Author name: madelynvictoria

Developed by the Mid-South Philanthropy Network as a self audit, the purpose of the Memphis Funders’ Racial Equity Audit is to measure the extent of local equitable grantmaking, uncover shortfalls, and reflect on and put into action ways to create more racially equitable grantmaking. The first audit was conducted in 2020, covering a three-year period. This second audit covers the next three years.

This case study has been developed in partnership with Momentum Nonprofit Partners, representatives from Shelby County (TN) government and Christian Brothers University. The purpose for this case study is to highlight the impact that intentional and structured partnerships between the government and nonprofit sectors have on the communities they serve. This case study will explore the steps Shelby County took to establish their evolving government-nonprofit sector partnership model as well as the impact that this innovative partnership model has made and will continue to make in the Mid-South community.

In April 2023, more than 1,600 charitable nonprofit organizations throughout the United States completed the nonprofit workforce shortages survey designed to gauge whether job vacancies continue to be a problem for the missions of those organizations, the impact on communities, and actions taken and proposed for alleviating the challenge. More than thirty Tennessee nonprofits provided insights that provide the substance of this report.

The Building Movement Project (BMP) surveyed leaders in the nonprofit sector to find out what they needed to maintain and build their organizational infrastructure in order to fulfill their mission. Their national report on their responses – Building the Capacity of Community-Based Organizations: The Real Needs – found that nonprofit leaders of smaller community nonprofits have similar capacity issues across race. However, the data also show there are differences between white and BIPOC leaders when it comes to finding the capacity-building supports they need to address these challenges. BMP produced this report, Building the Capacity of Community-Based Organizations in Tennessee as part of a series of seven local reports that support their partners like Momentum Nonprofit Partners in meeting the infrastructure needs of organizations in their regions. In each of the local reports, they compare findings from the local subset of the data to the total national sample. Throughout this brief, the terms “local” and “national” are used to refer to the samples. Unless otherwise specified, “local” refers to the Tennessee sample region and “national” refers to the total survey responses presented in our national report.