The East Tennessee Foundation Celebrates Community Impact, Awards $18 Million to Strengthen East Tennessee in 2024

The East Tennessee Foundation (“ETF” or “Foundation”) celebrates its extraordinary impact in 2024, a year marked by unprecedented generosity, resilience, and community collaboration. Through the support of the ETF’s donors and community partners, the ETF expanded its capacity for community-driven philanthropy, began strategically supporting East Tennessee’s recovery from Hurricane Helene, and awarded 1,396 grants to nonprofits totaling $18 million to fulfill its vision of building thriving communities through thoughtful giving.

As highlighted by the ETF President & CEO Keith Barber during the Foundation’s annual stakeholder summit, 2024 solidified the ETF’s reputation as an experienced crisis responder and long-term strategist for East Tennessee, while leveraging its mission of building better lives and stronger communities through multigenerational philanthropy.

“Because of your gifts, because of insightful grantmaking, and because of a strategy that not only keeps the attention on the need but also holds us accountable, we’re making great strides in our mission to impact lives across our region and across generations,” Barber said. “Although we had no way of predicting what the year would bring, we were ready to address these points of value. We were proactive, humble, gracious, and generous. We were prepared for anticipated changes as well as unprecedented ones.”

Barber shared insights about how the Foundation’s operational reorganization in early 2024 and revitalization of its Affiliate Fund program provided the structure needed to ensure that critical initiatives were addressed at a community level across its 25-county service territory in East Tennessee.

To learn more about the ETF’s philanthropic leadership, success stories, and milestones made possible by donors and community partners in 2024, explore the Foundation’s 2024 Impact Report online here.

Along with celebrating robust impact in the arts, disaster recovery, education, and rural resources, the ETF honored three community leaders with awards for their exceptional contributions across East Tennessee.

• The ETF’s Community Catalyst unexpectedly found himself in a position to further the Foundation’s mission and rose to the occasion to make it happen. Multiple-Grammy nominated musician Daniel Kimbro, who leveraged his talents and network to create the award-winning “Appalachian Allies” benefit concert at the Bijou Theatre, was named the ETF Community Catalyst.
• The ETF’s Community Connector is an individual who, with intention and purpose, pointed the ETF in the right direction to make an impact on the community to expand the Foundation’s mission. The ETF Johnson County Community Foundation Affiliate Fund Board Member Minnie Miller, who worked with the ETF to facilitate a multi-million-dollar planned gift to benefit Johnson County for generations to come, was awarded the ETF’s Community Connector.
• The ETF’s Community Champion is a partner who has demonstrated consistent passion and contributed investments for the community over time. The Knoxville Jewish Community Family of Funds (KJCFF), which marked its 25th anniversary of making a profound impact on Jewish communities locally and globally as a partner of the Knoxville Jewish Alliance and a Supporting Organization of the ETF, was honored for its legacy partnership as the ETF Community Champion.

“The Knoxville Jewish Community Family of Funds is grateful for the partnership with have built with the East Tennessee Foundation and Knoxville Jewish Alliance over the last 25 years,” said KJCFF President Stephen Rosen. “We look forward to honoring our past while serving our future in the next generation.”

The ETF remains deeply grateful for the support of its donors, community partners, and Board of Directors as the Foundation nears its 40^th anniversary of positively impacting generations across East Tennessee.