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Charitable funds, a giving hand

T-G STAFF REPORT
Posted 2/11/23

The Shelbyville Woman’s Club hosted Kelly Pietkiewicz, scholarship coordinator for The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, to speak about the importance of scholarships.Influenced not …

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Charitable funds, a giving hand

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The Shelbyville Woman’s Club hosted Kelly Pietkiewicz, scholarship coordinator for The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, to speak about the importance of scholarships.

Influenced not only by her parents, Bill and Miriam Pietkiewicz, but also by the many educators in the room, Pietkiewicz said she understands the need for scholarships and for relationships.

“One of the things I thought about that I love doing is building relationships with others. I love when someone trusts me enough to seek me out for advice or help,” she said.

And working with prospective students, being a reliable source for scholarship opportunities is critical. “The relationships with my students are by far the greatest professional accomplishment of my life,” Pietkiewicz said.

The CFMT is a philanthropic organization that has provided more than $28 million in scholarships to nearly 11,000 students across Middle Tennessee, while also providing $1.2 billion in grantmaking to support nonprofits. It’s essentially a “community’s charitable savings account,” according to Pietkiewicz.

“It was where money could come in, be invested and safeguarded to be used over a course of a long time to support charitable needs of the community as they emerge,” she explained. They currently serve 40 counties throughout Middle Tennessee including Bedford County.

So as the Scholarship Coordinator, Pietkiewicz said her job is to work with potential donors on setting up scholarship funds to benefit students pursuing higher education.
Building relationships with donors is an aspect of the job she didn’t think about. Often, these relationships start with a phone call or an email and help Pietkiewicz understand why the donor is donating.

For example, the country music artist Teddy Wilburn, who passed away in 2003, started a scholarship fund. Pietkiewicz said he was never given the opportunity to go to college and was therefore eager to help students achieve that goal.

His scholarship fund today has over $1 million dollars endowed and awards students attending either Tennessee State University or Vanderbilt, according to Pietkiewicz.
His scholarship allowed for a set of twins to attend and graduate from TSU together.

“These two students who know Teddy Wilburn not from his country hits through the 50s and 70s, but through his charitable giving to students pursuing college - an opportunity he was never able to pursue but knew the importance of,” Pietkiewicz said.

Though many may think you have to have “exceptional wealth” to create a scholarship fund, many of CFMT’s funds are set up as a part of a donor’s estate or through years of discussing the idea with friends and family and fundraising, according to Pietkiewicz.

Middle Tennessee native Tameron Hedge has had a long career in the music business. But with a grandmother in education, she knew the importance of giving an education opportunity. According to Pietkiewicz, Hedge worked for years to spread the word about her intention for the fund and secured the funding needed for this year.

“My meetings with Tameron to set up the criteria for the scholarship were inspirational because her only requirements for the fund were the importance of demonstrated financial need and that the student either be from Bedford County or Williamson County. Two counties which her family, the ones that had impressed on her the importance of education, were from,” explained Pietkiewicz.

These broad requirements meant the sky was the limit for prospective students.

At the CFMT, they also have more than 1,400 charitable funds set up by families, individuals and companies. And one of Pietkiewicz’s favorite stories of giving is through the Girl’s Give initiative.

“The Girls Give initiative was born after members of the Women’s Fund board felt it imperative to develop a program introducing their daughters and other female relatives to the importance of philanthropy,” Pietkiewicz explained.

Girls Give has 36 endowed funds representing over 90 girls of all ages, according to Pietkiewicz. In the four years of the Girls Give initiative, over $36,000 has been granted to the community. In its first year the fund granted out $4,000 and has now tripled that with just recently awarding $13,000 in grants to the community.

Pietkiewicz said a few of the organizations that have benefited from Girl’s Give include: The Boys and Girls Club of Middle TN, the Community Resource Center, Hispanic Family Foundation, Play Like a Girl, and Rock the Street, Wall Street.

For Bedford County specifically, $1.3 million dollars in grants have come to the community, while over 43 organizations in Bedford have received funding from the CFMT. For example, the Community Clinic of Shelbyville and Bedford County was recently awarded $10,000, and the Bedford County Imagination Library received $5,000 to mail over 2,500 books to children throughout Bedford County.

Also, more than $350,000 in grants were provided to childcare centers in Bedford County, much of it during COVID, providing support during a time when many had no income.

Pietkiewicz finished, “The CFMT is determined to make Middle Tennessee prosper and we are so lucky to have the communities trust in executing their charitable wishes. The impact we’ve had in 30 years gives me so much hope for the next 30 years.”

For more information, contact Pietkiewicz at kellyp@cfmt.org or visit their site www.cfmt.org.

On another note, the Shelbyville Woman’s Club has put just under $900 toward their own scholarship fund. The next SWC meeting will be March 8 and it will be the spring fashion show with clothes shown from K. Ellen Boutique. Reservations will open Feb. 15 and go until March 1.