OUR MISSION
The mission of The Dollywood Foundation is to share the life and legacy of Dolly Parton as an inspiration to all children to
Dream More, Learn More, Care More, Be More™.
OUR FOUNDATION
The Dollywood Foundation was created in 1988 by Dolly Parton to inspire the children in her home county to achieve educational success. Initial efforts focused on decreasing the dropout rate in the county's high school.
In the early 1990's, Dolly promised every 7th grade and 8th grade student $500 if they successfully graduated from high school. This effort, called the Buddy Program, reduced the dropout rate for these two classes from 35% to 6%. More importantly, the program catalyzed the community to provide additional resources to sustain this improvement in the dropout rate.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is the flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation.
In 1995, Dolly created her Imagination Library in Sevier County, Tennessee. This monthly book gifting program for children under the age of five was originally designed to inspire a love of reading and learning for all preschool children in the county. What was founded as a local program became such a success that in 2000 a national replication effort was underway, and by 2003 Dolly Parton's Imagination Library had mailed one million books. It would prove to be the first of many millions of books sent to children around the world.
SCHOLARSHIPS
The Dollywood Foundation also offers five scholarships to high school seniors in Sevier County. TN to help further their education at any accredited university. The Dolly Parton Scholarship is a $15,000 scholarship awarded annually at each high school. The scholarships are for students who have a dream they wish to pursue and who can successfully communicate their plan and commitment to realize their dreams.
MY PEOPLE FUND
On November 28, 2016, massive fires swept through the county destroying the homes of over 1,000 families in Sevier County. Dolly asked the Foundation to lead the effort to distribute $1.000 per month for 6 months to the families who lost their primary residence. In two weeks, the Foundation created The My People Fund, designed the distribution process, and implemented the distribution. In May Of 2017, the Foundation concluded the distribution with the announcement that over $12M had been raised and given to the families who lost their homes. Additional funds raised also provided one-time scholarships to high school seniors whose homes were lost to the fires.