Tennessee · Nonprofit
TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Tennessee) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $239,526 to it, the largest being HUMANITIES TENNESSEE ($88,158). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $358k
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $240k
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Tennessee Historical Society does
Mission
To promote interest in and preservation of all matters relating to the history of tennessee.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The society produces a quarterly magazine on tennessee history, provides research on tennessee historical sites, oversees events to raise awareness about tennessee history and is responsible for donated historical artifacts and documents.
$167,958 spentof which $25,000 as grants62% of program spendingThe society oversees and provides support for tennessee history day where students compete in various categories of history.
$102,781 spent38% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $270,739.
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 2019 to 2020, from $724k to $995k (+37%).
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 44% · 2018 62% · 2019 42% · 2020 70% · 2021 55% · 2022 47% · 2023 61% · 2024 48% · 2025 51%. 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 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 10 funders to 7 funders, grant income fell $40k → $25k.
3 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY’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
TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 37% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
56% 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 TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 51% · 2019 58% · 2020 67% · 2021 25% · 2022 41% · 2023 65% — 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
27% of TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 79% 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
72% of TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $25k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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 TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY: 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 TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Tennessee) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $239,526 to it, the largest being HUMANITIES TENNESSEE ($88,158). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $239,526 in grants to TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY?
- HUMANITIES TENNESSEE is the largest funder on record, with $88,158 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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 19 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