Grantmakers › Tennessee

Community Lift Corp

Memphis, TN · EIN 27-3941355. Reported 64 grants totalling $1,619,376 to 36 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

36organizations funded
$15,704median reported grant
$1,619,376granted, 2020-2024
43%of grantees funded again the next year
33%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Community Lift Corp, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S30) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 36 distinct organizations, with 33% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 43% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $15,704. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $25,000; the smallest was $5,001 and the largest $360,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
12 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
35 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
15 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
1 grant
$250,000 Or More
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
River City Capital Investment CorpMemphis, TN$540,000222024
Promise Development CorporationMemphis, TN$166,960542023
Building MemphisMemphis, TN$79,350442024
Alcy Ball Community DevelopementMemphis, TN$77,771442024
Klondike Smokey City Community Development Corporation IncMemphis, TN$72,300442024
Victorian Village Inc CdcMemphis, TN$64,200442024
Oasis of HopeCordova, TN$62,300442024
Score CdcMemphis, TN$42,500112024
United Housing IncMemphis, TN$40,569222024
Uplift Westwood Community Development CorporationMemphis, TN$35,840222024
South City Opportunity Revitalization EmpowermentMemphis, TN$32,327442023
Frayser Community Development CorporationMemphis, TN$30,960212020
MincMemphis, TN$25,300222024
Legacy of Legends CdcMemphis, TN$25,000112024
Midsouth Genesis Community Development CorporationMemphis, TN$25,000112024
Whitehaven Economic Development CorporationMemphis, TN$25,000112024
Heights Community Development CorporationMemphis, TN$24,000112020
South Memphis Alliance IncorporatedMemphis, TN$24,000112020
Binghampton Development CorporationMemphis, TN$20,000112024
Nho Management IncMemphis, TN$18,000222021
Crosstown Memphis CdcMemphis, TN$17,499112020
Jacobs Ladder Community Development CorporationMemphis, TN$16,400112020
Alliance for Housing ProgressOlympia Flds, IL$15,000112024
Blues Cty Comr JonesMemphis, TN$15,000112024
Mdcdc IncMemphis, TN$14,400112022
A Better WhitehavenMemphis, TN$12,800112022
Bluff City Community Development CorporationCordova, TN$12,600112023
Power Center Development CorporationMemphis, TN$11,000112020
Midtown Development CorporationMemphis, TN$10,800112020
Cheers Creative LLCMemphis, TN$10,000112021
Law Office of Lee E Rankin PcMemphis, TN$10,000112021
Needs IncorporatedMemphis, TN$10,000112023
Townsend Food ServicesMemphis, TN$10,000112021
Arts CafeMemphis, TN$7,500112023
Glenview Edgewood Manor Area Association IncMemphis, TN$7,500112024
Melodies of ColorsMemphis, TN$7,500112023

12 of 36 (33%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 1 group of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 29 of 36 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Community Improvement
11 orgs
Housing & Shelter
8 orgs
Human Services
5 orgs
Arts & Culture
2 orgs
Religion
1 org
Health Care
1 org
Crime & Legal
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202017$353,599$17,499
20219$91,876$6,000
202211$177,541$15,840
202310$481,360$10,000
202417$515,000$20,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

99% of its giving went to organizations in Tennessee. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Tennessee
$1.6M
Illinois
$15K

Down to the city

Memphis, TN
$1.5M
Cordova, TN
$75K
Olympia Flds, IL
$15K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. 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.

Community Foundation15 shared recipientsThe Kresge Foundation7 shared recipientsChristian Community Foundation of5 shared recipientsJR Hyde III Family Foundation5 shared recipientsThe Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation4 shared recipientsLocal Initiatives Support Corporation3 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $15,704 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Tennessee.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Community Lift Corp's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

Address of record on the latest return: 1863 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN, 38104.

EIN 27-3941355 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.