Getting Outside & Going on Sabbatical

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Every January, I set a theme for the entire year as a way for me to nicely package my resolutions, goals, and intentions for personal and professional life.  After a bit of thought, I decided that my theme for 2026 would be “get outside.”  This meant a few different things for me.  On the most basic level, it’s just a reminder to get out fishing  more often, spend more time on my bike, and to enjoy the outdoors.  For my work at Maddox, it meant focusing more on the environmental grant portfolio which I took over at the start of the year.  This theme directly led to the Get Outside Grant Program that we started this year to get more young people into nature.  I also took this as a push to make time to get out of the country on an international trip, which is something I’ve put off for a few years because I’ve been too busy.  Most importantly though, I’m trying to get outside of my current patterns of behavior so that I can start imagining something new,

The last bit has been something I’ve been reflecting on for a while as I enter my tenth year at the Maddox Fund.  Maddox has been in a process of slow transformation over the past few years.  If you look at  just this year, you’ll see that we have new staff and board members in place, a new 2-year grantmaking cycle, and a bold strategic blueprint to guide us over the next three years.  In a lot of ways, this all has left me feeling like I’m the oldest thing at Maddox, so I’m grateful for this opportunity to take a sabbatical to find time for rest, reflect on my work, and reconnect with nature.

 I will officially be on sabbatical starting September 16th and will not be back in the office until January 4, 2027.  Here is a rough itinerary of my trip:

  • Finding some time to rest and meeting my wife’s extended family in Indonesia
  • Cycling around Taiwan while fishing off the coast and some of its mountain streams
  • Reflecting on professional life while riding across South Korea, where I began my career as an English language teacher
  • Thinking about the future and my own role in making the world a place where people and planet flourish together while making a Buddhist pilgrimage around 88 temples in Japan

While gone, please reach out to my colleagues at the Maddox Fund:

  • jen@maddoxfund.org for environmental grants and inquiries
  • shun@maddoxfund.org general grant administration, including MOUs and reporting
  • or call the Maddox office at 615-385-1006

I am looking forward to coming back in 2027 with a renewed perspective on work and continuing to support our partners as they tirelessly fight to  improve the lives of young people and protect the natural environment. If you’re interested in following me on my journey, you can find me on Instagram. Be forewarned though, it’s mostly going to be pictures of my bike in different places and fish I caught.

Getting Outside & Going on Sabbatical Read More »

Growing What Matters: Reflections on Our 2026 Grantmaking Year

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Healthy ecosystems remind us that growth begins long before it becomes visible. In forests, growth happens beneath the surface long before a canopy emerges. Root systems deepen. Soil regenerates. Beneath the forest floor, interconnected root systems share nutrients in ways we cannot always see. Our communities grow much the same way. The most transformative work rarely announces itself with sudden breakthroughs. More often, it unfolds through relationships strengthened over time, leaders who continue showing up, and organizations that steadily cultivate the conditions for people and the natural world to flourish.

That quiet work is what we have had the privilege of witnessing across Middle Tennessee this year.

This year, we are honored to partner with 62 organizations whose work advances our shared vision of a future where people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat. Our 2026 Request for Proposals was the most competitive in the Maddox Fund’s history, reflecting both the extraordinary leadership across Middle Tennessee and the growing gap between community need and available philanthropic resources. Every grant represents more than financial support; it is an expression of trust, relationship, and our belief that those closest to the work are best positioned to shape the future of their communities.

As we have listened to our partners over the past two years, one theme has surfaced repeatedly: unrestricted funding matters, but it is not enough on its own. Organizations also need trusted spaces to reflect, opportunities to learn alongside peers, and investments in the leadership and operational capacity that allow them to thrive over the long term.

That belief inspired the creation of Root Partners, a new three-year initiative that pairs unrestricted funding with organizational development, leadership support, and peer learning.

We are excited to welcome these incredible organizations to our inaugural Root Partners cohort:

Over the next three years, these organizations will help us explore a question that feels increasingly important: How do we grow not only stronger organizations, but stronger ecosystems? We look forward to learning alongside them and sharing what we discover with the broader nonprofit community.

Growth also requires humility. As a foundation, we remain committed to strengthening our own practices, continuing to embrace trust-based philanthropy, deepening equity in our governance and grantmaking, and approaching this work with curiosity, transparency, and accountability. We know that the future we seek cannot be funded into existence alone. It must be cultivated through relationships that allow all of us to learn and grow together.

To every organization that has partnered with us, whether for many years or for the first time this cycle, thank you. Your work continues to remind us that lasting growth is measured not simply by scale, but by stronger relationships, deeper roots, and communities that are increasingly able to care for one another and the places they call home.

