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.
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:
kaki@maddoxfund.org
joseph@maddoxfund.org
As a reminder, we have also created a permanent feedback button on our website so you can share your thoughts anonymously at any time.
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.
The Maddox Fund has submitted a public comment on the Tennessee Department of Education’s draft rule related to the implementation of Section 51 of Chapter 493 of the Tennessee Public Acts of 2021. We believe that an understanding of our violent history is necessary for envisioning new and liberating systems and that these punitive measures create hostile work environments for educators and place undue burden on school districts. The full statement can be read below.
Maddox is pleased to partner with 70 nonprofits to continue our mission of improving the lives of young people and furthering wildlife conservation. Over the past 13 years, the Maddox Fund has granted $28 million dollars in programs and organizations that better the Middle Tennessee community.
“Our philanthropic work is shaped by trust-based culture. Funder-grantee relationships built on trust are stronger and more to responsive to community,“ said Melissa Gordon, chair of the Maddox Grant Committee. “We are re-envisioning grantmaking to ensure we are connected to partners who have the greatest proximity to community needs.”
