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That’s not how the program works.
Her foundation is separate from the local orgs that actually fulfill the books.
Her foundation pays for overhead, book curation, admin costs, licensing deals, negotiating wholesale pricing for the books, coordinates mailing, etc. The local organization that is a partner member then handles enrolling the kids locally and pays for the books for their area.
Why spout shit you know nothing about??
This is the state of Tennessee funding the books for kids in Tennessee. That’s it. The same way Missouri used to do it before the new governor cut the budget for it earlier this year.
The state government also already covered half the costs of the program for the state. This is just some extra funding to cover the rest so that it doesn’t have to come from private funding.
So… this is what the government now controls, right?
No…. Dolly Parton’s organization does that, through her estate now. I’m sure she has a huge chunk of her estate in a trust specifically for the Imagination Library, so nothing should change there.
The state government is just funding the cost of the books and shipping, which they had already covered half of for a while now, just like the other 1500+ organizations that participate in it do.
Ok. What happens when the state says, “If you don’t do what we want, we’ll stop funding.”
Then it goes back to how it is now….
Either private organizations step back up to cover it, or kids in Tennessee just won’t be eligible to participate. Like Missouri just did.
You’re confusing the two entities. The Dollywood foundation doesn’t receive any state funding, and that’s Dolly’s org that handles the admin part of the Imagination Library.
At the local level, the only funding is to cover the cost of books and shipping. The local orgs, whether state or local government, small charities, small businesses, or individual donors, have zero say on the program itself. They just handle the last mile bit of enrolling kids and covering the books and shipping cost.
The government is taking over the funding. 100% of it. Do you think the foundation is going to keep a rainy day fund for when it needs to start funding the program again? That isn’t how non-profits work at all. This is now government capture. They get to push GOP morality with Dolly’s face on it.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here.
You apparently are because you’re just flat out fucking WRONG.
The Tennessee government is NOT taking over funding of the Dollywood foundation.
They’re taking over funding to pay for the books for kids in Tennessee.
They’re NOT funding her nonprofit. They’re a CUSTOMER of it.
Like what do you not understand.
My local imagination library that my kids get it from is the rotary club in our city lol. They pay for the cost of the books and shipping, and my kids get books. If the rotary club decided they no longer wanted to participate, it wouldn’t affect kids in New York. It would affect about 150 kids here in our town.
The Tennessee government is fulfilling the same role the rotary club does. They buy the books and pay shipping, like EVERY OTHER PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATION.
If they decide to pull funding, it won’t affect anything but kids in Tennessee.
Literally this exact situation has ALREADY occurred. The state of Missouri funded the program for the state, and the new governor cut all the funding for it. The only thing that happened is kids in Missouri are not eligible to sign up anymore.
This has literally nothing to do with the Dollywood foundation.
Looks like it would be private funding like before except completely funded privately.
Privately funded with what? The government is going from paying for half to paying for it all. They aren’t doubling the funding output, they are capturing the entirety of the funding. I’m not sure how everyone is missing this.
Let’s say that I pay for half of your gas in your car (also assuming you drive). Now, let’s say Dolly Parton pays for the other half. Well, now Dolly is gone, and I’m paying for the whole amount. When the funding was split, you could say that you were taking a road trip, and it would be likely that one of us would pay even if the other didn’t like it. Now, if you take a road trip where I don’t want you to go, I can just refuse to pay for it.
Because you’re fundamentally misunderstanding how it works.
It’s more like public infrastructure. Dolly pays for organizing the routes, the drivers, etc.
You pay for my ticket so I can ride for free.
If you stop paying for my ticket, it doesn’t affect anyone else on the route. The bus just won’t stop for me anymore.
Dolly didn’t pay for half. She paid for the infrastructure of the program. Everyone else that participates pays for the core product. They don’t pay, the kids there just don’t get to participate.
The money is raised. Half was raised, half was state-funded. Now it’s 100% state. Those private donors aren’t going to hang around with their money just waiting. They are going to fund other programs. Now, when the government decides to gut funding, like Missouri and Indiana did, there isn’t anyone there to get it going again.
Sure. In Tennessee
That’s it. Kids in Tennessee will get fucked over. All the other kids in every other state and 4 other countries will be unaffected.
Because, again, this has nothing to do with the program itself. That is funded by Dolly and her estate.
This is just the last mile bit for the kids.
And yes, plenty of those private donors will step right back up. Many are tiny little local orgs and small businesses that do it for kids in their immediate area.
Money that doesn’t belong to the government. For example, money that is privately owned.
And how is the money gonna get to the foundation to cover funding when the government walks away? Fund raising? That’s what has been happening. There are people whose sole job is to raise funding for the foundation. Now they don’t need to. They are going to find other jobs. The people that donated are gonna find other things to donate to. The government has captured it.
https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/files/media/documents/2025/nonprofit-checklist-grant-terminated.pdf
That is one common method of raising money privately for a cause or organization.