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Funding

Tennessee · Nonprofit

WAVES INC

WAVES INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $881,604 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($569,884). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.

$4.2M
Revenue FY2025
11
Funders on record
$882k
Grants received
$863k
Net assets
6/11 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 4%

Against its field

WAVES INC's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.

Operating margin2% · below the median
Months of reserve0.7mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,983 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($3.3M) Expenses 100 ($3.3M) Net assets 100 ($780k)2019 Revenue 104 ($3.4M) Expenses 106 ($3.5M) Net assets 94 ($733k)2020 Revenue 91 ($3.0M) Expenses 92 ($3.1M) Net assets 89 ($691k)2021 Revenue 96 ($3.2M) Expenses 84 ($2.8M) Net assets 144 ($1.1M)2022 Revenue 107 ($3.5M) Expenses 100 ($3.3M) Net assets 177 ($1.4M)2023 Revenue 102 ($3.4M) Expenses 106 ($3.5M) Net assets 160 ($1.3M)2024 Revenue 89 ($3.0M) Expenses 103 ($3.4M) Net assets 101 ($789k)2025 Revenue 127 ($4.2M) Expenses 125 ($4.1M) Net assets 111 ($863k)
'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (127)Expenses (125)Net assets (111)Peer revenue range

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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 9% · 2019 15% · 2020 16% · 2021 16% · 2022 35% · 2023 29% · 2024 34% · 2025 46%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

55% of WAVES INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,740 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$13k
18
$47k
19
$41k
20
$412k
21
$253k
22
$126k
23
$462k
24
$74k
25
0.7
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income rose $91k → $106k.

2 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)4% 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 WAVES 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

WAVES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

100% 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 WAVES INC.

65%
largest funder
97%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 95% · 2018 88% · 2019 88% · 2020 91% · 2021 93% · 2022 85% · 2023 100%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

30% of WAVES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

100% of WAVES INC's grant income comes from Tennessee funders.

CA
VA
TN
MS

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Tennessee out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $33k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 11 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like WAVES INC

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Tennessee

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

76% of spending goes to programs.

Program 76%Management 22%Fundraising 1%

Governance

16
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

86%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

TN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WAVES 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds WAVES INC?
WAVES INC (Tennessee) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $881,604 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC ($569,884). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does WAVES INC have?
IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $881,604 in grants to WAVES INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of WAVES INC?
UNITED WAY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE INC is the largest funder on record, with $569,884 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like WAVES 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 11funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing