Our Purpose | Current Funding Priorities | How We Work | Two Rivers Pavilion | Whom to Contact

We believe that the Greater Knoxville area has a unique opportunity to become a place that balances a strong, caring sense of community with growing prosperity; a place where we want our kids to grow up, and to which they have an economic opportunity to return; a place that nourishes creativity while being inclusive and equitable for all its citizens. To realize that potential, the following broad areas of concentration are essential for the community:

• Talent—We must create a world-class human environment that nurtures, educates, attracts, and retains talented, creative people.
  
  
• Technology—We must build on the research and development assets of the region, especially those of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to achieve a strong 21st century knowledge-based economy.
  
  
• Trust—We must build bridges and new levels of trust and understanding between people of all races, income levels, faiths, perspectives, and neighborhoods. Within those broader community areas of concentration, Cornerstone Foundation will focus its grant-making, other funding, and staff activities on the following strategic priorities:

1 . Education

• Building on Project GRAD—a public-private partnership providing special resources, academic support, and the promise of college scholarships in our Heart of Knoxville schools—to ensure educational excellence, hope, and opportunity for our
  most disadvantaged kids;
  
  
• Supporting efforts that help our community, whose schools already enjoy relatively high public confidence, to aggressively pursue a world-class school system; and
  
  
• Supporting and encouraging regional and state efforts to make lifelong excellence in education the top public policy priority.
  

2 . Downtown

• Supporting efforts to create a strong, authentic downtown to which talented, creative people are attracted, and which serves as a healthy heart, a place of joy, and a place for bridge building in the community.

3 . Bridge Building

• Supporting efforts to create a “leader full” community by including, engaging, and training people from every part of the community in leadership development; by making a particular effort to engage young adults to plan for and improve the community; and by supporting great examples of servant leadership in the community.
  
  
• Supporting efforts to mobilize the community of faith to move beyond its walls into bridge-building volunteerism and partnerships.
  
  
• Supporting efforts to connect competing institutions and organizations, and to find new ways, direct and electronic, to link individuals together.

For further information on the research that resulted in these funding priorities, please click here.

Our Purpose | Current Funding Priorities | How We Work | Two Rivers Pavilion | Whom to Contact