Frequently Asked Questions

Give Like Dolly – Middle Tennessee is a three-day giving campaign inspired by Dolly Parton’s lifelong example of generosity. From September 25–27, donors can choose the giving area that speaks to them: helping a child succeed, helping someone heal, helping a neighbor in need, helping someone find their song, or supporting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee.

Gifts to each giving area will be shared equally among the highlighted nonprofits within that area.

Dolly Parton has spent her life giving in ways that meet people where they are, from books for children to helping families in crisis. Give Like Dolly is an invitation to carry that forward in whatever way you can.

Because there was never really another option.

Any time from Friday, September 25 through Sunday, September 27. The giving pages are open around the clock for all three days, so there is no window to catch. Giving ends at 12:00 am on Monday, September 28 Central Time.

Give Like Dolly – Middle Tennessee is presented by Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and Music Community Foundation, with support from The Dollywood Foundation, Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and Office of Mayor Freddie O’Connell.

Yes. Give Like Dolly is a nationwide campaign led by The Dollywood Foundation. Give Like Dolly – Middle Tennessee is the local campaign, presented by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and Music Community Foundation with support from The Dollywood Foundation. Gifts made here stay here, supporting Middle Tennessee organizations.

It begins on Dolly Day, September 25, and runs through the weekend so there is time to give.

No. Anyone can give from anywhere. Every participating organization serves Middle Tennessee, so your gift stays local even if you do not.

You can give to any of five giving areas:

• Help a Child Succeed, helping students stay engaged in school, overcome barriers, and reach their full potential.
• Help Someone Heal, helping people find care, healing, and hope during some of life’s hardest moments.
• Help a Neighbor in Need, putting food on the table, helping families stay housed, and offering a hand up when it is needed most.
• Help Someone Find Their Song, helping young people discover their gifts through music, the arts, and creativity.
• Give a Child a Library of Their Own, putting free books into the hands of young children through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee.

The four giving areas reflect the kinds of generosity Dolly Parton has shown throughout her life, and the everyday work nonprofits across Middle Tennessee do to meet those same needs. The fifth, Give a Child a Library of Their Own, supports Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee, the program Dolly founded to put free books in the hands of young children.

Each of the four giving areas features five Middle Tennessee nonprofits, and the fifth area supports Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee. Every participating nonprofit is listed on this site by giving area, with a short description of its work and a link to learn more.

Give Like Dolly is designed around giving areas rather than individual nonprofit gifts. For four of the five giving areas, your gift is shared equally among the highlighted nonprofits within the area you choose, supporting several organizations working toward the same goal and introducing donors to organizations they may not already know.

The fifth giving area, Give a Child a Library of Their Own, directly supports Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee. Gifts to that area are not shared among multiple nonprofits.

If there is one nonprofit you would especially like to support, you can always give to it directly.

Yes. Please make a separate gift to each giving area you would like to support.

Gifts to this area go directly to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee rather than being shared among several nonprofits. The program mails a free, age-appropriate book every month to children from birth to age five, and it is made possible locally through a partnership among The Dollywood Foundation, Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation, and United Way of Greater Nashville. $31 provides a full year of books for one child.

Gifts to each giving area are divided evenly among the nonprofits in that area. The totals shown on this site are the full amounts given, including processing fees. What each nonprofit receives is its share of the total after fees come off any gift where the donor did not choose to cover them.

Yes. Your gift stays in the giving area you choose and is divided evenly among the nonprofits in it. Processing fees are the only deduction, and if you cover them at checkout, the full amount reaches the nonprofits.

Yes, and here is exactly what they are.

Gifts to Give Like Dolly are received by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and then distributed to the participating nonprofits. Before that distribution, two fees are deducted: a 4% Fundraise Up platform fee and credit card processing fee of 2.2% plus 30 cents. On a $100 gift by card, that comes to $6.50.

You will have the option to cover these costs at checkout. If you do, the nonprofits receive your full intended gift, and the amount you add is tax deductible along with the rest of your donation.

Gifts made from a donor advised fund through DAFPay are charged 1% of each donation received plus a 2.9% initiation fee.

Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee does not keep any portion of your gift and does not charge an administrative fee.

