Tennessee · Nonprofit
URBAN GREEN LAB
URBAN GREEN LAB (Tennessee) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,693,916 to it, the largest being ATTICUS TRUST ($1,060,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $697k
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $2.7M
- Net assets
- $249k
What Urban Green Lab does
Mission
Urban Green Lab's mission is to teach communities how to live sustainably by providing education, tools, and programming to nashville households, workplaces, and schools focused on environmental sustainability, food waste reduction, and climate resilience.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Sustainable workplaces - our workplaces division works with businesses, nonprofits, schools, and government offices to implement sustainability education for employees. We help workplaces organize green teams, teach them about sustainability, and connect them to community resources that make a difference for their business through the nashville sustainability roundtable, sustainability directory and b tennessee. In 2025, our workplaces division prioritized opportunities for education and community building. We hosted in-person events, such as roundtables, for organizations looking to foster a culture of sustainability in their workplaces, and spoke on multiple panels about sustainable business. We also launched the sustainable nashville directory featuring businesses that balance profit with care for the planet. In 2025, the workplaces division engaged 42 organizations. Participating businesses gained access to b tennessee certification support, peer to peer learning opportunities, and the nashville sustainability roundtable network.
$173,727 spent$6,188 earned by the program36% of program spendingSpecial initiatives - our special initiatives are focus areas of sustainability education that Urban Green Lab has chosen to highlight and incorporate throughout the divisions. Our programming touches on many of them. However, we believe it's essential to highlight areas where residents can make a significant positive impact and to raise awareness of the daily decisions that affect our neighbors and the planet. It's why we teach about food waste and environmental justice in all of our programs, two critical topics for nashville to be a greener and more just city for everyone. As part of our special initiatives, Urban Green Lab launched several innovative projects to advance sustainability education across middle tennessee. Notably, our voices of resilience oral history project highlighted frontline climate experiences in underserved communities. The waste lesstm mural series creatively raises awareness about food waste through public art. Additionally, we convened the nashville sustainable sports alliance, uniting professional sports teams to promote zero-waste stadiums. These initiatives reflect our systems-based approach to fostering lasting, equitable climate solutions. The…
$123,943 spent26% of program spendingSustainable households - the households division provides sustainability education, tools, and resources to nashville residents through sustainable in the city and the newly launched ugl volunteers program. Sustainable in the city is a monthly webinar, presented in partnership with zero waste nashville, that educates residents on sustainability and waste-related topics. This year's guests discussed everything from pollinators to the city's curbside composting pilot. The ugl volunteers program provides nashvillians with the resources, tools, and training on sustainable practices to share with friends, family, and neighbors. The program equips volunteers with the knowledge and confidence to facilitate meaningful conversations on sustainability. In 2025, sustainable in the city podcast series concluded with four final episodes reaching 120 participants. The ugl volunteers program trained 45 more nashvillians as sustainability ambassadors. Topics covered included pollinators, curbside composting, and food waste reduction.
$106,005 spent22% of program spendingIn 2025, Urban Green Lab undertook a significant organizational renewal following unexpected federal grant rescissions. The organization completed a community-informed strategic planning process engaging board, staff, and community stakeholders, restructured its operating model mid-year in response to a revised budget, and transitioned the annual climate week cook-off from a program activity into a fully realized fundraising event, strengthening its long-term financial resilience.
$80,889 spent$5,406 earned by the program17% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $484,564.
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 2022 to 2023, from $974k to $577k (−41%).
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: 2018 54% · 2019 67% · 2020 51% · 2021 15% · 2022 8% · 2023 1% · 2024 1% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of URBAN GREEN LAB’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Todd Lawrence
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $18k → $433k.
5 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 URBAN GREEN LAB’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 24 of 25 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
URBAN GREEN LAB leans on a few funders — its largest provides 39% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
39% 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 URBAN GREEN LAB.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 64% · 2018 43% · 2019 47% · 2020 41% · 2021 61% · 2022 51% · 2023 71% — 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
62% of URBAN GREEN LAB'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
63% of URBAN GREEN LAB's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $577k 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
URBAN GREEN LAB has grown faster than half of the 2,606 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,606 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like URBAN GREEN LAB
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
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
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 URBAN GREEN LAB: 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 URBAN GREEN LAB?
- URBAN GREEN LAB (Tennessee) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,693,916 to it, the largest being ATTICUS TRUST ($1,060,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does URBAN GREEN LAB have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $2,693,916 in grants to URBAN GREEN LAB, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of URBAN GREEN LAB?
- ATTICUS TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $1,060,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like URBAN GREEN LAB 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 Urban Green Lab →
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 25 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