Grantmakers › Tennessee

Mountain Ways Inc

Gatlinburg, TN · EIN 92-2057465. Reported 23 grants totalling $4,008,413 to 22 organizations across tax years 2024-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$70,000median reported grant
$4,008,413granted, 2024-2025
0%of grantees funded again the next year
23%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 Mountain Ways Inc, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for youth development (NTEE O12).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 23% 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. 0% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. 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 $70,000. Half of what it reported fell between $25,000 and $233,853; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $902,315. 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.
$10,000 - $25,000
2 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
8 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
5 grants
$250,000 Or More
5 grants

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
Appalachia Service Project IncJohnson City, TN$902,315112025
First Tennessee Development District FoundationJohnson City, TN$560,000112025
Beyond All BordersCandler, NC$500,000112025
Holston Habitat for Humanity IncKingsport, TN$400,000112025
Nolachuncky Baptist Association IncMorristown, TN$308,853212025
Hope House of Cocke CountyNewport, TN$297,500112025
Unicoi County Emergency Medical ServicesErwin, TN$215,078112025
United Way of East Tennessee HighlandsJohnson City, TN$200,000112025
Asheville Police Department FoundationAsheville, NC$130,000112025
Aidnet of Greene County IncGreeneville, TN$100,000112025
Newport Emergency and Rescue Squad IncorporatedNewport, TN$70,000112025
Serenity Pointe IncDunlap, TN$52,000112025
Nuway Custom Portable BuildingsGlassgow, KY$47,667112024
Grassy Fork Volunteer Fire DepartmentHartford, TN$45,000112025
The Central Charities Committee of Newport and Cocke County IncorporaCosby, TN$30,000112024
Centerview Volunteer Fire Departmen T IncNewport, TN$25,000112025
Cosby Volunteer Fire Department IncCosby, TN$25,000112025
Del Rio Community Association IncDel Rio, TN$25,000112025
Long Creek Volunteer Fire DeptParrottsville, TN$25,000112025
Parrottsville Volunteer Fire Rt 2 Department IncorporatedParrottsville, TN$25,000112025
Kiwanis Club of Newport Foundation IncNewport, TN$15,000112025
Whirl'd Helicopters IncSevierville, TN$10,000112024

0 of 22 (0%) received money in more than one year over the 2 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 2 groups 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 the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 17 of 22 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.

Human Services
5 orgs
Public Safety & Disaster Relief
5 orgs
Housing & Shelter
2 orgs
Health Care
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Crime & Legal
1 org
Mental Health
1 org
Education
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20243$87,667$30,000
202520$3,920,746$87,500

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

83% 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
$3.3M
North Carolina
$630K
Kentucky
$48K

Down to the city

Johnson City, TN
$1.7M
Candler, NC
$500K
Newport, TN
$408K
Kingsport, TN
$400K
Morristown, TN
$309K
Erwin, TN
$215K

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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.

Paypal Charitable Giving Fund5 shared recipientsEastman Credit Union4 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund4 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc4 shared recipientsThe Community Foundation of Middle3 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc3 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 $70,000 -- 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.

Related guides

Foundations funding health care in TennesseeEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Mountain Ways Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 2 returns (tax years 2024-2025). 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: Po Box 1709, Gatlinburg, TN, 37738.

EIN 92-2057465 · 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.