[Skip to content](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/the-story-of-t-mobiles-hometown-grants#maincontent) [Newsroom](https://www.t-mobile.com/news)Toggle secondary navigation - [Network](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/network) - [Devices](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/devices) - [Un-carrier](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/un-carrier) - [Community](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/community) - [Offers](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/offers) - [Business](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/business) English [CommunityCategory](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/community)[Story](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/story) # What $23 Million Looks Like Across 500 Small Towns: The Story of T‑Mobile’s Hometown Grants By T-Mobile StoriesSeptember 29, 2026 Five years ago, T‑Mobile made a bet on small-town America. Here’s what happened.  [Arrow Right Icon](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/_admin/uploads/2024/09/nr-article-Opt-1.png) 7 min read - Facebook IconShare on Facebook - Share on Twitter - LinkedIn IconShare on LinkedIn Coffee, conversation and a home-cooked meal now fill the kitchen at the historic Riggs-Hamilton American Legion Post 20 in downtown Russellville, Arkansas. In a town of about 30,000 people with one of the highest percentages of veterans in the state, the kitchen is central to how the post serves its community. “You get out of the military, and you don’t really have a place that you feel like you belong sometimes,” says Bart Noland, Riders Director at American Legion Post 20. “The American Legion Post here in Russellville is a major part of our daily lives.” That sense of belonging is what local leaders in [Russellville](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-uNffWwzc&list=PL0mz2nejZ-Div5ca5rUoO2wcNNFHjGR59&index=8) hoped to strengthen when they set out to modernize the 90-year-old building’s kitchen and make the space more accessible. In March 2024, a $50,000 T‑Mobile Hometown Grant helped make it possible. T‑Mobile awarded the grant through its Hometown Grants program, partnering with [Main Street America](https://mainstreet.org/) (MSA) — a nonprofit that leads a collaborative movement with partners and grassroots leaders to advance shared prosperity, create resilient economies and improve quality of life through place-based economic development and community preservation — to identify communities where the funding could make the most impact. “The T‑Mobile grant has been a lifesaver for us,” says Danielle Housenick, Executive Director of [Main Street Russellville](https://www.mainstreetrussellville.com/), an affiliate program of MSA, under the state-level coordinating program, [Main Street Alabama](https://www.mainstreetalabama.org/). “The bulk of the money was used for a full kitchen renovation, which is a game changer.” Russellville’s project is just one story. Across the country, there are hundreds more, including parks where kids can play safely, downtown spaces brought back to life, disaster recovery centers made more welcoming and so many more. Together, they show what happens when small towns are empowered to define what connection means for themselves. Since 2021, T‑Mobile’s Hometown Grants program has helped fund more than [500 projects](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-completes-landmark-hometown-grants-initiative-transforming-500-communities) across 49 states and Puerto Rico, investing $22.8 million in communities with populations of 50,000 or fewer. But the larger story is what communities have built, with projects that have impacted millions of people across the country. ## The Why Behind Hometown Grants T‑Mobile launched Hometown Grants as part of its [5G for All](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobiles-next-un-carrier-move-5gforall) commitment, a promise that no community, big or small, would be left behind as the country moved into the next era of connectivity. In 2021, that commitment was about building toward a future where more people in more places could benefit from 5G. Five years later, that future looks a lot more real. T‑Mobile is now [America’s Best Network](https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/network) and has expanded 5G coverage by more than 1.3 million square miles since 2020. But for T‑Mobile, making sure small towns were part of that future meant showing up in more ways than one. It meant building the network while also helping communities create access, opportunity and the tools and spaces they need to thrive. Through Hometown Grants, T‑Mobile backed projects chosen by the people who knew their towns best. In many places, the ideas were already there, talked about in meetings or carried for years by volunteers and local leaders. They just needed a way to put those ideas into motion. “When we launched the Hometown Grants program in 2021, we made a commitment to be a force for good in communities all across America,” says Jon Freier, Chief Operating Officer, T‑Mobile. “Five years later, that commitment has turned into nearly $23 million invested in 500 towns, restoring main streets, expanding public spaces and strengthening the fabric of small-town life.” ## Championing Small-Town Projects In [Ukiah, California](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0GKl0hgmJg), volunteers at the [Ukiah Disaster Relief of Northern California](https://udrnc.org/) (UDRNC) were doing deeply personal work to care for their neighbors’ mental and physical wellbeing after natural disasters like wildfires. But they were doing that work in a space that wasn’t built to support the care they were providing. A Hometown Grant helped change that. “When T‑Mobile came on the scene and gave us the funds to provide clients what they need at the time they need it most — it was just a miracle,” says Barbara Thurston, a UDRNC volunteer. Her colleague Debbie Christenson puts it simply: “Now you walk into this building, and the clients just feel so at home with us. They feel like they are safe here.” And in [Ponca City, Oklahoma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLIIQWyakNo), the grant helped bring something unexpected to downtown: an ice rink. “Ice on the Plaza was a way for us to bring a big city attraction to our downtown,” says Maci Graves, Executive Director of [Ponca City Main Street](https://downtownponcacity.com/), a local accredited program of MSA, under the state-level coordinating program, [Oklahoma Main Street Center](https://www.okcommerce.gov/community-development/oklahoma-main-street/). “This gave us an opportunity to bring a quality of life that we haven’t had before.” For Chelsi Hendrickson, Ponca City Board President, the impact is about what the town can keep building around for years. “The great thing about the ice rink is the longevity of it,” she says. “We’ll still be able to use it 10 years, 20 years down the line.” “The creativity and the passion that come with these projects can transform an entire town, from the amounts of people impacted to the hundreds of thousands of hours that these communities have volunteered to the jobs that have been created,” says Freier. “This is the power of investing in local ideas.”  ### Five Years of Hometown Grants Behind every renovated kitchen, downtown and playground is a bigger set of numbers. Over five years, Hometown Grants helped turn $22.8 million into a much larger community footprint: Over 4.3 million people positively impacted Nearly 3,000 jobs created 75% of projects completed to date More than 300,000 volunteer hours Nearly $9 million for small business development Nearly $126 million in matching funds from other sources ## T‑Mobile’s Commitment to Small-Town America Doesn’t Stop Here Hometown Grants may be ending, but T‑Mobile’s work in small-town America is here to stay — and it continues in ways people feel every day. [T‑Mobile 5G Home Internet](https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet), the fastest 5G home internet in the U.S., is available across the country including to millions of households in small towns, and [T‑Mobile Fiber](https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet/fiber) is expanding to bring fast, reliable internet to even more communities. Through [Project 10Million](https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/project-10-million), T‑Mobile committed $10.7 billion to help offer free connectivity to up to 10 million eligible students while [T-Satellite with Starlink](https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/satellite-phone-service) is helping keep people connected in some of the most remote corners of the country. And the addition of [UScellular](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/business/t-mobile-closes-uscellular-acquisition) has deepened T‑Mobile’s reach in rural markets even further. Then there’s [Friday Night 5G Lights](https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/friday-night-5g-lights), a nationwide competition currently in its third year, where one deserving high school will win a game-changing $1 million football field upgrade. T‑Mobile plans to announce the Top 40 Division finalists on Oct. 8, with public voting running through Oct. 25 to narrow the field to the Top 4. From there, one school will ultimately be crowned the grand prize winner on Nov. 12. Anyone in the country with a valid email address can vote once a day at [FridayNight5GLights.com](https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/friday-night-5g-lights) or through the [T-Life](https://www.t-mobile.com/apps) app. Partners at Main Street America continue to provide a variety of resources to support community development projects, including free and on-demand tools, guides, and videos in their [Knowledge Hub](https://mainstreet.org/resources/knowledge-hub), deep-dive courses through their [online Academy](https://academy.mainstreet.org/) and the ability to join a national network of other community builders through by becoming [a member](https://mainstreet.org/get-involved/join-us). For all the ways T‑Mobile is investing in small-town America, it’s the small, human moments that tell the real story. Back in Russellville, the renovation has settled into daily life at American Legion Post 20 — in the meals served, the conversations around the tables and the veterans who keep showing up for one another. And Noland’s words — about leaving the military and not always having a place where you feel like you belong — still capture something that goes far beyond wireless. It travels into the spaces that make us feel like we are exactly where we are supposed to be, connected with the people who help make us who we are. That is what a $23 million commitment looks like across 500 small towns: a kitchen where people gather, a safe place after disaster, a downtown tradition built to last and so much more. More than anything, it looks like people turning ideas into places that make their communities feel even more like home. *For more T‑Mobile stories, visit the [Newsroom](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/stories)*. Fastest 5G Home Internet According to analysis by Ookla® of Ookla Speedtest Intelligence® data, 2H 2025. Tags[5G](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/archive/5g)[Broadband](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/archive/broadband)[Network](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/archive/network)[T-Stories](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/archive/t-stories) ## Related Stories [More Stories](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/category/community) [ \ CommunityStory \ __Meet Dierks, Arkansas: The Town of 900 That Scored a $1 Million High School Football Field Upgrade__ \ September 15, 2026|7 min read](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/dierks-arkansas-football-field-upgrade) [ \ Un-carrierPress Release \ __T‑Mobile Completes Landmark Hometown Grants Initiative, Transforming 500 Communities__ \ June 25, 2026|9 min read](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-completes-landmark-hometown-grants-initiative-transforming-500-communities) [ \ CommunityPress Release \ __Before, During and After: How T‑Mobile Shows Up for First Responders and Communities Across America at Every Stage__ \ May 19, 2026|7 min read](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/community/how-t-mobile-shows-up-for-first-responders-across-america) [ \ Un-carrierPress Release \ __T‑Mobile’s Hometown Grants Top $21.5M, Empowering 475 Small Towns Nationwide__ \ March 26, 2026|8 min read](https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobiles-hometown-grants-top-21-5m)