Bonnaroo Works Fund (BWF), the charitable arm of the world-renowned Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, has named more than 40 nonprofit organizations as 2015 recipients of the Fund’s grants, totaling nearly $200,000.
BWF is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that supports local, regional and national organizations that advance the arts, education and environmental sustainability, with a focus on local reinvestment.
Some of this year’s grant recipients include; Coffee County Manchester Public Library, Coffee County Board of Education Anti-Drug Program, Coffee County Schools, Manchester Municipal Arts Commission, Keep Coffee County Beautiful, Park Partners, Hands-On Science Center and Westwood Jr High.
Nina Miller, BWF executive director announced that one of Bonnaroo’s most loyal acts, My Morning Jacket, are this year’s BWF Ambassadors – signing on to elevate the message of BWF’s purpose and impact.
As part of its involvement, My Morning Jacket will help spread the word about Bonnaroo Works Fund, the charitable causes it supports and ways anyone can get involved and help out.
Festival goers will see the power of BWF throughout the festival grounds with the tree adoption program, Root for Roo, and at the Bonnaroo Works Community Center, where they will find a Silent Auction featuring many one-of-a-kind music collectible items. They can also learn about BWF and the organizations it supports and have the opportunity to enter free drawings to win great prizes, including a 2016 Bonnaroo VIP package.
Bonnaroo Works Fund is administered by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. The next grant cycle will begin in the fall.

It’s graduation season, and more Tennessee high school seniors are donning a cap and gown, according to the 2015 Building a Grad Nation report.
The numbers show Tennessee’s high school graduation rate rose slightly in 2013 to 86.3 percent, which is higher than the national average.
Report co-author John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises, says there are clear advantages to earning a high school diploma.
“Students who drop out of high school are disproportionately more likely to be unemployed, more likely to be in prison, more likely to be on welfare, have higher health care costs and sadly to go on to have children who also end up dropping out from high school,” he points out.
According to the report, for the third year in a row, the country remains on pace to achieve the national goal of a 90 percent on-time high school graduation rate by 2020.
To increase the number of students graduating, the report recommends states expand the use of early-warning systems that can indicate a child needs intervention and make state funding more equitable so low-income and affluent students have the same opportunities.
According to the report, graduation rates increased nationally among low-income students over the past three years, but are still lower than for middle and upper income students.
Robert Balfanz, another co-author and co-director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, says poverty is taxing on a student’s success, making it more difficult to attend and focus.
“They really need mentors and tutors and folks that can help just sort of nag and nurture to make sure if they’re not in school to call them to figure out, ‘Can we get you to school by 10 o’clock, what’s the issue, how can we solve it?’” he stresses.
And while an increasing number of students with disabilities are completing high school, the report found students with disabilities in Tennessee graduate at a rate of 67 percent.

Tennessee officials are looking for more groups to serve summer meals to make sure low-income children don’t go hungry when school is not in session. During the school year, about 650,000 Tennessee children get free or reduced-priced school lunches. But only a fraction of those youngsters participate in summer meals programs. That’s why the agency is looking for more groups to provide free meals during the summer. The groups can include schools, private nonprofit organizations, government entities and nonprofit residential camps.
If your organization is interested in sponsoring the SFSP in your community, or becoming a feeding site under an existing sponsor, please contact Myra Foxworth or Pamela Norton before June 15, 2015 at (615) 313-4749; or by e-mail TNSFSP.DHS@tn.gov.