The Women’s Fund is dedicated to increasing support in Middle Tennessee for programs serving women and girls. The Women’s Fund was established within The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee in 1994 by a committee of community leaders who wanted to invest in long-term solutions for transforming the lives of women and girls, improving the well-being of our entire community.

The Women's Fund awards grant funding to programs addressing:

• Achievement of economic self-sufficiency for women
• Prevention of violence and crime against women and girls
• Promotion of health and physical well-being and talent for women and girls

Learn More About The Women's Fund:

A Permanent Endowment

The Women’s Fund is working to become Middle Tennessee’s leading resource for identifying and supporting the needs of women and girls. As the only endowed fund of this kind, by building our capital to $10 million we can affect powerful social change within our constituencies.

Through our endowment within The Community Foundation, the interest generated from the Fund is given annually to provide support to programs dedicated to helping women and girls in our community. As the principal grows, so does our ability to meet crucial needs and effect social change.

At $10 million, our ability to address current needs in our community will increase almost fivefold to $500,000 annually, enabling The Women’s Fund to not only address immediate needs, but also to address the root cause of the needs – to help craft solutions and effect social change. Growing the endowment enables us to shift from intervention to prevention, from temporary to permanent, and from short-term to transformative. Unmet needs will be met. Women’s lives will be transformed.

Building Endowment

We are building on a solid foundation – more than 15 years of providing the vehicle for women-led change in the lives of women and girls and, as a result, their families and community. The Women’s Fund has been a catalyst, identifying challenges, marshaling resources and pursuing opportunities, and has granted more than $614,000 to over 70 area nonprofits in Middle Tennessee.

We have come so far, and yet we have only just begun to meet the tremendous challenges that lie ahead for women and girls in Middle Tennessee. To connect more individuals and families with resources that bring health, hope, education and enrichment, The Women’s Fund seeks to grow its endowment and grantmaking abilities.

We have the opportunity to focus on women-led solutions by providing leadership and stewardship in identifying the needs and supporting solutions. Together, we can unite money, ideas and actions to create lasting change for women and girls, their families and our community.

To learn about opportunities to contribute toward our endowment building goal, contact us at 615-321-4939.

The Women’s Fund of The Community Foundation is For Women … For Generations.

Thanks to its generous supporters and volunteers, The Women's Fund has made grants of more than $1,000,000 to nonprofit organizations providing a range of services to support women and girls throughout Middle Tennessee.

The Women’s Fund is committed to continue growing our endowment and grantmaking capability for the benefit of countless women and girls throughout Middle Tennessee.

2016 The Women’s Fund Grant Recipients

36 Grants for a total of $152,700

A Step Ahead Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc.
Actors Bridge Ensemble
Blue Monarch
Bridges of Williamson County
Center of Hope
Community Homeless Outreach & Support/The Brooks House
Continental T-Belle Track Club, Inc.
Council on Aging of Greater Nashville
Doors of Hope
Faith Family Medical Center
Families in Crisis, Inc.
Free for Life International
Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee
Girls on the Run of Middle Tennesse
Haven of Hope
League of Women Voters
Lupus Foundation of America, Inc., Mid-South Chapter
Maury Regional Healthcare Foundation
Mental Health America of Middle Tennessee
Nashville Diaper Connection
Nurses for Newborns of Tennessee
Progress Inc.
Refuge Center for Counseling
Rest Stop Ministries, Inc.
Sexual Assault Center
Southeast Community Capital Corp/Pathway
Tennessee Cancer Consortium
Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence
Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition
Tennessee Women's Theater Project
The Mary Parrish Center
The New Beginnings Center
The Next Door
Thistle Farms, Inc.
Women Are Safe, Inc.
YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee

2017 Power of the Purse®

Join The Women's Fund for the 19th annual Power of the Purse® Luncheon on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 in the Karl Dean Ballroom at the Nashville Music City Center in downtown Nashville. We'll have more than 100 silent auction items including dozens of designer purses as well as a very special guest speaker!

The Power of the Purse^® Luncheon will feature keynote speaker Glennon Doyle Melton. She is the author of the inspiring New York Times bestselling memoirs Carry On, Warrior and recently released Love Warrior, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club in September 2016 and is now a #1 New York Times Bestseller. In addition to being an author, Melton founded Momastery.com, an on-line community where hundreds of thousands of readers meet daily to experience her shameless and laugh-out-loud funny essays about marriage, motherhood, faith, addiction, recovery, and serving the marginalized.
 
