Tennessee · Nonprofit
THE CONTRIBUTOR INC
THE CONTRIBUTOR INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,503,973 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($1,146,729). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.9M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $2.5M
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What The Contributor Inc does
Mission
Print and distribute a weekly newspaper that focuses on issues surrounding homelessness and poverty and is sold by homeless and formerly homeless individuals on the street as an alternative to panhandling.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Our c.o.v.e.r. Housing navigation program offers person-centered support to our vendors, from obtaining identification and life-line phones, to finding and furnishing an apartment, our approach is tested on the ground every single day and is also backed up by robust longitudinal research across communities worldwide. The housing first mode has shown promising results in improving the quality of life and changing the circumstances of unhoused persons. However, the contributor's model provides a crucial missing piece: consistent, regular contact and small-scale aid to its constituents, combined with actual income to secure interim housing and necessities. Research shows of all vendors who sell the contributor for six months or more, over seventy percent transition into permanent housing.
$1,268,529 spentof which $196,339 as grants88% of program spendingWe print a bi-weekly, hyperlocal newspaper that challenges stereotypes surrounding homelessness and tells the stories of our contributor vendors. People experiencing homelessness receive training and create their own micro-business by purchasing copies of the paper and selling them to the public. Contributor vendors receive a starter pack that allows them to begin safely selling papers immediately, and a bus pass to return. Not only does this income encourage dignity and self-esteem among contributor vendors, it's also often the crucial lifeline bridging the gap between nights on the streets and signing the lease on a home to call one's own. Unlike panhandling, a vendor's paper purchases are tracked in our database and can be used for subsidized and traditional housing applications.
$175,911 spent$141,194 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,444,440.
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.
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 $301k to $762k (+153%).
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: 2022 56% · 2023 74% · 2024 63% · 2025 66%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of THE CONTRIBUTOR INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 7 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
Amber Duventre
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $111k → $521k.
9 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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 THE CONTRIBUTOR INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 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
THE CONTRIBUTOR INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
83% 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 THE CONTRIBUTOR INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 42% · 2018 38% · 2019 33% · 2020 42% · 2021 35% · 2022 87% · 2023 78% — 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
53% of THE CONTRIBUTOR INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
92% of THE CONTRIBUTOR INC's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $506k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
THE CONTRIBUTOR INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 9,615 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,615 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE CONTRIBUTOR INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $687k on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$687k
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 THE CONTRIBUTOR 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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 THE CONTRIBUTOR 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 THE CONTRIBUTOR INC?
- THE CONTRIBUTOR INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,503,973 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($1,146,729). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE CONTRIBUTOR INC have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $2,503,973 in grants to THE CONTRIBUTOR INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CONTRIBUTOR INC?
- UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,146,729 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CONTRIBUTOR 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 Contributor →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 36 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