We are grateful to be growing alongside you.

2026 Request for Proposal Grants

Grant amounts reflect a two-year payment schedule with the first half being paid in 2026 and the second half being paid in 2027.

Applying OrganizationGrant AmountProgram AreaInterest Areas
Cosecha Community Development$50,000EnvironmentAccess
Friends of Mill Ridge Park$50,000EnvironmentAccess
Tennessee Aquatic Project And Development Group Inc$30,000EnvironmentAccess
Water Walkers$50,000EnvironmentAccess
Justice Industries$60,000EnvironmentClimate Solutions
The Nashville Food Project Inc$30,000EnvironmentClimate Solutions
Tennessee Local Food$20,000EnvironmentClimate Solutions
Cumberland River Compact$60,000EnvironmentClimate Solutions
Urban Green Lab$30,000EnvironmentClimate Solutions
Chinkapin Craftstead$60,000EnvironmentProtecting the Natural Environment
Nashville Tree Conservation Corps$40,000EnvironmentProtecting the Natural Environment
Austin Peay State University Foundation$50,000EnvironmentProtecting the Natural Environment
Turnip Green Creative Reuse$30,000EnvironmentProtecting the Natural Environment
Swan Conservation Trust$20,000EnvironmentProtecting the Natural Environment
Community Shares$70,000EnvironmentEnvironmental Advocacy
Nashville Banner$60,000EnvironmentEnvironmental Advocacy
Tennessee State University Foundation$60,000EnvironmentEnvironmental Advocacy
Tennessee Environmental Council$60,000EnvironmentEnvironmental Advocacy
Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi$40,000YouthYouth Voice
American Muslim Advisory Council$36,000YouthYouth Voice
Southern Movement Committee$100,000YouthYouth Voice
Corner To Corner$50,000YouthYouth Voice
Equity Alliance$50,000YouthYouth Voice
Tennessee Immigrant And Refugee Rights Coalition$50,000YouthYouth Voice
Nashville Civic Design Center$30,000YouthYouth Voice
Elmahaba Center$20,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Pathways Kitchen$50,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Man Up Teacher Fellowship$50,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Bethlehem Centers Of Nashville$35,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Salama Urban Ministries$80,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Why We Can’t Wait$40,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Legacy Mission Village$40,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
100 Black Men of Middle Tennessee$30,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Tennessee Educators Of Color Alliance$70,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
BeWell in School$40,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee$40,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Nashville Teacher Residency$100,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Moves and Grooves$20,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Nations Ministry Center$35,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Southern Word Inc$50,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Conexion Americas$50,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Equal Chance For Education$30,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Nashville International Center for Empowerment$60,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Music City Construction Careers Inc$50,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Black Lemonade$50,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
D-Y-M-O-N In The Rough – Dynamic Minorities Of Nashville$40,000YouthEquitable Education Opportunities
Girls Write Nashville$30,000YouthBelonging
Raphah Institute$50,000YouthBelonging
Monroe Harding$30,000YouthBelonging
FLY Girl Institute$60,000YouthBelonging
Murfreesboro Muslim Youth$30,000YouthBelonging
CASA Nashville$20,000YouthBelonging
Nashville Peacemakers$35,000YouthBelonging
MashUp$60,000YouthBelonging
Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors$40,000YouthBelonging
Launch Pad$100,000YouthBelonging
Wilco Iris$40,000YouthBelonging
Black Mental Health Village$80,000YouthBelonging

Growing What Matters: Reflections on Our 2026 Grantmaking Year Read More »

Maddox’s Strategic Blueprint

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Last year, inspired by movement leader Mia Birdsong, we found ourselves returning to a question: How do we plant seeds in toxic soil?

It was a question shaped by the realities our partners were navigating: political backlash, climate instability, burnout, funding uncertainty, and growing pressures on young people and communities across Middle Tennessee. But it was also a question about hope and about what it means to keep investing in people, community, and possibility even in difficult conditions.

Over the last year, through conversations with nonprofit partners, funders, organizers, and community leaders, a second question began to emerge for us: How do we help those seeds take root and grow together?

That question sits at the heart of the Maddox Fund’s new 2026–2029 Strategic Blueprint. The Blueprint reflects an evolution in how we understand our role as a funder and partner in this region. Over the next three years, we will deepen our commitment to trust-based philanthropy, long-term partnership, and community leadership.

Some of this will look tangible and practical: shifting to two-year general operating grants through our biennial RFP process, expanding responsive funding opportunities, creating more spaces for nonprofit leaders across Middle Tennessee to gather and learn together, and launching a new Root Partners cohort for deeper organizational support. We also anticipate returning to participatory grantmaking in 2027, a year when we will pause our traditional open RFP before reopening the process in 2028.

