Tennessee · Nonprofit
Tennessee Justice Center Inc
Tennessee Justice Center Inc (Tennessee) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,896,991 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY CATALYST INC ($1,819,576). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 78
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $9.4M
What Tennessee Justice Center Inc does
Mission
The Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) advocates on behalf of low-income Tennesseans in areas of public policy having the greatest impact on their health and welfare.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Legal Services and Partnerships - TJC provides legal representation and advocacy for individual clients and on behalf of large groups of at-risk, low-income Tennesseans in civil matters, including administrative appeals outside the judicial system. In 2025, TJC handled 2,231 cases for low-income clients, including 1,286 health-related matters and 845 nutrition matters, securing approximately $8.72 million in benefits and reaching families in 91 counties across Tennessee. These cases helped clients preserve or regain Medicaid, SNAP, and related benefits and informed broader systems reform through litigation and agency advocacy. TJC continued major impact litigation in A.M.C. v. Smith, which challenges TennCare disenrollment practices and has already produced important rulings on due process and eligibility protections, and in Bull v. Carter, which challenges systemic delays, appeal failures, and benefit restoration problems in SNAP. TJC also provided training and technical assistance to attorneys, health care financial counselors, and community partners on TennCare, Medicare Savings Programs, SNAP, and WIC eligibility and appeals so more Tennesseans could get timely help.
$1,424,197 spent55% of program spendingHealth Advocacy for Seniors, Adults, Children and People with Disabilities - TJCs Medicaid, independence, and childrens health advocacy programs focus on improving the well-being of Tennesseans, particularly medically fragile, at-risk, and low-income seniors, adults, children, and people with disabilities. TJC helps these individuals obtain and maintain affordable health coverage and the ongoing home- and community-based support they need to bathe, dress, manage medications, and remain safely in their homes. The Independence program supports older adults and adults with disabilities who want to avoid unnecessary institutional care by helping families understand and use options for paid caregiving, private-duty nursing, and other long-term supports, and by challenging care cuts that threaten health and independence. The childrens health program helps low-income and medically fragile children get and keep coverage and services through TennCare and CoverKids, and helps families navigate applications, appeals, and coverage problems. In 2025, TJC handled 1,286 health-related cases, including 844 independence cases, and served families in 91 counties across Tennessee. TJC also educated…
$776,348 spent30% of program spendingNutrition Advocacy - TJCs nutrition advocacy program supports greater access to affordable nutrition through SNAP, WIC, Summer EBT, and school-based meal programs for low-income Tennesseans. In 2025, TJC handled 845 nutrition-related cases, helped more than 140 households obtain replacement SNAP benefits after a winter storm, and worked with families and partners to address delays, interview problems, benefit calculation errors, and portal barriers during one of the most disruptive periods SNAP has seen in recent years. TJC led a broad statewide campaign to restore Summer EBT and expand free school meals, supporting legislation with 18 cosponsors, coordinating a county-mayor sign-on letter with 58 mayors, and mobilizing students, parents, pediatricians, faith leaders, and partner organizations to secure up to $80 million in summer food assistance for roughly 700,000 children. TJC also convened WIC partner calls, trained providers and immigrant-serving organizations, and provided practical guidance to help families enroll in and retain nutrition benefits, while sharing resources and updates through its website and communications channels.
$389,656 spent15% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,590,201.
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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
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 $6.0M to $9.8M (+63%).
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: 2021 5% · 2023 11% · 2024 11% · 2025 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Tennessee Justice Center Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Michele M Johnson
CEO
Board chair
John Tishler
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 35 funders, grant income rose $823k → $1.6M.
13 of 78 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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 Justice Center Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 78 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 Justice Center Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 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 Justice Center Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 21% · 2019 16% · 2020 16% · 2021 19% · 2022 18% · 2023 13% — 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
53% of Tennessee Justice Center Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
Tennessee Justice Center Inc draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside Tennessee, across 15 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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.
Against its field
Tennessee Justice Center Inc is better cushioned than half of the 852 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 852 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Tennessee Justice Center Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.0M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.0M
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 Justice Center 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
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
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 Justice Center 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 Tennessee Justice Center Inc?
- Tennessee Justice Center Inc (Tennessee) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,896,991 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY CATALYST INC ($1,819,576). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Tennessee Justice Center Inc have?
- IRS filings report 78 organizations giving $14,896,991 in grants to Tennessee Justice Center Inc, 52 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Tennessee Justice Center Inc?
- COMMUNITY CATALYST INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,819,576 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Tennessee Justice Center 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 78 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