Tapping Individual Potential Grant

Tapping Individual Potential Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Last Updated: January 31, 2026

Summary

The Tapping Individual Potential program, led by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, supports talented Metro Nashville public school students in grades five to eight. It provides personalized enrichment opportunities to help these students explore their unique skills, overcoming financial barriers. By connecting students with tailored programs, such as art classes and advanced science courses, the initiative fosters individual growth and nurtures future potential, ensuring a thriving and inclusive community.

Overview

About Us For over 30 years, Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) has been driving meaningful, positive change in our community. We do this by bringing together those who want to help and those who need help. Through the power of collective philanthropy, our goal is to amplify donor intent while remaining flexible enough to ensure that resources are directed to where they can do the greatest good. We know the greater Nashville area. We understand its neighborhoods, its most pressing challenges, its unsung nonprofit heroes, and its emerging partnerships with the greatest potential. As our region continues to rapidly change, that knowledge gives us a unique vantage point to bring people and places together to do what none of us can do on our own—build a more thriving and inclusive community. Mission Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee strives to build a more thriving and inclusive community — today and for generations to come — by transforming thoughtful generosity into positive change. Tapping Individual Potential Talented students are identified by a teacher, school counselor or principal and recommended to The Community Foundation through an application available twice yearly. We review applications to determine how grant funds can provide opportunities. Once approved, a tailored, meaningful enrichment experience is developed, with involvement of the person making the recommendation. As skills and talents differ, so will programs and opportunities for students. It may be an art course outside of school, an advanced science or math class, singing lessons, a session with someone with similar talent, or a visit to an archaeological dig, to name a few possibilities. After evaluation of a TIP participant’s experience, an application for additional opportunities is available through a school teacher or counselor.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. CFMT’s TIP program works with rising fifth through eighth grade Metro Nashville public school students who have extraordinary talent, but who may not be able to explore their skill because of limiting financial or other circumstances. The goal is to provide individualized attention and enrichment opportunities for these students, and to continue investing in their talents as they make progress.