Tennessee · Nonprofit
THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC
THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,428,781 to it, the largest being BENWOOD FOUNDATION INC ($377,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.5M
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What The Enterprise Center Inc does
Mission
The enterprise center unites people, organizations, and technology, to build an advanced and inclusive future for our community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Digital opportunity: tech goes home chattanooga and tennessee are the enterprise center's signature digital opportunity programs. Aimed at making technology accessible to all, tech goes home offers 15 hours of in-person digital literacy training, a subsidized laptop or tablet, and assistance signing up for no- or low- cost home internet through a train-the-trainer model. Since 2015, more than 19,000 people of all ages have graduated from the program. Tech goes home works with partner organizations, including schools, churches, community centers, and other nonprofit organizations to responsively serve and connect communities' most disconnected residents, including the elderly, students and their parents, individuals with disabilities, job seekers, small business owners and others.
$4,613,671 spent75% of program spendingSmart and connected communities: the enterprise center works to leverage chattanooga's unique assets and infrastructure to support safe and healthy communities for residents of all ages through collaborations with anchor institutions, placemaking initiatives and research and deployment of advanced technologies. The enterprise center co-leads efforts like the chattanooga smart community collaborative, invests in the built environment and aging-friendly communities and incubates projects with potential for economic, public health and educational benefits to the chattanooga community and beyond. The enterprise center further supports smart and connected communities through public wifi expansion and hcs edconnect powered by epb, a county-wide broadband access initiative for hamilton county schools families with economic need.
$650,341 spent11% of program spendingWorkforce development & innovation: the enterprise center supports a resilient, growing economy driven by innovation: through a variety of strategies. The innovation district of chattanooga, established in 2014, encompasses established businesses and startups clustered with educational and cultural institutions in the heart of downtown chattanooga. The enterprise center provides a multi purpose, free and public event spaces within the district, supporting a vibrant and collaborative ecosystem of community leaders and partners, as well as visits from other cities across the country. The enterprise center's vision is that the space will bring together community members to share ideas and create projects, businesses, art, and innovative solutions of all kinds. The enterprise center also supports the small business and entrepreneurial ecosystem through the business resource collaborative, chattanooga entrepreneur week and tools like resiliencychecklist.com. The enterprise center further invests in workforce development and mobility through efforts like tech goes home, the advanced technology initiative and the learning agility accelerator.
$516,531 spent8% of program spendingCivic engagement: chattamatters is a hyperlocal storytelling series for the people of chattanooga. Chattamatters was created by the enterprise center, in partnership with the city of chattanooga. The multimedia series aims to increase civic engagement and build community by using simple and engaging tools to show how local government works, and how certain issues impact our community; looking at some of our community's biggest challenges and exploring possible solutions; and highlighting taking time to appreciate the people and places who make chattanooga unique.
$354,996 spent6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $6,135,539.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.6M to $3.7M (+136%).
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 36% · 2018 38% · 2019 88% · 2020 85% · 2021 53% · 2022 71% · 2023 49% · 2024 100% · 2025 100%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Sammy Lowdermilk
Interim president/chief executive officer
Board chair
Daniel Ryan
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $63k → $113k.
4 of 18 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 8% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $2.1M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC raised.
From the IRS filings of THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC’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
THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
44% 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 ENTERPRISE CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 60% · 2019 77% · 2020 35% · 2021 81% · 2022 31% · 2023 44% — 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
18% of THE ENTERPRISE CENTER 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
74% of THE ENTERPRISE CENTER 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. $116k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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 ENTERPRISE CENTER INC has grown faster than half of the 2,127 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,127 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$787k
- Environmental Protection Agency$491k
- Federal Communications Commission$245k
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 ENTERPRISE 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
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 ENTERPRISE 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 THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC?
- THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,428,781 to it, the largest being BENWOOD FOUNDATION INC ($377,000). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $1,428,781 in grants to THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE ENTERPRISE CENTER INC?
- BENWOOD FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $377,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE ENTERPRISE 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 18 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