The@Sampson Foundation Inc.

The Sampson Foundation Inc. (EIN 62-1655037, Knoxville, TN) is not a conventional grantmaker that grant seekers can approach — it is a closed, family-run private foundation whose entire giving activity, every year for at least a decade, has flowed to a single recipient: East Tennessee Foundation, structured as a "Designated Fund Contribution." Granted's own grantee data shows exactly one distinct recipient across four tracked grant records totaling $1,665,000 (average $416,250/grant), and third-party 990 trackers (Instrumentl, Grantable, Cause IQ) independently confirm the same one-grant-per-year pattern running from at least 2014 through 2025. This is the signature of a donor-designated endowment fund parked inside a community foundation, not a discretionary grants program. The five listed officers — President Lauren Bowman, Vice Presidents Jeff Knight, Mary S Brewington and George Burton Sampson Jr, and Secretary Nell Kedrow — all serve uncompensated, consistent with a family board administering a legacy gift rather than running active due diligence on outside applicants. For unsolicited nonprofits, the realistic path is not this foundation at all: it is East Tennessee Foundation's own competitive grant programs (easttennesseefoundation.org/nonprofits/apply-for-grants/), which do accept outside applications and would be the vehicle through which mission-aligned East Tennessee nonprofits could plausibly gain visibility with the Sampson family over time. One important data caveat governs this entire report: the website on file for this foundation, thesampsonfoundation.org, actually describes a different organization based in Bethesda, MD, focused on integrative medicine and healthy-food access (grantees include the Center for Mind Body Medicine and Real Food for Kids), with an executive director and a grantinterface.com portal. Nothing on that site references Knoxville, East Tennessee Foundation, or this EIN, so this report does not treat that content as authoritative for the entity being profiled — it relies on IRS Form 990-PF data and cross-checked 990 aggregators instead.

Total giving has grown from $216,320 (FY2010) to $495,432 (FY2022) to a most-recent $506,375 (FY2025 per Instrumentl), tracking a roughly 4-5% average annual increase over 15 years — consistent with a foundation simply distributing its 5% minimum payout requirement as assets appreciate, not a foundation expanding or narrowing its mission. Total assets have held in a tight band, from a low of $2.95M (2010, per Instrumentl) to a high of $6.46M (2018), sitting at $5.75-6.28M across the FY2018-FY2022 financials in Granted's data and $5,751,073 most recently. Grants paid have plateaued at exactly $425,000/year for five consecutive years (FY2018 through FY2022), suggesting a fixed annual commitment to the designated fund rather than payout tied to investment performance in any given year — net investment income swung from $232,293 (2018) to $443,003 (2020) in that same window while grants paid stayed flat. Revenue is entirely investment-driven: net investment income of $297,880 (2022) against total revenue of $356,162, with zero contributions received in every year from 2018-2022 (the foundation took in one large $2,507,674 contribution in 2010 and none since, meaning it is running purely off its existing endowment). Granted's grantee-level data shows 100% of tracked disbursements ($1,665,000 across 4 grants) going to East Tennessee Foundation in Tennessee, with an average grant size of $416,250 — there is no program-area breakdown, no geographic diversification, and no secondary grantee to compare against, because none exists in the record.

Granted's peer set groups this foundation with four other small, single-state "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" category foundations of nearly identical asset size (all clustered within about $5,000 of each other at roughly $5.75M), which is itself a strong signal: these are same-tier family/legacy vehicles, not active competitive grantmakers.

Granted does not have detailed financial or grantee data for the five peers, but their names ("...Family Foundation," "Christian Workers Foundation") and matched asset tier strongly suggest the same profile as Sampson: small, closely-held vehicles administered by a family or affinity group rather than open competitive grantmakers. The practical takeaway for grant seekers is that this entire peer cluster is a poor prospecting target — time is better spent on mid-size community foundations like East Tennessee Foundation itself, which runs the actual competitive programs in this region.

No news coverage, press releases, or public announcements about The Sampson Foundation Inc. of Knoxville were identified in web searches covering 2025-2026 — expected for an all-volunteer, uncompensated-officer foundation with a single, recurring institutional grantee and no public program to promote. The most current verifiable data point is the FY2025 Form 990-PF, reflected in third-party trackers as of an August 16, 2026 refresh: $269,895 in revenue, $554,640 in total expenses, $506,375 in charitable disbursements, and $5,751,073 in net assets. That disbursement figure continues the foundation's slow upward trend from the $425,000/year plateau seen in Granted's FY2018-FY2022 data, suggesting either a modest increase in the fixed annual commitment to its East Tennessee Foundation fund or an inflation-linked adjustment. No leadership changes were identified — the same five uncompensated officers (Lauren Bowman as President, Jeff Knight and Mary S Brewington as Vice Presidents, George Burton Sampson Jr as Vice President, Nell Kedrow as Secretary) recur across the historical filings in Granted's data and current 990 trackers alike, indicating board stability rather than turnover. No new program announcements, no expanded grantee list, and no shift away from the single-recipient structure were found anywhere in the record.

The single most important tip: do not spend time drafting a proposal for this foundation. Every available data source — Granted's own grantee records, Instrumentl's 990 tracking, Grantable's funder profile, and Cause IQ — independently confirms that 100% of this foundation's grantmaking for over a decade has gone to one recipient, East Tennessee Foundation, structured as a donor-designated fund. Designated funds at community foundations are, by definition, pre-selected by the original donor (in this case, the Sampson family) at the time the fund was established; East Tennessee Foundation's own website confirms designated funds are not a competitive application channel. There is no LOI process, no open RFP, no board review of outside applicants, and no public program officer to build a relationship with — the foundation has zero paid staff and an all-volunteer, uncompensated board. If your organization is genuinely mission-aligned with the Sampson family's giving (community development in the Knoxville/East Tennessee region, per the NTEE code T22Z and "Community Development" focus area in Granted's data), the productive move is to apply directly to East Tennessee Foundation's own competitive grant programs at easttennesseefoundation.org/nonprofits/apply-for-grants/ — visibility and track record there is the realistic (if indirect and non-guaranteed) way a family fund administrator might eventually notice your organization for future designation, though there is no evidence this foundation adds new designated beneficiaries. One further caution: verify any funding intelligence you encounter under the name "Sampson Foundation" carefully — a similarly-named but operationally distinct foundation in Bethesda, MD (integrative medicine, healthy food access, grantinterface.com portal) shares no EIN, address, or grantee overlap with this Knoxville entity, and conflating the two would waste an application on the wrong funder entirely. If you do reach the family (e.g., through a personal or professional connection to officers Lauren Bowman, Jeff Knight, Mary S Brewington, George Burton Sampson Jr, or Nell Kedrow), lead with concrete, measurable community-development outcomes in the Knoxville area rather than a generic capacity-building pitch — but treat this as a long-shot relationship play, not a submittable-application opportunity.