Root Partners

Root Partners Cohort: Pilot Opportunity

The Maddox Fund is piloting a new capacity-building initiative called the Root Partners Cohort, inspired by the Ford Foundation’s BUILD program and adapted for the Middle Tennessee context. Root Partners will provide 3 to 5 community-rooted organizations with a three-year package of support designed to strengthen organizational resilience and deepen long-term impact. Each Root Partner will receive a 3-year unrestricted operating grant totaling $200,000 dollars, alongside intensive technical assistance valued at $25,000 dollars over the same period for a total investment of $225,000 dollars per organization. Cohort members will also engage in shared learning experiences, peer support, and dedicated relationship management with the Maddox team. Partners will be selected through this RFP process; no separate application is required. To be considered, applicants should indicate their interest on the application form. More details about the pilot will be shared during the review period.

Organizations to be considered for root partnership will demonstrate the following:

  • Internal leadership and operational capacity to engage in sustained learning and to integrate technical assistance into ongoing organizational practice
  • Have at least one full year of programmatic activity and one year of financial statements.
  • An annual operating budget between $150,000 and $500,000, reflecting fiscal stability and readiness for growth-oriented capacity support
  • Full alignment with the Maddox Fund’s mission, values, and programmatic priorities
  • Work that is primarily rooted in at least one of Maddox’s funding priorities (youth or environment), with openness to learning across the Fund’s other priority area to support cross-sector insight and systems thinking

Jen Bailey is the Executive Director of the Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund, bringing her deep experience in community-based leadership, philanthropy, and movement-building to the organization.

Jen is the Founder of Faith Matters Network, a national Womanist-led organization accompanying spiritually-grounded leaders on their journey to heal themselves and their communities. Since its inception, Faith Matters Network has served over 25,000 leaders through its programs and initiatives. She is Co-Founder of The People’s Supper, a global initiative that has hosted over 2,000 gatherings in 135 communities to foster conversation and collective healing across lines of difference.

Committed to advancing social change through philanthropy and nonprofit leadership, Jen serves on the boards of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, the Fetzer Institute, and The Healing Trust, where she is the Board Chair.

An Ashoka Fellow, New Pluralist Field Builder, Aspen Ideas Scholar, On Being Fellow, and Truman Scholar, Jen holds degrees from Tufts University and Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where she was awarded the Wilbur F. Tillett Prize for accomplishments in the study of theology. Her work has been featured by On Being with Krista Tippett, CBS This Morning, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more. She is also the author of To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss, and Radical Hope (Chalice Press, 2021).

email Jen: jen@maddoxfund.org