CFMT Disburses 8 New Tornado Relief Grants; More than $3.5M total to date

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee announces eight additional grants totaling $227,000 to area nonprofits and organizations helping victims affected by the deadly tornadoes of March 3.

The Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund advisory committee approved the latest round of grants last week.

The grant application is open and continuing to accept applications for immediate relief needs (food, shelter and short-term housing, clothing, clean up and debris removal, and financial assistance). The Fund is also now accepting requests for recovery assistance (legal, mental health/counseling, permanent housing, rebuilding/construction, and case management).

To date, 114 grants to 98 organizations have been deployed from the Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund, totaling $3,516,900.


The latest round of grants are:

Crosspoint Church Mt. Juliet ($50,000) to provide cleanup and debris removal of trees in Wilson County destroyed in the tornado.

The Equity Alliance ($50,000) to provide additional food, rent, and other direct financial assistance for North Nashville residents as well as continuing outreach to connect residents with needed resources.

First Baptist Church of Lebanon ($20,000) to provide food, rent another direct financial assistance for residents of Wilson County.

The Hope Station ($30,000) to provide rent, utility, transportation and other basic financial assistance to single mothers in Davidson County.

Martha O’Bryan Center ($50,000) to provide food, rent, direct financial assistance, and mental health support to tornado victims in Davidson County.

Neighbor2Neighbor ($5,000) to provide support for the coordination of the Eastside Tornado Recovery Group and debrief/planning session with up to 20 neighborhood leaders in Davidson County.

Tennessee Immigrants and Refugees Rights Coalition aka TIRRC ($10,000) to provide food assistance to 100 families and translation assistance, including recruitment of 50 translators for community partners and distribution of 4,700 multilingual resource guides to tornado survivors in Davidson and Wilson counties.

Turnip Green Creative Reuse ($12,000) to provide 500 STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) education kits that include physical supplies, lesson plans, and online workshop demos to Metro Nashville Public School students from the nine Davidson County schools that experienced tornado damage.

Click to view full list of Grantees and Advisory Committee.


Tornado Recovery Connection Call Line Continues

Anyone who is experiencing a current, unmet need as a result of the tornado may call the Tornado Recovery Connection at 615-270-9255This call line is open 24/7. 

The Tornado Recovery Connection provides callers with resources for immediate relief and helps identify those with long-term needs. The call line connects survivors with relief and rebuilding organizations, helping them get closer to fully recovering from the March 3 tornadoes. 

Calls to the Tornado Recovery Connection hotline helps to build a valuable database for the Davidson County Long-Term Recovery Group which includes representatives from several agencies named in the city’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan — The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, the Community Resource Center, Hands on Nashville, the Nashville Mayor’s Office and United Methodist Committee on Relief, among others.


About The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) exists to promote and facilitate giving in the 40 counties of Middle Tennessee and beyond. It does this by accepting gifts of any size from anyone at any time and by empowering individuals, families, companies, nonprofits, and communities to respond to needs and opportunities that matter. CFMT works with people who have great hearts, whether or not they have great wealth, to craft solutions that reflect their intentions and goals. The organization has distributed more than $1 billion in grants since its inception in 1991. For more information, call 615-321-4939 or visit www.cfmt.org.