2014 CMA Donations Reach $1.72M Record

In 2014, the CMA Foundation has awarded a record $1.72 million in grants to national and local programs supporting music education for children. Since 2006, the country organization has donated a total of $10 million from funds raised during its CMA Music Festival.

“What began as a very grassroots, local initiative to support music education in Metro Nashville Public Schools on behalf of our artist community, has grown tremendously,” said Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief Executive Officer.

“The Foundation dramatically increased our support around the country,” said Joe Galante, Chair of the CMA Foundation. “It impacted more cities and students nationally than ever before. This couldn’t be accomplished without the generosity of the country music artists.”

Studies show students who participate in the arts are more likely to graduate, have better attendance rates, and higher GPAs than students not enrolled in arts classes. The CMA Foundation recognizes the importance of music education.

The CMA has granted the following programs:

Education Through Music: In September, Darius Rucker and Little Big Town presented a grant for the organization’s work to provide music as a core subject to inner-city schools in New York City. Twenty-thousand students and 40 teachers in 38 inner-city schools have been served this current school year. Another 8,000 children have been reached through their model, licensed to an affiliate organization in Los Angeles.

Pictured (L-R): Sarah Trahern (CMA CEO); Darius Rucker; Education Through Music’s Peter Pauliks and Katherine Damkohler; Little Big Town. Photo: Kevin Yatarola

Metro Nashville Public Schools: In January, the CMA Foundation donated $1 million to benefit music education programs for Nashville public schools during a concert event at the CMA Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame hosted by Eric Paslay. The donation brought CMA’s support of music education in Metro Nashville Public Schools to more than $7.5 million, used to build music labs and purchase instruments and supplies through a partnership with the Nashville Public Education Foundation.

Pictured (L-R): Eric Paslay; the CMA’s Sarah Trahern and Joe Galante; Jay Steele (Metro Nashville Public Schools Chief Academic Officer); Shannon Hunt (Nashville Public Education Foundation President); and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. Photo: Donn Jones

Notes for Notes: An initial donation was made this year, in addition to a commitment to benefit chapters in Atlanta, Austin, Brooklyn, Detroit, and San Francisco through 2015. CMA’s longtime partner Chevrolet has committed additional funds for the auto manufacturer’s hometown facility in Detroit.

Pictured (L-R): (kneeling) Notes for Notes students Will Flores and Cameron Cassel; (row 2): The CMA’s Sarah Trahern and Joe Galante; Juliana Lee (Notes for Notes Director of M.A.T.H); students Jen Hodges and Mary-Grace Williams; Damon Whiteside (CMA Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships); Mike Weidman (Chevrolet National Promotions Manager); (back row) Notes for Notes’ Jarrad James and Rod Hare; Jayda Carlton and Sentwuan Gooch, Notes for Notes; Phillip Gilley, Co-Founder and CEO of Notes for Notes; and Mike Slay (student). Photo: Caitlin Harris

Rocketown Productions: Designed to provide students interested in a career in the music industry access to technology, professional studio, live performance and music instruction.

Tennessee Performing Arts Center: Supporting the Disney Musicals in Schools program, which is the Disney Theatrical Group’s first in-school outreach project outside of New York City.

W.O. Smith School: For the third year, the CMA Foundation supported summer music education programs for low-income students ages 8 to 11.

VH1 Save the Music: Hunter Hayes helped celebrate achieving a five-year goal of providing access to instrumental music education programs for students in Roanoke City Public Schools with a concert on Nov. 17. A complete restoration of Roanoke’s music programs provides 17 grantee schools $510,000 worth of musical instruments.

Pictured (L-R): Cari C. Gates (Supervisor of Fine and Performing Arts, Roanoke City Public Schools); Paul Cothran (Executive Director, VH1 Save The Music Foundation); Foundation For Roanoke Valley’s Michelle Eberly and Alan E. Ronk; Hunter Hayes; Jaclyn Rudderow (Program & Communications Manager, VH1 Save The Music Foundation); Tiffany Kerns (CMA Community Outreach Manager); and Dr. Rita Bishop (Superintendent, Roanoke City Public schools). Photo: Getty Images for VH1