She has also inspired and encouraged philanthropy as the creator and president of Together Rising, a non-profit organization that has revolutionized on-line giving through “Love Flash Mobs” and has connected countless families in need with millions of dollars in critical resources.

11:00am to 11:45am: Silent Auction
Noon-1:00pm: Luncheon
1:00pm-2:00pm:  Meet & Greet with Glennon for Sponsors

Questions about sponsorships and tributes? Contact Amy Fair at afair@cfmt.org or 615-321-4939.

2017 Honorary Chair
Martina McBride has been an advocate and an icon for women throughout her storied career. Her advocacy and her encouragement to women throughout the world has often - but not always - come through her music, notably songs like: “This One’s for the Girls,” “Independence Day,” “Concrete Angel,” “A Broken Wing,” “In My Daughter’s Eyes,” and “Teenage Daughters” to name just a few.

But her support of women and girls has also come in the form of encouraging women to help each other broadly, the hard work of championing them by supporting nonprofits serving women and girls through her Music Is Love Fund, and her work with CMT’s Next Women of Country as it continues grow confident, fun, and talented female singers/songwriters who are taking the country music world by storm.

The Women’s Fund Advisory Board is comprised of community leaders who believe deeply in ensuring that the needs of women and girls in Middle Tennessee are met both today and tomorrow. Our Advisory Board members are a diverse group of women with a common passion for our community and the desire to improve the lives of all of its women and children.

Our 2016-2017 Board Members

Estie Harris, Chair
Elizabeth Akers
Meera Ballal
Jean Ann Banker
Dawn Becker
Louise Bryan
Holly Coltea
Leslie DiPiero
Missy Eason
Beth Fortune
Appy Frenchman
Melissa Frist
Mary Gambill
Lynn Ghertner
Ellen Green
Phyllis Hildreth
Collins Hooper
Marci Houff
Susan Short Jones
Beverly  Keel
Ann Kloeppel
Stacey Garrett Koju
Ellen Lehman
Jan Maddox
Jody Mattison
Rita Mitchell
Julia Morris
Caroline Mullen
Barbara Keith Payne
Phyllis Qualls-Brooks
Mary Jo Shankle
Laura Smith
Cassie Sturdivant
Mandy Young
Nancy Zoretic

The Women's Fund Forum

Hunger Happens Here: It's a Women's Issue

Join The Women's Fund for its educational forum, bringing attention to community issues that affect women and children in our community.  In 2015, The Women’s Fund brought attention to the issue of hunger in our community and how it affects women in particular.  This year, another panel of experts will come together to talk about deeper issues of food deserts, public schools’ role in addressing hunger and healthier meals, and the impacts of hunger on health in our lower income communities in Nashville, those areas of the city that have not benefitted from our IT City status. The one-hour panel discussion will be followed by a cocktail hour.

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED

When: Wednesday, November 16, 2016, from 4:00p.m. to 6:00p.m.
Where: Butler Snow, The Pinnacle at Symphony Place, 150 3^rd Avenue S, Ste 1600
Cost: Complimentary thanks to Forum Sponsor First Tennessee Foundation

Moderator: 
Mary Hance AKA Ms. Cheap, The Tennessean
Mary Hance has championed the Ms. Cheap Penny Drive for Second Harvest for the past eight years.  During each November through January, she encourages our Middle Tennessee community to share their pennies in support of neighbors in need.  The results—more than $300,000, providing 1,200,000 meals—demonstrate the great response to her compassionate call to action.
 
Panelists:
Laura Berlind is executive director of The Sycamore Institute.  Established in 2016, The Sycamore Institute is an organization recently established with the vision of a thriving Tennessee whose top priority is the health and well-being of each citizen.
 
Braina Corke is assistant director of nutrition services of MNPS.  During the school year, MNPS serves 92,000 meals.  In 2016, a summer feeding program was introduced to ensure Davidson County students at risk for hunger would have access to food when school is not in session.
 
Tasha Kennard is the Executive Director of The Nashville Farmers Market. The Nashville Farmer’s Market and the Metro Nashville Health Department have been funded to solicit a food systems assessment that can be used by both Metro and the community at large to improve the local food system and get healthier local food into areas underserved by the market, including areas identified to be food deserts.