How Grantmaking Works
Summary of the Impact Report: A Snapshot of Our Grantmaking
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee builds and holds a permanent and growing charitable endowment for our community. Together with donors, we make an impact through grant support for nonprofits in the trenches solving challenges in the 40 counties we serve and beyond. To learn more about the information from our Impact Report, read a message from the President, Ellen Lehman.
Because we offer customized services to accomplish our donors' intent, we have several types of charitable funds and grantmaking processes. The following is an overview of how grantmaking works, using a snapshot of 2013 grantmaking figures:
* Unrestricted Impact Funds + * Field-of-Interest Funds
These two types of funds make up the Discretionary Grants Program.
Grants are awarded annually to Middle Tennessee area nonprofits through a single application process, reviewed by a volunteer committee and The Community Foundation’s Board of Directors. This is a competitive process, for nonprofits that chose to apply. See a list of 2014 Community Foundation Discretionary Grant Recipients.
Unrestricted Impact Funds are used by The Community Foundation to respond to evolving community needs. Field-of-Interest Funds support a specific cause or geographic area identified by the donor, such as education or the arts.
* Donor-Advised Funds
Grants are made based on the recommendations of the donor. The Community Foundation vets these requests and makes grants to bona fide nonprofit organizations anywhere in the country.
The largest amount of dollars granted, and often, the largest donations annually, are from our Donor-Advised Funds. Individual organizations cannot apply for these grants. Learn more about Donor-Advised Funds.
* Designated Funds +
* Agency Endowment Funds
These funds are established to support specific nonprofit organization(s). Grants are made annually to the nonprofit(s) named by the donor.
Designated Funds are set up by donors to benefit one or more favorite nonprofits. Agency Endowment Funds are set up by the nonprofit itself to help ensure the future of its work.
Please note the graph above uses audited 2013 financials.