No. CFMT does not keep any portion of your gift and does not charge an administrative fee. CFMT receives and processes all Give Like Dolly donations on behalf of the participating organizations, which is why CFMT - Give Like Dolly Fund appears on your tax receipt, and then distributes the funds to the nonprofits in the giving area you chose.

Funds are distributed within 30 days of the campaign closing. That window lets us collect matching gifts and corporate matches, confirm that every donation has been received, and send each organization the largest amount possible.

The minimum gift is $5. There is no maximum.

Every gift stays in the giving area you choose. You decided where your gift should go, and that is where it stays.

Yes. Running totals for each giving area are shown on the site throughout the campaign. Those totals are the full amounts given, including processing fees and matching pledges.

Yes. We will announce the total raised following the event, along with the totals for each giving area.

Choose the giving area you would like to support and complete each step in the form.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also give directly from a donor advised fund using DAFPay without leaving the giving page.

Yes, and you can do it right in the giving form. Choose the DAFPay option at checkout and sign in to your fund provider. For questions about giving through your fund at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, contact givingback@cfmt.org. You may also call (615) 321-4939.

No. Please pick one giving area, or make a separate gift to each area you would like to support.

Yes. Choose the anonymous option in the gift form.

Give Like Dolly is a three-day campaign, so gifts through this site are one time. If you would like to support one of these organizations monthly, you can set that up on their own website, or on GivingMatters.com, where many organizations have recurring giving enabled.

Many employers match employee gifts. Give Like Dolly - Middle Tennessee does not have automatic match lookup in the giving form, so you would submit your request through your employer’s own giving program, such as YourCause or Benevity, listing Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee as the recipient. Questions about matching can go to givingback@cfmt.org.

Give Like Dolly gifts are made only online during the three-day giving campaign.

Give Like Dolly - Middle Tennessee runs September 25 through 27. After it closes, you can still support any of these organizations by giving to them directly through their own websites. You can also find them, along with thousands of other Middle Tennessee nonprofits, on GivingMatters.com, an initiative of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, where many organizations have giving and volunteer options set up.

Yes. Your gift is fully tax deductible, including any amount you add to cover processing fees.

Yes. You will receive an emailed receipt from noreply@fundraiseup.com with an option to download your official tax receipt.

Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. You may see it listed as CFMT - Give Like Dolly Fund, which is the fund this campaign runs through.

Yes, unless you choose to give anonymously. Give Like Dolly - Middle Tennessee shares donor names and contact information with the nonprofits in the giving area you supported, so they can thank you and stay in touch about the impact of your gift. If you would rather they not have it, choose the anonymous option in the gift form and your information stays private.

Please reach out to givingback@cfmt.org.

More than 550 nonprofits applied during an open application period. Every participating nonprofit was confirmed to be a 501(c)(3) public charity in good standing that provides direct services to people in Middle Tennessee, with a current GivingMatters.com profile and work that fits one of the four open giving areas. Applications were reviewed for eligibility only. Because each area features five nonprofits, participants were chosen by drawing from the eligible organizations in each area, with at least three coming from organizations with annual budgets under $5 million.

No. Participating nonprofits were selected by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee through an open application and eligibility review. Give Like Dolly – Middle Tennessee celebrates Dolly Parton’s legacy of generosity, and the choice of local nonprofits was made here, by staff who work with Middle Tennessee nonprofits every day.

No. Being part of Give Like Dolly – Middle Tennessee is an opportunity for nonprofits to benefit from the campaign. It does not represent an endorsement by Dolly Parton or The Dollywood Foundation.

Every participating organization was confirmed as a 501(c)(3) public charity in good standing with a current GivingMatters.com profile, and each was checked against public records to confirm it provides direct services to people in Middle Tennessee. You can learn more about any of them on their own websites or by visiting GivingMatters.com.

More than 550 nonprofits applied, a good reminder of how many organizations are working to meet needs across Middle Tennessee. Rather than ranking them against one another, the campaign used a drawing, so every eligible nonprofit, including small and newer ones, had a real chance to take part. The organizations you see here are part of that much larger community, and many more are doing this work that you can support any time of year.

When you give to an area, your gift supports a group of nonprofits working side by side on the same need, so you can back the cause you care about most without having to choose one organization over another. It also means organizations you may not know yet are lifted alongside ones you already do. If there is one nonprofit you would especially like to support, you can always give to it directly.