OUR

LEARNING

JOURNEY

Unlike any other sector or institution – government, business, media, academia, nonprofits, or privately endowed foundations, etc. – community foundations are place-based and multi-issue anchor institutions charged with bringing together resources from individuals, families, and businesses to address community needs and opportunities. With the support of our Board to become a new kind of anchor organization for Middle Tennessee, our team started building a new strategic framework. It began by reflecting on and celebrating our past, assessing our current processes and programs, learning from peer foundations, and naming our assets and limits.

Then, we identified the top questions we needed to answer, including:

 While we know CFMT is a community foundation, how is it foundational to our community?

 

What are the greatest assets, opportunities, and challenges for Middle Tennesseans, and what is CFMT’s role and responsibility in addressing them?

 

How can CFMT be a “learning organization” that embraces learning and as a value, goal, and process? 

 

What must CFMT do to be valuable, trustworthy, effective, and impactful in the eyes of our external stakeholders-donors, nonprofits, and other “anchor institutions” (private foundations, local government, civic organizations, etc.)?

 

What forms of capital – social, moral, intellectual, reputational, and financial – does CFMT have and how can each one be more thoughtfully deployed?

Next, we asked questions and listened.

Specifically, our CEO had over 150 one-on-one conversations. We held dozens of individual meetings, facilitated nine listening sessions of stakeholder groups, and engaged the Center for Effective Philanthropy to administer our first-ever donor perception survey. We were equally intrigued and challenged by the responses received.

Top themes we heard included:

We don’t need more research and studies, but rather we need CFMT to help us synthesize those studies and identify recommendations ready for action. – Community Leader

We would like to see CFMT be more relational and less transactional.- CFMT Donor

We need CFMT’s help protecting and preserving our greatest assets, including arts, our creative culture, and the neighborhoods that define us. – Community Leader

After that, we rolled up our sleeves to iterate, restructure, and refine different models for how we could approach, communicate, and evaluate our work.

We are excited to share our renewed mission statement, organizational values, reimagined role, and strategic framework to guide our work going forward. We welcome your feedback, and we look forward to your partnership.

Our 4 Core Values
and Guiding Principles.

• Seek to understand “the why.”
• Acknowledge every voice has meaning.
• Recognize that questions are more powerful than statements.
• Encourage and seek opportunities to grow and be challenged.

• Share information widely, intentionally, and openly.
• Communicate with kind and bold honesty.
• Be impeccable with your word.
• Set clear boundaries and expectations.

• Envision the best for myself and others.
• Offer dependable and timely support.
• Participate with curiosity and commitment.
• Be Present. Be a Presence.

• Recognize and celebrate unique gifts and strengths.
• Connect people with the opportunities needed to thrive.
• Lean into flexibility.
• Build inclusion into everyday experiences.

Culture of Excellence 

The strength of our internal culture and the consistency of our operating systems directly influence our ability to deliver exceptional community impact. This requires a renewed commitment to excellence in leadership, stakeholder service, and financial operations. We will achieve this goal by living our values, investing in new systems and structures, and showing up for the community in new and unexpected ways. In the process, we will also make CFMT one of the best places to work in Middle Tennessee.

How we get there:

• Provide team members with training and professional development opportunities that meet their individual needs and responsibilities.
• Foster a governance culture of active participation, continuous learning, and shared leadership.
• Ensure financial operations and returns contribute to enhanced community impact.
• Leverage technology to create a more efficient work environment and donor experience.

Inspired and Impactful Philanthropy

Our Middle Tennessee home is an incredibly giving and generous community. We aspire to make it even more so by serving and engaging our donors and their families in new and more meaningful ways. We will create options and opportunities for donors to learn, collaborate, and feel a greater connection with our community and the causes they care about the most.

How we get there:

• Ensure every CFMT donor receives an elevated level of service that results in high satisfaction with the foundation and a deeper connection with their community.
• Develop intentional entry points for underrepresented, non-traditional, and next-generation donors to become connected to opportunities to create meaningful change.
• Establish ourselves as a trusted resource for all individual donors, funders, and professional advisors.

Deep Partnerships and Radical Collaboration

While our region faces challenges and opportunities that accompany rapid growth, we know that the wisdom, creativity, and resources needed to address each issue already live within this community. Therefore, we are committed to investing in deep partnerships and radical collaboration that can activate our collective potential and help create a community where everyone can thrive.

How we get there:

• Invest in our nonprofit partners and future leaders through more impactful grantmaking, strategic fiscal sponsorships, and larger scholarships.
• Create new ways to share knowledge of community issues and opportunities that drive greater awareness, engagement, and action.
• Leverage our network of donors, corporate and government partners, and peer foundations, to co-create and co-invest in local solutions for our greatest challenges.
• Support and weave networks of partnerships and affiliates addressing the most important needs of communities beyond Metropolitan Nashville.

Arts & Creative Culture

Support arts organizations committed to ensuring greater cultural participation and equitable access to artistic experiences.

Positive Child & Youth Development & Education:

Support organizations that implement holistic approaches to address the diverse needs of young people’s overall growth, success, and lifelong resilience – inside and outside of school.

Positive Mental Health & Quality of Life:

Support organizations that provide mental and behavioral health services for vulnerable populations, especially children and youth, seniors, disabled/differently-abled communities, and caregivers

1.  Help Donors manifest their desire to make a difference—personally, collectively, and across generations.

2.  Connect our nonprofit partners with the supports, resources, and relationships that can strengthen their capacity to make a difference.

3.  Collaborate with other institutions and foundations to meet our community’s most pressing needs. We do this by focusing on possibilities, not problems, and by asking the question “What can we accomplish together that none of us can do on our own?”

4.  Co-design solutions with community members, especially those whose lived experiences can deeply shape and inform solutions that work.

5.  Embrace learning as a goal and a process by utilizing informal feedback, formal evaluations, and community data to continuously inform our grantmaking and community-building work.

Come join us! We are your community foundation.