Tennessee · Nonprofit
SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC
SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,283,788 to it, the largest being SPECIAL OLYMPICS INC ($4,615,274). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.0M
- Funders on record
- 79
- Grants received
- $6.3M
- Net assets
- $6.9M
What Special Olympics Tennessee Inc does
Mission
To provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other special olympic athletes and the community.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Special olympics tennessee offers training and competition in 17 different sports throughout the year. The program includes 36 area programs managed by volunteer leadership teams that encompass all counties in the state of tennessee. Combined, these area programs reach over 17,000 registered athletes each year. In local communities, athletes are recruited, trained, and provided local competition opportunities. Eight state-level games and tournaments, which include all 17 of the sports, are conducted annually. Usa national games and world games are held every four years, alternating every two years between summer and winter games. In addition to 'traditional' special olympics sports, 'unified sports' divisions are offered in 8 sports whereby athletes with and without disabilities play as teammates. This 'inclusion' program fosters understanding, acceptance and friendships as the players practice, travel and compete together. Additionally, special olympics today conducts healthy athletes activities including screening programs in vision (athletes are given glasses if needed), dental and hearing screenings (all programs are donated by professional organizations), and fitness and…
$3,313,587 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,313,587.
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 $4.8M to $6.3M (+31%).
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 8% · 2021 13% · 2022 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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.
Board chair
Jenny Smith
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 9 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $194k → $1.3M.
21 of 79 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 SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 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
SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 73% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
95% 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 SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 89% · 2018 67% · 2019 81% · 2020 65% · 2021 78% · 2022 73% · 2023 77% — 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
47% of SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC draws 90% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 18 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $938k arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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 SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE 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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
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 SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE 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 SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC?
- SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,283,788 to it, the largest being SPECIAL OLYMPICS INC ($4,615,274). 37 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC have?
- IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $6,283,788 in grants to SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC, 37 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE INC?
- SPECIAL OLYMPICS INC is the largest funder on record, with $4,615,274 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SPECIAL OLYMPICS TENNESSEE 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.
Play a game about who funds Special Olympics Tennessee →
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 79 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