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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.

It is with great joy and deep gratitude that I step into the role of Executive Director of the Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund. As I embark on this new chapter, I am honored to continue the Fund’s legacy of investing in transformative change for Middle Tennessee’s young people and the ecosystems that support them.

I want to extend my deepest appreciation to my predecessor, Kaki Friskics-Warren for her  leadership, dedication, and vision. Her unwavering commitment to justice and liberation helped shape the foundation of the Maddox Fund, and I am honored for the opportunity to build upon the legacy of her work as we move forward together.

At Maddox, we seek a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat. It is a vision of hope for the future. In our current landscape, I am aware that it can sometimes feel like that future is just beyond our grasp. I step into this role during a time when our nonprofit partners are facing unprecedented challenges. Economic uncertainties, shifting philanthropic and policy priorities, and the growing needs of our communities require us to be more adaptive, resourceful, and collaborative than ever before. Despite these difficulties, I firmly believe in the power of community and that solutions to some of our most pressing challenges will be found by following the wisdom and leadership of those most proximate to the pain. 

In this constantly shifting world, one thing that will remain constant at Maddox is our commitment to you, our community partners. We are here to support you—we see your work, honor your leadership, and remain committed to walking alongside you.

In the months ahead, I look forward to listening and learning from our grantees, community leaders, and partners. Your insights, experiences, and wisdom will be invaluable as we continue shaping a shared vision for the future. 

In the coming weeks, we are curating two types of opportunities for connection: 

• Attend a Listening Meeting: Beginning on February 19th, Maddox will be hosting a series of Listening Meetings as we look for early guidance in our strategic planning process.  A good candidate to attend is a person in leadership who knows the external forces at work in the organization as well as the internal challenges ahead for the organization’s programs, staff, board and program participants. You can sign up to attend here.
• One on Ones: In addition to listening meetings, I welcome the opportunity to connect one on one for a 45 minute conversation. You can sign up for a time here.  I’m happy to meet either in person or virtually – whatever is most convenient for you!

Please feel free to reach out, introduce yourself, and share what inspires you about the work we are doing together.

Thank you for welcoming me into the Maddox Fund community. I am excited about the work ahead.

With gratitude,

Rev. Jen Bailey
Executive Director
Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund

At Maddox, 2025 is a year of asking questions: 

• 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. 

Sign up for a listening meeting here

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 Dan & Margaret Maddox Fund recently submitted a public comment on the proposed asylum ban. Our full comment can be read below.

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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

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The public comment period is open until March 27^th.  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.

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.  

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.

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Public Comment on Draft Rule, Prohibited Concepts in Public InstructionRead More »

Over the past several weeks we have witnessed the violent deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. Closer to home Jocques Clemmons and Daniel Hambrick are remembered, along with the disproportionate number of our black and brown neighbors who have died from COVID-19. These are the individual faces reflecting the oppressive systems that envelop everyone in their path—no one escapes; the only way forward is together.

Believing each of us wants to be liberated individually and to advance racial justice in our organizations, the Maddox Fund is sharing resources that we have used in our racial justice learning.

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2020 Anti-racism SeriesRead More »

Evolution pulls us forward to be more than we otherwise imagined ourselves to be. This has certainly been true of the Maddox Charitable Fund. After emerging from a decade-long legal struggle, this once conservative foundation wanted only to fly below the radar and assume a low profile. The original website reflected this intent with stodgy gray tones, limited information about grantmaking priorities and stern, formal pictures of our founders, making them — and us — unapproachable. The website bespoke a transactional as opposed to a visionary approach to grantmaking. Ten years later, it no longer represented who or what Maddox had become.

This is an excerpt from a featured article on Grantmakers for Effective Organizations about the principles that guided us in designing our new website.  To read the full article, check it out here.