A commitment to education

To plant the seeds of success, about one-third of our foundation giving goes to helping and educating youth. Our volunteers provide tutoring and other services to students. First Tennessee Foundation funds Teach for America in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee Achieves and numerous college scholarship programs. Other foundation support includes:

Memphis: We fund a major grant in support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donation for teacher effectiveness in city schools, the New Leaders program to recruit and retain excellent principals and the Shelby County Schools Foundation fund for school consolidation.

Middle Tennessee: Financial center employees volunteer in local K-12 schools through a relationship with the PENCIL Foundation.

Northeast Tennessee: Boundless playgrounds in Kingsport and Johnson City have Braille, sign language activity panels, and wheelchair access to make sure all children can have fun. We sponsor the YMCA building and the Boys and Girls Club building in Kingsport, the Coalition for Kids in Johnson City, fund scholarships at Northeast State Community and partner with the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough and the Heritage Alliance of Northeast TN and Southwest VA.

East Tennessee: We have a 10-year commitment (through 2015) to underwrite the First Tennessee Foundation University of Tennessee M.B.A. Symposium, an enrichment opportunity for student M.B.A. candidates to hear from and interact with some of the nation's most prominent business executives. We also sponsor the East Tennessee School Coupon Book, Weekend Academy and Friends of Literacy.

Chattanooga: We volunteer and our foundation funds classrooms in the public schools' business partner programs in Bradley, Catoosa and Hamilton counties. Bank employees teach financial literacy classes to students of all ages through our Housing Development, YMCA and Girl Scout programs.