Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee awarded more than $1.1 million through its 2026 Special Interest Grantmaking cycle, supporting 162 grants across 25 counties. This year’s special interest funds reached organizations from Nashville to Byrdstown, funding everything from spay/neuter clinics to trauma recovery programs to a school district’s weekend backpack program.

Through eight charitable funds established to meet Middle Tennessee where the need is, these funds reflect the many ways local generosity can respond to the needs of communities across Middle Tennessee.

Supporting communities across Middle Tennessee

Davidson County received 60 grants totaling $432,803, reflecting CFMT’s commitment and foundation in Nashville. But look past Davidson and the map keeps filling in. Twenty-six counties received funding this cycle, stretching from Stewart County on the Kentucky border to Lincoln County along the Alabama state line.

In Coffee County the Lillian Ashley Fund awarded $245,857 across 24 grants , with much of the funding going straight into local schools. Grants helped provide food pantries, family resource centers, art supplies, literacy programs, and other resources for students and families. Additionally, Dickson County awarded more than $66,000 for education and nonprofit work, returning charitable resources directly to the community each fund was created to serve.

A place-based approach allows each fund to remain connected to its original purpose while contributing to the well-being of Middle Tennessee as a whole.

One fund, every stage of a woman’s life

The Women’s Fund awarded $289,687 across 38 grants this year, supporting women and girls across a wide range of ages, experiences, and circumstances. Finding supported organizations working in sex trafficking recovery, maternal health support, senior transportation, small business incubation for Latina entrepreneurs, leadership programs for Black girls, eating disorder treatment, domestic violence shelter.

Rather than focus on a single issue, The Women’s Fund responds to the many moments women and girls may need added support, from adolescence through later in life. It’s built around one population, at every age and every turning point, from a teenager finding her voice to a grandmother trying to get to a doctor’s appointment.

Meeting needs that affect a student’s ability to learn

In Coffee County, nine separate grants this year addressed basic needs that shape a student’s experience in the classroom: making sure a kid has food, clothes, and supplies before anyone asks them to learn algebra. The Deerfield Elementary’s Weekend Backpack Program provides food for students outside the school week. East Middle School received support for basic needs, and Coffee County Raider Academy General Store helps connect students with clothing, hygiene items, and other essentials.

Stack them together and you get something bigger than any one program: a whole county school system with a philanthropic safety net running underneath it, county-wide.

Care that shows up in the smallest counties too

Sixteen counties received exactly one grant this year, most of them $10,000 for animal welfare: Jackson, Humphreys, Macon, Warren, Pickett, Overton, White, Lawrence.

These are counties easy to overlook in a state where the headlines belong to Nashville. The Animal Welfare Fund found them anyway, $362,000 across 44 grants and 20-plus counties, almost all of it spay/neuter, emergency vet care, and rescue work for people who couldn’t otherwise afford it.

By reaching organizations of different sizes and communities throughout the region, the Fund helps expand access to animal care where local resources may be limited.