The 15th year of grantmaking at the Maddox Fund was an exercise in unlearning. Instead of reverting to traditional practices, we stretched ourselves to live more intentionally into our vision of a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat. Unlearning isn’t easy. Imagining a liberated world hidden behind a veil seems impossible, but with practice we have a chance to glimpse that longed-for future for which we strive.
The Maddox Fund submitted the following public comment to the Census Bureau.
The Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund’s mission is to better our community through partnerships that improve the lives of young people and protect the natural environment. Nashville is home to the largest concentration of Kurds outside of Kurdistan and Arabic is the third most spoken language in the state. As a funder of youth and education organizations in Middle Tennessee, we recognize the importance of adding a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) category on the Census and federal paperwork.
The exclusion of MENA Americans from federal data has led to a statistical blindspot, leaving many without equitable access to the educational opportunities needed to thrive in the 21st century. We have heard from nonprofit partners that they are frustrated with having their Arabic and Kurdish students being identified as “white” in school data at the local, state, and national level. This causes harm which is best evidenced when we look at data from the American Community Survey that does disaggregate this data. There we can see that MENA students are twice as likely to not graduate high school and twice as likely to live below the poverty line.
The inclusion of MENA would help our nonprofit partners and local school districts understand and serve our communities. It would ensure that all students and families are receiving trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and linguistically competent services. We thank you for considering the addition of a MENA category when collecting federal data.
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.
As we pilot our re-designed grant program, it is tempting to recount the Maddox racial equity journey with you—charting our work from 2017 to now, both our learning and unlearning. But instead, I’ll point you to the timeline on our website and the series of blog links that appear below. Suffice it to say, change has come through intentional and ongoing struggle.
What will remain the same going forward is our mission—to make Middle Tennessee a better place through partnerships that improve the lives of young people and protect the natural environment. What will change are our grant strategies and practices in hopes of contributing to a more equitable, just and liberating tomorrow.
Our 2023 pilot grant program is based on several realizations:
The well-being of people and planet are intertwined. We can no longer talk about wilderness and wildlife as if they were separate from human thriving, especially in this time of obvious climate change. Our mutual liberation is tied together.
At the heart of every inequity lies a race analysis. From educational outcomes to tree canopy, from third grade literacy rates to water quality, from college opportunities to climate migration, an examination of structural violence invariably returns to the construct of race and the determination of white supremacy.
Foundations hold a lot of power—extractive wealth, social connections, decision-making authority—yet are largely removed from the inequities their missions seek to address. Philanthropic institutions must share power with communities most impacted by injustice.
Our new youth and environment interest areas reflect our new direction as well as our partnership priorities and eligibility definitions. Instead of business as usual, Maddox will trust nonprofits closest to communities that have been historically and systemically under-resourced. We invite you to watch our recent in-house video to learn more about these changes and opportunities.
In 2023 we will shift more funding decisions to the community through an HBCU Philanthropy Fellowship and a LGBTQ+ participatory grantmaking process, while also adding more community members to our grant decision process and more diversity to our board. We will continue funding direct service programs but will also shift funding to movements that challenge intrenched policies and practices that perpetuate and further inequities. We will seek to be more accessible, more transparent and more connected to the communities we serve.
In the past year, Maddox examined our own organizational culture and unearthed needed internal healing as well as oppressive power and control practices. Our self-examination required us to slow down and think about the kind of foundation we wanted to be. We turned to nature for guidance as we reset our internal eco-system.
Trees teach us we are stronger together
Grasslands show us that diversity feeds us
Earth teaches us that seeds grow in fertile soil
Water teaches to bend, adapt and to keep moving forward
Animal communities teach us how to lead and follow
In some Native languages the term for plants translates as “those who take care of us” (Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass). Living in lush Middle Tennessee we need only look around us to see that we are rooted in a planet created for shared thriving. The Maddox Fund’s 2023 grant pilot is our first move toward partnering with nature and the community to create a more just and liberating world. With you, we seek a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat.
Related Blogs and Resources
2018—Racial Equity Learning Year with Board of Directors
2022 is a year of rethinking, reimagining and redesigning the Maddox Fund’s grant program.
Input from the community was essential. During the month of June, we heard from our partners through in-person design meetings, virtual gatherings and an online survey. More than 75% of our nonprofit partners participated in this crucial process. Thank you in advance for your generosity and guidance.
Maddox welcomed feedback on how we should conceptualize our grantmaking areas, youth and wildlife conservation, going forward. Participants were asked to review a draft document and rank priorities. Below are those priorities in community rank order.
Youth
Youth Services
Post-secondary Access
Youth & Education Advocacy
Out-of-School Learning
Education Leadership Pipeline Programs
Wildlife Conservation
Community-based Nature Programs
Conservation Advocacy
Environmental Leadership Pipeline Programs
Hunting and Fishing
We also asked our partners what Maddox should be asking itself. Three themes emerged:
How does Maddox understand its leadership role in relationship to other foundations, donors and the overall nonprofit well-being?
How can we create connections among our partners?
How does class analysis play into our grantmaking?
Partners also asked Maddox to:
Offer clarifying language (i.e., clarify that the interest in leadership programs is to diversify conservation and education leadership pipelines)
Offer specific input on what we do and do not support
The work now returns to the Maddox Grant Committee to integrate community input into the 2023 grant program. We anticipate the following schedule:
Fall 2022—Grant redesign presentation to community
December 2022—Application goes live
March 1, 2023—Applications due
May 8, 2023—Grants approved
July 1, 2023—Grant payments made
If you would like to share your thoughts or provide any additional feedback, you can email Maddox staff or call the office at 615-385-1006. You may leave feedback anonymously at anytime by using this link.
Over the past few weeks, we have heard from 50 nonprofit partners with input on our redesigned 2023 grant process and priorities. You have made us think, asked essential questions and ranked our future focus areas. Thank you.
Before the Maddox Grant Committee meets to put the final touches on the 2023 grant program, we are inviting your final thoughts and input. All input before June 30 will be part of the Grant Committee’s conversation.
You can access the slides from the recent partner meetings here. You can also use the Mentimeter survey to share your thoughts and to rank the sub-categories under Youth and Conservation. All input before June 30 will be part of the Grant Committee’s conversation.
As always, if you have questions, please reach out to Kaki or Joseph directly:
As an attorney, so much of my work is seeking justice for past wrongs—who was hurt, what restoration can be offered, what sort of punishment fits the crime, etc. At Maddox, I’m inspired by our shared commitment to making justice a future reality by dismantling historical systems that have marginalized our neighbors and creating new liberating systems to take their place. Understanding how we put diversity, equity, inclusion, justice – and now, liberation (DEIJL) – into organizational practice has occupied much of the energy of the Maddox board and staff in 2021.
The Maddox Fund promised to keep our partners informed as we continued our DEIJL journey. We are committed to transparency and want you to know about our discernment and struggles along the way. Your questions – and challenges – are welcome as we learn and grow together.
The Dan and Margaret Fund is pleased to announce the Youth Philanthropic Advisory Board applications are open! This participatory grantmaking initiative is an effort to share power and integrate the voices of the community in processes. We are currently accepting applications for youth (ages 16-19) to be a part of the inaugural class of advisory board members. The Youth Philanthropic Advisory Board will also receive a $1,000 stipend for participating.
