Foundation & Corporate Grants

Youth Service America
Summer of Creativity Grants support young people who are creating lasting, positive change through volunteer and community service projects.

National Endowment for the Arts
Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth grants advance arts education for children and youth in school-based or community-based settings.

The National Education Association
The NEA Foundation supports a variety of efforts by teachers, education support professionals, and higher education faculty and staff to improve student learning in the nation’s public schools, colleges, and universities.

U.S. Department of Education
The program supports the enhancement, expansion, documentation, evaluation, and dissemination of innovative, cohesive models that demonstrate effectiveness in integrating into and strengthening arts in the core elementary and middle school curricula.

The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation
Supports music education and its many benefits through the donation and repair of musical instruments to under-served schools, community music programs and individual students nationwide.

VH-1 Save the Music Foundation
Dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America’s public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as a part of each child’s complete education.

The Starbucks Foundation
Provides grants that fund programs for youth, ages 6-18, that integrate literacy with personal and civic action in the communities where they live.

Target
Target provides local grant money to hometown organizations, and focuses on programs that promote a love of reading or encourage children to read together with their families.

Ford Foundation
Grants and PRIs are given in the Foundation’s fields of interest through a program division encompassing three broad areas: Asset Building and Community Development; Education, Media, Arts, and Culture; and Peace and Social Justice.

The AT&T Foundation
Areas of funding interest: K-12 and higher education – Accredited public and private elementary and secondary schools, accredited public and private two- and four-year institutions of higher education, and educational nonprofit organizations are eligible for consideration; comprehensive civic and community service programs that fall within our specific areas of focus. The Foundation believes that artistic creativity is a complex and important form of communication, and that thriving cultural institutions are a key to community well-being. To that end, the Arts & Culture Program supports innovative artistic projects by nationally and internationally recognized arts and cultural institutions.

Community Schools Nat. Awards for Excellence
The Coalition for Community Schools has established a national awards program to highlight the expansion and effectiveness of community schools, which it defines as any school or initiative that is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources, whose integrated focus on academics, youth development, family support, health and social services and community development leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities.

3M Ingenuity Grants to Teachers
In 2006, the 3M Foundation awarded 84 Ingenuity Grants totaling nearly $225,000 to teachers in 13 states. 3M Ingenuity Grants recognize teachers and enable them to bring new, ingenious ways of teaching into the classroom to engage students in math, science and economics. 3M Foundation awards of up to $3,500 are available by invitation only to third- through eighth-grade teachers in 3M communities.

FedEX
Education is vital to the future of our communities and to FedEx. FedEx works extensively with programs such as Junior Achievement and Adopt-A-School. We also support organizations that enhance education in the following areas: technology, global economics and trade, cultural diversity and innovative programs that enhance learning.

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Awards grants in the 40 counties of Middle Tennessee in fields such as social services, education, health, the environment, and the arts.

Community Foundation of Greater Memphis
Discretionary grants from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis are used to invest in the ideas and abilities of individuals and groups who want to take the lead in improving their own communities in east Arkansas, north Mississippi and west Tennessee.

East Tennessee Foundation
A competitive grant making process in broad charitable areas including arts and culture, community development, education, youth-at-risk, or a particular East Tennessee county within the Foundation’s 25-county service area.

Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund
Supports a wide variety of important charities in the United States, particularly in those markets it calls home. While contributions are made to nearly a hundred organizations each year, the Trust Fund focuses on organizations with missions supporting: 1) education, 2) environment and conservation, 3) children’s programs.

Haslam Family Foundation
Contact: Todd Ellis at (865) 588-7488
Majority of funding is in eastern Tennessee area. Fields of interest: Arts; Boys & Girls Clubs; Children/youth services; Education; Secondary school/education.

The Wallace Foundation
The Wallace Foundation seeks to support and share effective ideas and practices that will strengthen education leadership, arts participation and out-of-school learning.

PENCIL Foundation
A nonprofit organization that creates a vital link between the private sector and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, increases understanding of and appreciation for public education, promotes community involvement in student learning, and secures a strong commitment from business leaders to help provide materials and resources essential to quality education.

GE Foundation
The Foundation seeks to have a positive influence through two primary channels: (1) by strengthening educational opportunity for disadvantaged youth in targeted GE communities, and (2) by supporting GE employee and retiree giving and involvement. The GE Fund is committed to enhancing educational opportunities for students, through generous funding initiatives.

DonorsChoose
DonorsChoose is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. Teachers submit ideas for materials or experiences that their students need to learn. Individuals then choose a project and make it a classroom reality.

Annenberg Foundation
Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania and offices in Los Angeles, California. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts and culture; civic, community and the environment; and health and human services.

Dollar General Literacy Foundation
The Dollar General Back-to-School grant program awards grants to assist schools in meeting some of the financial challenges they face in implementing new programs or purchasing new equipment, materials or software for their school library or literacy program.

The Charles Lafitte Foundation
The Foundation provides support for innovative programs aimed at resolving social service issues, assisting students with learning disabilities, providing technology and computer based education, creating access to education of the arts, supporting at-risk children from pre-school to college and providing learning enhancement, including the development of leadership skills. The Education Program includes support for research and conferences as well as support for programs that promote academic excellence in institutions of higher learning.

ING Financial Services
For more than 10 years, and with over $2.5 million in awarded grants, the ING Unsung Heroes award program has proved to be an A+ program for K-12 educators. The program’s “alumni” have inspired success in the classroom and impacted countless numbers of students. Each year, 100 winners are selected to receive $2,000 grants to help fund their innovative class projects

Adobe Systems Inc
Supports schools and community-based organizations with programs that enable and inspire K-12 students to think creatively, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively, using digital technology and communication tools. Adobe also supports nonprofit organizations and programs located in Adobe communities that address community-specific needs, with an emphasis on the following criteria: Arts and cultural organizations with the mission or principal focus on the creation, promotion and exhibition of visual arts, multimedia or video; Providing services to reduce hunger and homelessness and provide affordable housing; Protecting the natural environment and improving public spaces for the enjoyment of the community, Improving access to electronic information for people with disabilities.

Anthony Quinn Foundation Scholarship Program

Organized as a vehicle to perpetuate Anthony Quinn’s vision for an art conscious society, the Anthony Quinn Foundation Scholarship Program raises and distributes funds for arts education. The Scholarship Program focuses on the Visual Arts & Design, Dance, Theatre, Singing, Instrumental, Media Arts, and Literary Arts for young adults in high school. Scholarship recipients can apply Foundation funds to any recognized pre-college or arts education program.

Ray Charles Foundation
The mission of the Ray Charles Foundation is to provide grants for scientific, educational, and charitable purposes; to encourage and educate people about the causes and cures for diseases and hearing impaired disabilities; and to assist organizations and institutions in the advancement of their social, educational, and academic programs for youth.