Events

Join The Women’s Fund for its Winter Warm-Up Networking Event, celebrating Nashville’s female chef community. It will take place February 21st at Casa Azafrán. Networking and happy hour will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by a panel of some of Nashville’s most distinguished female chefs and restaurant entrepreneurs including Kathy Bonnet, Maneet Chauhan, Margot McCormack, and Deb Paquette. The Moderator will be Jennifer Justus.

Moderator 

Jennifer Justus, Nashville native, is a former culture and lifestyles reporter for the Tennessean. Jennifer is the author of two books - The Food Lovers' Guide to Nashville and Nashville Eats. Her work has also appeared in Cornbread Nation: the Best of Southern Food Writing, TIME, Alimentum literary food journal, Nashville Lifestyles magazine, Southern Living, The Local Palate, Imbibe, the Boston Herald and The Boston Globe. Jennifer believes "Food is art, travel, sociology, agriculture and health. But it is also the simple stuff for survival that brings us together at the table."

Panel

Kathy Bonnet founded The Picnic Café in 1983. Originally sharing space with Belle Meade Drugs on Harding Road, the Café is a long-standing tradition in Nashville's southern cuisine scene. In the current location (and former Laundromat) since 2007, it offers delicious delicacies all made by hand every day from fresh ingredients. The Café offers breakfast and lunch, with favorites including fresh pastries and muffins, Picnic Chicken Salad, Kathy’s Crescents, and Picnic Tea Punch.

Margot McCormack began her illustrious career as a line cook at Bennigan’s while a student at UT Knoxville. After graduating from the culinary arts program at the Culinary Institute of America, she became the chef at Danal, a quaint European café in the East Village. In 1995 Margot returned home to Nashville and became the executive chef at F. Scott’s. In 2001 she left to pursue her dream of opening her own restaurant, Margot Café & Bar and Marché Artisan Foods. Her philosophy on food and cooking is inspired by the French culture, based on seasonality and the very best locally sourced ingredients.

Deb Paquette became the first woman in Tennessee to qualify as a certified executive chef. She’s been a trailblazer for chefs in the area, a mentor and consultant to some of Nashville’s best talent. She’s won countless awards and accolades and was the chef/owner of Zola - named in Gourmet Magazine as one of the Top Sixty Restaurants in the United States. After successfully coming back to Nashville and opening ETCH in the summer of 2012, Deb turned her attention to etc., located in the Green Hills neighborhood, in August of 2016. This smaller, more intimate version of Etch boasts a swanky vibe with a menu that incorporates all of Deb’s favorite spices, produce and global recipes. A succinct wine and cocktail menu includes wines from around the world, select craft beer and a handful of culinary-minded cocktails.

The Women’s Fund, an endowment fund within The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, is dedicated to increasing support in Middle Tennessee for programs serving women and girls. Since 1994, the Fund has issued grants of more than $1.6 million to 40 unique nonprofit organizations throughout Middle Tennessee.

The Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund presents the 12th Annual Jeffrey Steele & Friends, an intimate evening hosted by Storme Warren with special guest performances by: Jeffrey Steele, Steve Cropper, Eddie Montgomery, LOCASH, RaeLynn, Steve Dorff, Travis Denning, Alissa Griffith, KASL and more to be announced.

Proceeds benefit the Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, helping overlooked and underprivileged youth by motivating them in school and in life. Jeffrey Steele and family created the Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund at The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee after Steele’s 13-year-old son passed away January 28, 2007 in a tragic accident. Steele and his family are very involved with this program, which has already made a significant impact on its participants.

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Nashville Fashion Week is a city-wide celebration of Nashville’s thriving fashion and retail community and its vast array of creative talent. This five-day event features local, regional and national designers and industry professionals in an array of creative events throughout the week encouraging both Nashvillians and visitors to explore the city’s diverse fashion and retail spaces.

Nashville Fashion Week is founded and directed by a collaboration of fashion, retail and media professionals who have combined their passion and resources to create a volunteer event spotlighting Nashville's growing fashion community with a sustainable focus for philanthropic support of the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

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The Nashville Fashion Forward Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee invites you to celebrate and support the entrepreneurial spirit of Nashville’s creative arts and fashion community with Nashville Fashion Week and our partner OZ Arts Nashville at the Fifth Annual Nashville Fashion Forward Fund Gala on Saturday, April 6 at OZ Arts Nashville. The Gala will close out Nashville Fashion Week as it has since 2014.

This is the fourth year that Nashville Fashion Week will present its Nashville Fashion Forward Awards at the Fashion Forward Gala to recognize community leaders that have made an impact on the Nashville fashion industry. This is the first year that award recipients have been announced prior to the event as a way to insure that they receive the attention that they deserve over the months leading up to Nashville Fashion Week.

The ninth Nashville Fashion Week will be held April 2- 6 in partnership with OZ Arts Nashville. All proceeds from Nashville Fashion Week benefit the Nashville Fashion Forward Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

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Join The Women’s Fund for the 2019 Power of the Purse® on Friday, April 12th from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. The event will take place in the Davidson Ballroom at The Music City Center. Vicki Saunders is the keynote speaker for the 2019 Power of the Purse®.

Vicki Saunders is an entrepreneur, award-winning mentor, advisor to the next generation of change makers and leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive transformation in the world. Vicki is the Founder of SheEO and #radical generosity a global initiative to radically transform how we support, finance and celebrate female entrepreneurs.

Vicki has co-founded and run ventures in Europe, Toronto and Silicon Valley and taken a company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. She was recently named one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from “EBW – Empowering A Billion Women”, In 2001, Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.

All proceeds of The Power of the Purse© support the grantmaking potential of The Women’s Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Since its inception in 1994, The Women’s Fund has made grants totaling more than $1.6 million to 132 programs supporting women & girls in Middle Tennessee.

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The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee’s The Big Payback is a 24-hour, online giving event created to increase philanthropy in the 40 counties of Middle Tennessee. The goal is simple – inspire Middle Tennesseans to come together, show their pride in their communities, and contribute to support the life-changing work of local nonprofit organizations. 

In its first four years, The Big Payback has helped Middle Tennessee’s nonprofit community raise $9.3 million dollars for more than 750 nonprofits, including religious institutions and schools. The spirit of generosity shines bright during this annual giving event.

Learn more, see a list of participating nonprofits, and learn how your nonprofit organization, school or religious institution can participate at http://thebigpayback.org.

The Francis S. Guess Bridge to Equality Fund Luncheon is hosted by the Music City Center in the Davidson Room on Thursday, May 23 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

IN HONOR
TBD

IN MEMORY
Francis S. Guess served this community with vigor, commitment and pride for decades. He found his own bridge to equality, and then created the same opportunities for others throughout the country and here at home.

ABOUT THE FUND
No one who knew him can imagine what Nashville would have been like without Francis S. Guess. The child raised in public housing became the man whose fingerprints can be found on almost every major civic effort in our community.

Throughout his distinguished life, Francis S. Guess’ body of work has included the widest range of worthy causes from economic development to the preservation of musical heritage to investment in the human condition. He has served on the National Civil Rights Commission; has acted as Commissioner for the Tennessee departments of Labor and General Services under then Governor Lamar Alexander; and has provided volunteer support to more than 100 organizations.

As a community we honor his memory with gratitude for his many accomplishments. And to ensure that his efforts continue, The Francis S. Guess Bridge to Equality Fund has been created to help provide equal access to the American Dream, in perpetuity.