Our friends and neighbors are hurting. The Community Foundation has received hundreds of calls from many suffering from this calamity. I, too, have friends who have lost their homes, colleagues who know the frustration first-hand.

I have always been proud to call Middle Tennessee home, and never has this feeling been underscored more than by the spirit of our community rising, above the flood waters of May 2010, to meet the needs of our neighbors.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for those who have given what they can, donated $5 or $500,000, helped their children run a bake sale or their colleagues organize a radiothon. Thank you for caring, for calling, and for giving. Each of you is helping rebuild lives, and we are enormously grateful to you.

The challenges of recovering from this disaster are beginning to sink in for our community. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee hears the stories of many dealing with loss and suffering and their desperate need for help. The work of rebuilding lives is just beginning.

I want to take a moment to explain why we’re here and what we do. The Community Foundation’s mission is to connect the generosity of people who give what they can with the needs of their neighbors. We do it through grants to local nonprofit organizations, who are the experts, not only in time of disaster but 365 days a year.

It’s important that you know:

1.  This money will not leave the Middle Tennessee community.
2.  We are not getting paid for doing this work.

During a disaster, our priorities shift along with the rest of the community’s, but our role is not different than it is any other day. We exist to be a philanthropic resource, working with our community to address its immediate and long-term needs. We respond to the unique circumstances created in situations like this, which vary based on the size and scope of any disaster.

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee makes grants to nonprofit organizations, not to individuals. There are several reasons:

1.  There are great organizations that already have systems and relationships in place to help individuals. Helping them help others is much more efficient and effective than trying to do it ourselves.
2.  As of May 23, there were 31,248 people in the 40 counties we serve who had already filed claims with FEMA. If we took the money we have and divided it among them, each would get $103.09. Unfortunately, a gift of that amount would do little to help in a situation like this.
3.  Since dividing the money among all who need it would accomplish very little toward rebuilding lives, we’d be forced to try and “grade” people’s anguish. We, at The Community Foundation, do not feel equipped to make those decisions.

So, we make gifts to nonprofits reaching every corner of this community. We trust people on the front lines, serving those in need, to do what they do well.

And, in turn, we hope people will trust us to do what we do well: connect generosity with need. We’ve been at this for 19 years — and have granted out to other nonprofits an amount nearing one-half a billion dollars.

At our very first opportunity, we gave 20 percent of what we had available to organizations — like Second Harvest and Conexion Americas — to help people get the help they need. The looming and monumental issue of housing is likely to be our next priority, both for temporary housing and for long-term solutions.

We are working diligently with community leaders and dedicated volunteers throughout Middle Tennessee to craft solutions and assess needs as they emerge and evolve – and to use the available resources wisely.

Our community stepped up to help in 9/11, the tsunami, Katrina, Haiti, Chile, Oklahoma City, and so many other disasters. Please know how grateful we are for the gifts which have been made to rebuild the lives of the victims of our own epic flood of 2010.

Whether you have given in response to a telethon or radiothon; whether you have given by cash, credit card or check; whether you’ve volunteered or plan to, please know that at The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, your gift matters.

We are grateful!

Sincerely,
Ellen Lehman
President, The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee