Tennessee – Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced today that his office has filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court seeking the judicial dissolution of the National Foundation for Transplants, Inc., a Memphis-based nonprofit organization that raised funds for organ transplant patients. The lawsuit follows a months-long investigation into NFT’s fundraising practices and its management of patient donations.
NFT, which announced in April 2024 that it would cease operations due to financial difficulties, has been under scrutiny after the Attorney General’s Office received 47 complaints from patients and donors. Some of these complaints were referred by the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Division of Business and Charitable Organizations following NFT’s closure announcement. Concerns were also raised regarding how NFT handled donor-restricted funds in its dissolution plan.
“Our investigation revealed troubling discrepancies between how NFT represented its services to vulnerable transplant patients and how it actually managed donations,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “When a nonprofit organization solicits charitable contributions by telling donors their money will benefit specific transplant patients, those representations must be truthful and accurate. We are all grateful for the many Tennessee non-profits who serve our communities with selflessness and integrity, but organizations that betray the public trust will be held accountable.”
The investigation began after the Secretary of State’s Division of Business and Charitable Organizations received its first NFT complaint, filed by a patient’s family member concerned about access to restricted transplant funds. Similar complaints and communications from the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office were forwarded to the Tennessee Attorney General. Although NFT filed a Notice of Intent Not to Solicit in May 2024, it failed to file the necessary dissolution documents, leading to the organization’s administrative dissolution in December 2024 due to its failure to submit a 2023 annual report.
“The Attorney General’s Office is a great partner in our efforts to protect Tennesseans and their charitable dollars,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett. “This important step announced today warns any individual or entity attempting to take advantage of the generosity of donors that their actions will not be tolerated in Tennessee.”
The lawsuit alleges that NFT misrepresented to patients and donors that funds donated “in honor of” or “on behalf of” specific patients would be restricted for use by those patients. Instead, NFT later claimed all donations were unrestricted and placed in a general fund.
The lawsuit further states that NFT provided patients with statements resembling bank account reports showing beginning and ending balances for funds donated for their care, creating the false impression that these funds were earmarked specifically for the individual patients. When NFT announced its closure, many patients discovered they could no longer access the funds they believed had been raised for their medical needs.
The lawsuit seeks judicial dissolution under the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, which allows for the dissolution of nonprofits that engage in fraudulent practices, abuse their authority, or can no longer fulfill their charitable purpose. If granted, the court would oversee the proper distribution of NFT’s remaining assets to another nonprofit with a similar mission.