Appalachian Community Fund

Appalachian Community Fund The Appalachian Community Fund (ACF) funds, supports, and encourages grassroots social change in Central Appalachia.
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We believe in, and strive for, change — not charity. The Appalachian Community Fund (ACF) is a publicly supported, non-profit grantmaking organization that provides resources and support to grassroots organizations working to overcome the underlying causes of poverty and injustice in Central Appalachia.

Community is built when people have opportunities to share their stories, cultures, and traditions.  In this grantee spo...
06/17/2026

Community is built when people have opportunities to share their stories, cultures, and traditions.  

In this grantee spotlight, we’re highlighting how the Asian Culture Center of Tennessee, through the , creates a space where thousands of people gather each year to learn from one another, celebrate Asian arts and cultures, and build meaningful connections across communities.

We’re grateful to support this work of connection, belonging, and community-building.  

Join the 13th Knox Asian Festival on Saturday, August 30th, 2026, ad World’s Fair Park in Knoxville, TN.  

Learn more at www.asianculturetn.org

This month, we’re honored to spotlight the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum and their powerful public memory initiative, C...
05/19/2026

This month, we’re honored to spotlight the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum and their powerful public memory initiative, Courage in the Hollers.

Through monuments, storytelling, and deep community collaboration, Courage in the Hollers is preserving the history of the miners’ 50-Mile March and the Battle of Blair Mountain, honoring the multiracial, multiethnic working people who came together in pursuit of dignity, justice, and labor rights.

We’re grateful for their work and proud to stand alongside them. Swipe through to learn more about Courage in the Hollers and the ongoing effort to preserve this vital chapter of Appalachian history.

If this work resonates with you, or if you’d like to support and learn more about the important work being done to preserve Appalachian history and strengthen community memory, we encourage you to become a member by visiting the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum’s membership page.

And stay tuned, there’s more to come! Later this month, we’ll also be featuring the museum’s “Entirely Preventable” project, a photography exhibit exploring the ongoing realities of black lung and silicosis, and the communities most impacted by these entirely preventable diseases.

International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, is rooted in the fight for wages, safe working conditions, and dignit...
05/01/2026

International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, is rooted in the fight for wages, safe working conditions, and dignity for workers.

In Appalachia, that history is not separate from daily life, it is part of how communities have always understood work and survival. From coal miners and energy workers to teachers, healthcare workers, and farmers, from caregivers to community organizers, labor here has long shaped both the land and the people who call it home.

This work sustains life across homes, workplaces, fields, schools and public spaces. Work that has always been essential to how this region holds itself together.

While much of this work is named, much of it is not defined. It exists in the early mornings and long nights. It is caring for what others depend on. It is the dependence on care, organizing, support and the space made for change, even in the face of a hard and unknown future. This work is the steady presence of people keeping communities grounded through every season.

This International Worker’s Day, Appalachian Community Fund recognizes the work and the communities who make calling this place home possible. We are honored to support organizations, cultural bearers and community efforts carrying this work forward.

We are honored to highlight the C.B. Nuckolls Community Center & Black History Museum in Ashland, Kentucky, as an Appala...
04/27/2026

We are honored to highlight the C.B. Nuckolls Community Center & Black History Museum in Ashland, Kentucky, as an Appalachian Community Fund Grantee Spotlight, recognizing its powerful work preserving and sharing local Black history.

The work began in 2020 when Darrell Smith created the Ashland Black History page after noticing how little of the community’s Black history was documented online.

By sharing his own family photos and inviting others to contribute, he helped spark a growing community archive, as residents began sending in photographs, memorials, and stories that now form the foundation of the museum’s ongoing work.

Swipe to read more about this incredible museum and the work that has been put into it.

In Part 1, we shared the work of Aflorar Herb Collective. In Part 2, we’re sharing what they’re building. The Climate Re...
03/27/2026

In Part 1, we shared the work of Aflorar Herb Collective.

In Part 2, we’re sharing what they’re building.

The Climate Resilience Hub is Aflorar’s vision for a permanent space in Asheville, NC, where community care can take root and grow. Grounded in land, culture, and connection, The Hub will be a place to gather, rest, learn, and create together.

This space will support herbal education, shared meals, mutual aid, and healing practices while also serving as a steady anchor in times of crisis. It’s a vision shaped by community and built for the long term.

Aflorar’s goal is to raise $1.5 million to fully bring the Healing Hub to life, including tiny homes, water catchment systems, climate resilient infrastructure, and expanded growing paces.

Aflorar is renovating a basement to create sanctuary space for climate refugees, activists, and organizers on the land this summer. They are only $78,000 away from completion!

You can help make this space possible by donating, volunteering, or sharing their work with others!

