Sam Albritton, who serves as treasurer of the East Tennessee Foundation Board of Directors, introduced the program, noting that the East Tennessee Foundation was founded in 1986 and serves 25 counties in Northeast Tennessee and manages more than $600 million. He then introduced our own Keith Barber, president and CEO of the ETF, and Katharine Killen, its VP of Programs & Chief Operating Officer. Sam also noted ETF team members in the audience Ashley Copeland, head of marketing and communications, and Morgan Vance, director of Strategic Initiatives + Advancement for the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund.
Keith, who has been with the ETF since 2023, started out by saying that the ETF is all about community unity, and to that end has a presence in all 25 counties in Northeast Tennessee in the form of volunteers. “They are our secret sauce,” said Keith. “They know what the community needs are and who the donors might be. When I came to ETF after retiring from UT, I went about learning what the volunteers are doing.”
“Essentially, we do three things:
1. We accept gifts and donations
2. We serve as their steward in the marketplace
3. We grant those monies back out into the community.”
Katherine Killen then took over and talked about the grant-making that ETF has been doing for nearly 40 years. “We do grants in areas, like arts and communications, and in geographical areas. One common factor is the philanthropic spirit. We’ve done grants to UT, the YMCA, the Bijou, the Tennessee Theatre, the Suffrage Monument—we were a part of that.” ETF connects donors to worthy causes. “We are honored to be that bridge,” said Katharine. “We serve as ‘philanthropic advisors.”
She then went on to describe at length the efforts of the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Fund, which was started in 2011 and, along with the Disaster Relief Fund, has over the years has helped communities cope with flooding, the Gatlinburg wildfires, Covid, and now is working with the eight Northeast Tennessee counties devastated by Hurricane Helene. “We have had lots of large donations as well as $20 donations. We are focusing on long-term recovery. These are the least-funded strategies. It is going to take years to build back these communities.”
Keith jumped back in to note that, “We find that recovery is best when it is conducted by those in the community. We use best practices in disaster philanthropies. The devastation is pretty dramatic. Keith noted that he has given a few dozen interviews since the flooding, but ETF has to focus on what happens when the media goes away to cover the next story. He touched on the variety of ways people give to the ETF—assets received, cash, IRA payouts. “This is the giving season,” he said, “Philanthropy Day is Thursday.”
Keith also touched on the Rotary Foundation’s Scholarship Fund, which stands at about $1.7 million.
“We are here to serve East Tennessee with trust-based philanthropy. We’ve given post-Helene grants of $300,000 to demographics of all ages—the elderly, kids, people with disabilities, animals. We want to replace 100 homes thanks to a couple from Carter County. We are coordinating food distribution, aided by volunteers who have regular jobs that they eventually have to get back to. We had the thought, ‘What if we paid to have someone coordinate these efforts?’ Someone in the area said, ‘We can’t believe you think like that.’ When you ask people what they need the most, they answer, ‘We don’t know what we need. We are still shoveling bodies.”
Virginia asked about insurance, and Keith guessed that most people didn’t have flood insurance. “We listen and learn in the community.” The Neighbor-to-Neighbor Fund is just shy of $4 million, thanks to 6,000 contributions in the past four weeks.