These shifts are rooted in what we heard consistently from partners across the region: organizations need not only funding, but steadier partnership, greater flexibility, and support that recognizes the humanity of the people doing the work. Again and again, leaders spoke about the need for spaces to learn together across issues, sectors, and communities at a time when so many forces are working to isolate, exhaust, and divide us.

The Blueprint is also grounded in a broader commitment to Advocate, Cultivate, and Tend: advocating alongside communities, cultivating relationships and collaboration, and tending to the long-term sustainability of leaders, organizations, and movements.

We know the challenges facing our communities are real. But we also believe deeply in the wisdom, creativity, and resilience already present across Middle Tennessee. We are grateful to the many partners, former partners, and peers who helped shape this next chapter, and we look forward to continuing to learn and grow together in the years ahead.

See the Blueprint

Maddox’s Strategic Blueprint Read More »

Welcoming Shun Ahmed to the Maddox Fund

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There are moments in the life of an organization when you can feel something opening. New capacity, new energy, new possibility. This is one of those moments for us. I’m so glad to share that Shun Ahmed has joined the Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund as our new Senior Program Associate.

Shun is a Nashville native and a graduate of Metro Nashville Public Schools, whose work has been deeply rooted in the communities we serve. Over the past several years, she has contributed her leadership and care to organizations that many of us know and love, including several Maddox partners. In each of these spaces, she has built programs, strengthened systems, and walked alongside young people and families across Middle Tennessee.

She brings a rare combination of technical skill and relational depth. A graduate of Vanderbilt University in Engineering Science, Shun has consistently worked at the intersection of data, community engagement, and equity. She has led efforts to build data systems that help organizations better understand and communicate their impact, while also ensuring those systems remain grounded in the lived experiences of the communities they serve.

In her leadership at ADROIT, Shun has directed a growing statewide program engaging hundreds of young people in hands-on learning, leadership development, and innovation. Across her roles, she has helped steward programs, manage complex grant processes, and build partnerships that expand access and opportunity.

What stands out most is how she approaches this work. Shun brings a participatory spirit, creating space for young people and community members to shape the solutions that affect their lives. She has facilitated dialogue and collaboration across lines of difference, always with a deep commitment to belonging, dignity, and shared ownership.

At Maddox, we often say that our work is about more than grantmaking. We are tending to relationships. We are cultivating trust. We are learning alongside our partners as we seek to better the lives of young people and protect the natural environment across Middle Tennessee.

Shun will play a vital role in that work. She will help steward relationships with our partners, support our grantmaking processes, and strengthen how we learn from and alongside the communities we serve. Her experience working within partner organizations gives her a unique perspective, one that will help us continue to grow as a more responsive, relational, and community-rooted funder.

As a small team, each person shapes not just what we do, but how we do it. Shun’s presence already feels like a gift, bringing both rigor and warmth, thoughtfulness and action.

I’m especially excited for our partners to get to know her in the months ahead. Please join me in welcoming Shun to the Maddox community.

With gratitude,

Jen

Welcoming Shun Ahmed to the Maddox Fund Read More »

2026 Request for Proposals

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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.

people and planet
improving the lives of young people

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.

watch RFP workshop video
apply for a grant

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

2026 Request for Proposals Read More »

Planting Seeds for the Future

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As 2025 draws to a close, I find myself holding both the weight of this year and the possibility of what comes next. This has been a season of transformation not only for the Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund, but for Middle Tennessee as a whole. Our region continues to grow and change at a rapid pace. Nonprofit partners are navigating unprecedented political and economic pressures. Young people and the lands that sustain us are facing challenges that require courage, creativity, and care.

In the midst of all of this, Maddox has been listening deeply.

Over the past six months we engaged sixty-five partners across listening sessions, check-ins, interviews, and community conversations. Youth-serving and environmental organizations shared stories of resilience and innovation. We heard about expanded programming, new collaborations, advocacy victories, and leaders investing in long-term sustainability. We also heard about exhaustion, funding instability, and the urgent need for philanthropy to show up with humility, clarity, and consistency.

This listening affirmed something core to who we are becoming. To meet this moment well, Maddox must continue leaning into trust-based philanthropy, an approach rooted in transparency, partnership, and the belief that communities are best positioned to know what they need. Trust-based philanthropy asks funders to reduce burdens, share power, and invest in people and relationships over the long term. It asks us to listen first, to move resources more flexibly, and to honor the wisdom and leadership already thriving in Middle Tennessee.

These commitments sit at the heart of our renewed vision.

