Tennessee · Nonprofit
THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER
THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER (Tennessee) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,592,317 to it, the largest being TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CORP ($2,602,760). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $4.3M
What The Nashville Entrepreneur Center does
Mission
The Nashville Entrepreneur Center exists to help make nashville the best place to start and grow a business by increasing the likelihood of success for entrepreneurs.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Front door to entrepreneurship: the nec serves as a guide to nashville's entrepreneurs by connecting them with the resources necessary to support their business across the entrepreneural ecosystem. In addition, the nec offers direct support to founders through membership, an advisor program, and immersive experiences to support growth-minded entrepreneurs at all stages of business and in any industry.entrepreneural support includes structured education and mentorship, stakeholder (potential customers, partners and founders) connections and engagement, co-working space, membership, networking events, educational workshops, impressive industry programs (such as music and healthcare), and industry agnostic programs.
$2,871,582 spent$697,305 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,871,582.
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 $4.7M to $5.5M (+17%).
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 9% · 2018 16% · 2019 14% · 2020 30% · 2021 15% · 2022 28% · 2023 27% · 2024 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 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
Samuel Davidson
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $100k → $731k.
12 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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: $1.6M from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER raised.
From the IRS filings of THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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 NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER leans on a few funders — its largest provides 57% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
78% 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 NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 67% · 2019 58% · 2020 45% · 2021 40% · 2022 64% · 2023 52% — broadly stable.
“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
56% of THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
94% of THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $846k 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.
Organizations like THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER
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
80% 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 THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER: 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 NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER?
- THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER (Tennessee) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,592,317 to it, the largest being TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CORP ($2,602,760). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $4,592,317 in grants to THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER?
- TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CORP is the largest funder on record, with $2,602,760 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE NASHVILLE ENTREPRENEUR CENTER 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 Nashville Entrepreneur Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 34 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