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Tennessee · Nonprofit

TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT

TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT (Tennessee) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,839,776 to it, the largest being The Schooner Foundation ($1,279,605). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$1.6M
Funders on record
45
Grants received
$2.8M
Net assets
$3.0M
29/45 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 62%
01What it does

What Tennessee Innocence Project does

Mission

The Tennessee Innocence Project is dedicated to investigating and litigating claims of actual innocence. It is designed to prevent and correct wrongful convictions throughout the state of tennessee.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Litigating wrongful conviction cases for those in tennessee prisons to obtain exonerations. The organization trains law students and attorneys about how to litigate these cases and how to prevent future wrongful convictions.

    $795,083 spent$3,301 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $795,083.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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.

100 = 20192019 Revenue 100 ($375k) Expenses 100 ($145k) Net assets 100 ($229k)2020 Revenue 100 ($376k) Expenses 171 ($248k) Net assets 156 ($357k)2021 Revenue 588 ($2.2M) Expenses 560 ($814k) Net assets 774 ($1.8M)2022 Revenue 533 ($2.0M) Expenses 1039 ($1.5M) Net assets 985 ($2.3M)2023 Revenue 427 ($1.6M) Expenses 926 ($1.3M) Net assets 1095 ($2.5M)2024 Revenue 437 ($1.6M) Expenses 800 ($1.2M) Net assets 1304 ($3.0M)
201920202021202220232024
Revenue (437)Expenses (800)Net assets (1304)Peer revenue range

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 $385k to $1.8M (+366%).

$233k
$385k
$1.8M
$2.4M
$2.6M
$3.2M
201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

104% of TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,394 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.

$229k
’19
$128k
’20
$1.4M
’21
$485k
’22
$253k
’23
$477k
’24
22
months of
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.

201920202021202220232024
Listed71320201917
Joined·+7+11+2+1+4
No longer listed·14226
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $231k → $507k.

11 of 45 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 INNOCENCE PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 45 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

TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% 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

45%
largest funder
63%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 89% · 2020 87% · 2021 62% · 2022 30% · 2023 41% — 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

67% of TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y

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

TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 7 states in all.

NY
MA
RI
TN
NC
MS
GA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $461k arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin29% · top quartile
Months of reserve22.3mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)34% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Government funding TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $673k on record.

Federal$673k
grants $673kcontracts $0
21
23
Top agencies
  • Department of Justice$673k

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 TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

68% of spending goes to programs.

Program 68%Management 14%Fundraising 17%

Governance

15
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

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

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 INNOCENCE PROJECT?
TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT (Tennessee) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,839,776 to it, the largest being The Schooner Foundation ($1,279,605). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT have?
IRS filings report 45 organizations giving $2,839,776 in grants to TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT?
The Schooner Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,279,605 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TENNESSEE INNOCENCE PROJECT 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 Tennessee Innocence Project →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 45 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