The 2026 Maddox Fund Request for Proposals Is Now Open
The Dan & Margaret Maddox Fund is now accepting applications for our 2026 grant cycle, with a deadline of Friday, March 20.
This Request for Proposals reflects an important moment in Maddox’s evolution. Over the past year, we engaged a strategic listening and planning process—conversations with grantee partners, community leaders, peers, and advisors across Middle Tennessee—to help shape our next chapter. What we heard was clear and consistent: organizations are navigating complex, shifting conditions and need flexible, multi-year support grounded in trust, relationship, and shared purpose. Our 2026 RFP is one response to that call.
Our Vision and Approach
Maddox envisions a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat. Guided by our strategic blueprint, we are continuing to move toward a trust-based, community-responsive approach to grantmaking—one that recognizes the wisdom of organizations closest to the work and the communities they serve. For this cycle, Maddox will offer two-year general operating grants to organizations whose work advances one or both of our funding priorities.
The Maddox Fund does not have a formal minimum or maximum grant amount for this RFP. Instead, we invite applicants to request a meaningful level of support based on the scope of the proposed work and the overall size and capacity of your organization.
Historically, most Maddox grants have ranged from $15,000 to $30,000 per year, though grant amounts may vary depending on alignment, opportunity, and available resources.
For grants awarded through this RFP, funding will be distributed in two installments:
A first payment in 2026
A second payment in 2027
If you have questions about grant size or fit, please feel free to reach out to the Maddox team.
A New Pilot: Root Partners Cohort
This RFP also includes a new pilot opportunity—the Root Partners Cohort—designed to provide a small group of deeply community-rooted organizations with three years of unrestricted funding, technical assistance, and shared learning. There is no separate application for this opportunity; organizations may indicate interest directly within the RFP. Additional information about eligibility criteria and program expectations can be found here.
Apply and Stay Connected
We encourage organizations interested in applying to review the full RFP and join one of our upcoming Grant Application Workshops, where Maddox staff will walk through the application, share our review approach, and answer questions.
We’re grateful to be learning alongside organizations across Middle Tennessee and look forward to the conversations and partnerships this grant cycle will bring. We also welcome direct outreach if you have questions about fit or focus areas:
For People and Planet grants: Joseph Gutierrez, Director of Grants & Operations — joseph@maddoxfund.org.
For Improving the Lives of Young People grants: Jen Bailey, Executive Director — jen@maddoxfund.org
What do our youth and environmental partners need from us at this moment in time?
What does the community need Maddox to be?
How can Maddox challenge itself live more fully into our justice and liberation values?
Where will our new leader, Jen Bailey, lead us in service to Middle Tennessee?
How is the legacy of Dan and Margaret Maddox embodied 26 years after their deaths?
These questions require us to lean into learning, exploration and listening to the experts—our nonprofit partners. In anticipation of strategic planning, the Maddox Fund will hold listening meetings with nonprofit leaders. We invite nonprofits to sign up now and come ready to guide the Maddox Fund’s future.
All listening meetings will be held from 11:00-1:00 in the Maddox office at 100 Taylor Street 37208. Lunch will be served. Please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions/preferences. Executive Directors can also sign up for a one-on-one with Jen Bailey in March using this link.
The Maddox Fund has signed onto a statement from the Council of Foundations and Independent Sector to support the rights of philanthropic organizations, charitable nonprofits, and individual donors to give in ways that align with their values. That includes efforts to support historically marginalized groups.
The Dan & Margaret Maddox Fund recently submitted a public comment on the proposed asylum ban. Our full comment can be read below.
The Dan & Margaret Maddox Fund seeks a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat. We are expressing our concern because we believe that the proposed asylum ban would deny many refugees from the protections they seek in the United States.
The proposed asylum ban will lead to the return of asylum seekers to the harm and violence they were fleeing from. It will disproportionately harm Black, Brown, and Indigenous asylum seekers requesting safety at the U.S. southern border – who often cannot afford or access a visa to arrive in the U.S. by plane and instead trek across multiple countries to arrive at the border. Increased rates of denial for asylum will also place many Indigenous women and girls in danger at heightened risk for sex and human trafficking.
Our U.S. laws and treaties protect asylum seekers and prohibit their return to persecution and torture. Our laws also explicitly guard an asylum seeker’s right to seek protection regardless of how they arrive in the United States. Individuals should be able to access our asylum system regardless of how they enter, as has been the law for decades. They should not be forced to seek asylum in transit to the United States, especially not in countries where they may also face harm.
Thank you for your consideration of our points,
Dan & Margaret Maddox Fund
The public comment period is open until March 27th. You can add your comment here.
