Tennessee · Nonprofit
SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE
SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE (Tennessee) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $154,421 to it, the largest being ARTSBUILD ($69,400). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $59k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $154k
- Net assets
- $150k
What Southern Lit Alliance does
Mission
Provide literary arts programs that encourage young people and adults in a life-long love of reading, writing and community conversation
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
We temporarily discontinued fundraising events but did host a local author's book launch which resulted in more donations than expected.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Celebrates southern writers and readers through community education and innovative literary arts experiences.
$38,431 spent77% of program spendingDramas for youth (theatre express) provides live professional performances for students grades k-12 for local schools.
$9,190 spentof which $6,900 as grants18% of program spendingLocal author book launch
$2,548 spent$3,394 earned by the program5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $50,169.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $206k to $238k (+16%).
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: 2020 14% · 2021 31% · 2022 18% · 2023 17% · 2024 31% · 2025 26%. 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 6 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
Chelsea Risley
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $6k → $16k.
1 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE’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
SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 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 SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 68% · 2018 79% · 2019 46% · 2020 60% · 2021 63% · 2022 30% · 2023 69% — broadly stable.
“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
43% of SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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
82% of SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $36 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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 SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE: 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 SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE?
- SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE (Tennessee) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $154,421 to it, the largest being ARTSBUILD ($69,400). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $154,421 in grants to SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE?
- ARTSBUILD is the largest funder on record, with $69,400 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOUTHERN LIT ALLIANCE 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 11 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