622 in grants to PROJECT RETURN INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROJECT RETURN INC?
- UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,429,923 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROJECT RETURN 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.
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 51 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