Early next year we will share our refreshed Strategic Blueprint rooted in the voices of our partners and aligned with our North Stars for youth, community, and environmental flourishing. It will outline not only what we fund, but how we accompany movements, leaders, and organizations with greater intention.

Looking Ahead: A Refreshed RFP in Q1 2026

One of the most exciting pieces of this next chapter is a refreshed RFP that we will launch in the first quarter of 2026. This new approach reflects everything we heard in our listening process. It will offer:

  • Clearer guidance for applicants
  • Streamlined processes and expectations
  • Better alignment with the rhythms of community work
  • Expanded pathways for partnership beyond traditional grants
  • Deeper alignment with trust-based philanthropic practices

We cannot wait to share more in the months ahead.

As We Grow, We Are Hiring

To support this work, we are growing our team. The Maddox Fund is currently hiring a Senior Program Associate, a role that will serve as a relational anchor for our community partners and an essential thought partner in our youth portfolio and data operations.

This position was previously called a Community Manager, but following our compensation study we refined the title to better reflect the level of responsibility and leadership. The role remains rooted in relationship building, strategy, and supporting the day-to-day rhythms of grantmaking.

If you or someone in your network is passionate about youth, community, and environmental stewardship, and is energized by trust-based philanthropy, we encourage you to apply and share widely.

Gratitude for Our Partners

As we close 2025, I want to express my deep gratitude for the partners who guided, challenged, and inspired us this year. Your honesty helped us sharpen our purpose. Your courage reminded us what is at stake. And your vision continues to push us toward a future where all young people and communities can thrive.

We are stepping into 2026 with renewed clarity, renewed commitments, and renewed hope. Thank you for being in this work with us.

Planting Seeds for the Future Read More »

We’re hiring!

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The Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund is hiring a Senior Program Associate. The Senior Program Associate is an integral member of the small Maddox team, serving as a relational anchor for our community partners and the engine for our grants and data operations. This role primarily supports the Executive Director and is dedicated to managing the majority of the Fund’s portfolio (Youth), ensuring operational excellence across the Youth program area.

The full job description is linked below. Interested candidates should submit a brief cover letter and
resume to careers@maddoxfund.org by Friday, January 9, 2026.

full job description

We’re hiring! Read More »

Tending to Hope in Toxic Soil: A Reflection on Our Grantmaking Year

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This year at the Maddox Fund, I’ve found myself returning to an image offered by futurist and pathfinder Mia Birdsong: seeds planted in toxic soil. What does it mean to cultivate hope when the ground beneath us feels depleted, stripped by years of systemic injustice, environmental degradation, and philanthropic practices that too often extract more than they restore?

What we have learned again and again from our grantee partners is this: in even the most desolate landscapes, healing is possible. Like native plants that remediate poisoned ground, our partners are doing the slow, steady work of restoration. They are transforming harmful conditions into ecosystems where justice can take root and hope can grow.

In a philanthropic landscape marked by volatility, scarcity, and shifting priorities, we chose a different path. This year, the Grant Committee made the intentional decision not to consider new proposals. Instead, we deepened our investment in the organizations already in partnership with us. In an unstable environment for nonprofits, we saw this as a practice of sustainability—a way of nourishing the roots rather than constantly seeking new growth. This is what trust looks like in practice.

Our North Stars, guiding us toward a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat, remained at the center of every discussion. Our funding areas of youth and the natural environment also held steady. And in the spirit of transparency, we continue to make five years of past grantmaking decisions available on our website.

full grant directory

We believe transparency is a necessary condition for cultivating authentic relationships.  So that data can become knowledge that transforms our actions, we offer this analysis of our 2025 grants to date:

At Maddox, we believe that liberation is only as permanent as our practice. We are committed to continuing the internal work required to ensure that equity, justice, and liberation are not just values we name but truths we live.

As we look to the horizon, we’re excited to announce that we will release a refreshed Request for Proposals (RFP) in the first quarter of 2026. This new RFP will reflect lessons learned from our current partners, emerging needs in the field, and our refined grantmaking priorities. What will not change is our unwavering commitment to our North Stars and to the communities who inspire us every day with their courage and creativity.

To our partners: thank you for being the ones who transform poisoned soil into sacred ground. Thank you for teaching us what it means to hold fast to hope.

Let us keep planting, even when the ground feels unsteady.

For quarterly updates on the Maddox Fund, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter!

Tending to Hope in Toxic Soil: A Reflection on Our Grantmaking Year Read More »

Protecting the freedoms to invest in our communities.

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The Maddox Fund has signed onto a “Public Statement from Philanthropy” — joining the Council on Foundations and other giving institutions an effort to protect our freedom to express ourselves, to give, and to invest in our communities.

read the statement

Protecting the freedoms to invest in our communities. Read More »