Funders › Tennessee

The Gibson Foundation

Nashville, TN · EIN 20-0832563. Reported 829 grants totalling $10.0M to 645 recipients across tax years 2021-2025. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. The Gibson Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $4,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $2,799 and $7,834; the smallest was $290 and the largest $343,057. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

It also files a Form 990 with Schedule I

Separately from its 990-PF, this organization reported 190 grants on Form 990 Schedule I, with a median of $10,000 and a total of $4,353,978.

Every organization it funded

645 recipient names appear in its filings; the 250 largest are listed here. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.

131 of 645 (20%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 29%, across 4 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

• Gibson Gives - Play It Forward Program $343,057 · 2024
  FOR PROGRAM USE/FUNDRAISING EFFORTS FOR PROGRAM USE.
• Guitar Center Music Foundation $214,115 · 2025
  PROGRAM USE & FUNDRAISING EFFORTS
• Guitars for Vets $210,959 · 2022
  SUPPORTING MUSIC EDUCATION AND THE ARTS, HEALTH AND WELFARE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
• Nashville Symphony Association $94,125 · 2024
  FOUNDATION GIVING TO ANOTHER FOUNDATION OR FOR SCHOLARSHIPS
• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum $66,286 · 2023
  LOU SCRUGGS MEMORIAL SPONSORSHIP
• Musicares Foundation $60,000 · 2024
  MEDICAL SUPPLIES FOR OVERDOSE PREVENTION

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 387 grants where we could match the recipient to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's. The match, made from the name and address on the return, is ours.

Giving by year

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

33% of its giving went to organizations in Tennessee. If your organization is based elsewhere, look in the recipient list for grants to your area before writing.

Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

How to approach this foundation

1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $4,000. A request many times that size asks for something it has rarely or never given.
2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Tennessee.
3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Related guides

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from The Gibson Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 2 returns (tax years 2024-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.

Address of record on the latest return: 209 10TH Avenue South, Nashville, TN, 37203. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 20-0832563 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

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