To get involved, reach out to Sarah Nuñez for more information or to donate at [email protected]

This month, we’re proud to spotlight one of our grantees, Aflorar Herb Collective, a community-rooted group bringing hea...
03/25/2026

This month, we’re proud to spotlight one of our grantees, Aflorar Herb Collective, a community-rooted group bringing healing, knowledge, and care to Western North Carolina and beyond.

Founded in 2020, Aflorar works with herbalists, artists, gardeners, and organizers to relearn and reclaim traditional ways of care through herbs.

They focus on exploring this through workshops and explorations of cultural practices rooted in Chicanx, Latinx, Black, and Indigenous traditions.

From distributing herbal remedies and care kits to hosting community tables and drop off locations, their work shows what community care can look like – hands on, accessible, while rooted in culture and land.

You can support their work too: donate supplies, funds, or simply share their story! Visit their Instagram for more ways to get involved!

Across Appalachia, women carry the weight and the wisdom of our communities. They carry stories, traditions, and knowled...
03/24/2026

Across Appalachia, women carry the weight and the wisdom of our communities.

They carry stories, traditions, and knowledge that connect generations. They care for neighbors, exemplifying resilience in the face of hardship, and the quiet leadership that keeps communities strong.

In many ways, they are knowledge workers, holding the lessons of the past, sharing skills for the future, and shaping the networks and structures that make change possible. From organizing mutual aid efforts to preserving the culture and history of their towns, Appalachian women have long been the backbone of our communities.

This Women’s History Month, the Appalachian Community Fund honors all that women carry: the visible work, the unseen labor, the wisdom passed down, and the care that sustains us. Thank you for everything you carry, for everyone you lift up, and for the communities you help thrive.

Happy Women’s History Month from the ACF team!

We believe Black commemorative and narrative work is among the most important work happening in Central Appalachia, and ...
02/27/2026

We believe Black commemorative and narrative work is among the most important work happening in Central Appalachia, and we're putting our resources behind it.

This Black History Month, ACF is launching Memory Work(s) — a new initiative and ongoing commitment to the organizations preserving Black history, culture, and story across the region. Black history in Appalachia has always been here. It just hasn't always had the backing it deserves.

Over the coming weeks, we'll be spotlighting the organizations across Central Appalachia leading this work and showing what it looks like when a community keeps its own story.
Stay tuned.

Learn more about ACF's work at appalachiancommunityfund.org

The graphics and writing for this initiative are produced in partnership with Woodson Carpenter ( on Instagram)—a proud Black son of Appalachia, social scientist, and multi-hyphenate creative working out of his home in Chattanooga, TN.

He offers services analog portraiture + lifestyle photography, strategic communications + brand + policy consulting, and curatorial support to individuals, businesses, and non-profits.

Meet Charlie, our Donor Engagement Manager!Born and raised in Raceland, Kentucky, Charlie joins Appalachian Community Fu...
02/17/2026

Meet Charlie, our Donor Engagement Manager!

Born and raised in Raceland, Kentucky, Charlie joins Appalachian Community Fund as an experienced and dynamic fundraiser, program manager, and scholar, deeply rooted in Appalachia and deeply committed to its future.

Charlie holds a BA from the University of Kentucky and an MA from The Ohio State University, where his graduate research focused on sustainability for arts organizations in Appalachia. His work spans a wide range of performing arts and nonprofit organizations, and he’s successfully secured federal, regional, state, and private foundation grants supporting grassroots organizing, preservation, community development, and child abuse and neglect prevention.

A passionate student of Appalachian history and present-day issues, Charlie is always working to better understand the root causes of social injustice and community inequities, and how to address them with care and intention.

Outside of work, you’ll find Charlie serving on nonprofit boards and awards committees, singing baritone in a local chamber choir, organizing community fundraisers, soaking up the outdoors, or settling in for a good sci-fi or fantasy flick. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina with his wife Malory, daughter Juniper, and their rescue pup, Arlo.

We’re so glad to have you join us, Charlie!

This Valentine’s Day, we’re holding space for a bigger kind of love. Love for the people who call this region home, and ...
02/14/2026

This Valentine’s Day, we’re holding space for a bigger kind of love. Love for the people who call this region home, and for the mountains and towns that have shaped who we are and how we show up.

We love the young people and elders, the artists, organizers, caregivers, neighbors, and all those in between. The folks who stay, the folks who come back, and the folks building something good right where they are. It’s our love and commitment to this region that keep us going.

Our work is guided by that love. Standing with communities, trusting local knowledge, and investing in the strength and wisdom that’s already here.

Because at the heart of it all, it’s love for the people and the place that makes Appalachia home.

Address

100 5th Street, Suite 530
Knoxville, TN
37620

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18655235783

Website

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