Our mission
TShaw Strong is a small, volunteer-led Nashville nonprofit. In its own words, it is dedicated to helping those with ALS while assisting professional and amateur organizations in spreading the joy of health and sports. We are not trying to be the ALS Association. We are trying to turn Tim Shaw's platform, and Middle Tennessee's willingness to show up, into money that reaches researchers.
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We do not run a lab. We raise money and we give it to people who do. Our grants have gone to Team Gleason and, in 2026, to the Vanderbilt ALS Research Center, a research center twenty minutes from where the 5K is run.
Every grant, listed02
The TShaw Strong 5K to Beat ALS in Brentwood and the Celebrity Golf Classic in Williamson County are how nearly all of our revenue is raised. They are also, for a lot of Middle Tennessee families, the one day a year this disease is not something they carry alone.
See the events03
ALS is rare enough that most people never think about it and fatal enough that they should. Tim has spent a decade spending his own attention on this: at the State Capitol, in books, in a Titans locker room, on a baseball field on Lou Gehrig Day.
Understanding ALSThe other half
The charter TShaw Strong wrote for itself has two halves. The first is helping people with ALS. The second is easy to miss and Tim has never treated it as secondary: assisting professional and amateur organizations in spreading the joy of health and sports.
Faith, family, football and golf are the four things Tim names when he describes his own life. The foundation is the vehicle he uses to keep all four moving.
Tim hosts annual youth football camps in two places: his hometown of Livonia, Michigan, and Nashville, with the Tennessee Titans.
Penn State gives it each year to the player who has overcome adversity and inspired the people around him. It carries Tim’s name because he is what it describes.
“A foundation dedicated to those with ALS while spreading the joy of health and sports.” TShaw Strong, in its own words
How we work
TShawStrong, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity, tax-exempt since March 2023, based in Nashville. Its officers, a president, a vice president, and Tim as a director, take no compensation. That is not a marketing line; it is what the IRS Form 990-EZ filings say, and those filings are public.
Being small means we can move a check quickly and we can put almost all of our energy into two events a year. It also means we are honest about what we are not: we do not operate a clinic, we do not employ social workers, and we do not duplicate what the ALS Association, Team Gleason, and the Vanderbilt ALS Research Center already do better. Where a family needs those organizations, we point at them.
Every grant TShaw Strong has made is named, dated, and sourced on the Impact page, along with revenue and expense figures pulled directly from our IRS filings. If a number cannot be verified, it is marked as unverified rather than published as fact.
Campaigns
In September 2024, Tennessee Titans punter Ryan Stonehouse pledged $500 to TShaw Strong for every punt he downed inside an opponent’s 20-yard line that season. Tim matched him dollar for dollar and sent his match to Team Gleason.
It is a good template for how this organization works: someone with a platform decides to spend it, and the ALS community gets the proceeds.
Source: Tennessee Titans.
“More than anything, this is an opportunity to raise funds and bring awareness to ALS through TShaw Strong and Team Gleason.” Tim Shaw
Leadership
Founder
President
Vice President
Vice President
Four people. No paid staff, and no officer takes compensation, as reported on the Form 990-EZ. Photographs and two-line bios are the single cheapest credibility upgrade available to this page.
TShaw Strong is volunteer-led and 501(c)(3) tax-exempt. Your gift is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
EIN 92-2550544
