by Dr. Kevin Dean, Tennessee Nonprofit Network We’re going back in time to the 1600s today to understand where your organization’s tax status and tax exemptions originated! History nerds, policy wonks, and general nonprofit lovers should enjoy this trip back in time! The United States, a nation born from a revolution against British rule, ironically […]
The late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States were a time of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Cities swelled with immigrants seeking economic opportunity and a better life, but they often found themselves living in overcrowded slums, facing poverty, discrimination, and a lack of social support. In response to these challenges, a new
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By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network The specter of disease has haunted humanity for centuries, and the fight against it has often spurred remarkable acts of innovation and collaboration. In the early 20th century, the American South was grappling with a debilitating and pervasive public health crisis: hookworm infection. This parasitic
By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network Andrew Carnegie, the man behind the controversial “Gospel of Wealth,” was a figure of stark contradictions. Born into poverty in Scotland in 1835, he immigrated to the United States as a young boy and rose to become one of the wealthiest men in the world.
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By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network If you saw the Humane Society from 250 years ago, you definitely wouldn’t recognize it. There certainly weren’t many cats or dogs involved! However, this organization has helped usher in the modern structure for a nonprofit, and its history helps us understand how our structure
By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network The year was 1867, and the echoes of the Civil War still reverberated across the Louisiana landscape. On a plantation near Delta, a former slave named Minerva Anderson Breedlove gave birth to a daughter, Sarah, her fifth child. This child, born into the precarious freedom
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By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network Though we now know United Way to be a beacon of public trust and integrity, one man almost destroyed the legacy of the organization and eroded public trust in nonprofits that we are still feeling today. This is his story. The downfall of William Aramony,
By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network The legacy of Thomas Firmin, a 17th-century London merchant, stretches far beyond the cobbled streets and crowded workhouses of his time. While his immediate impact was felt in the lives of countless individuals he helped, his true significance lies in how he fundamentally reshaped the
By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network We know Benjamin Franklin as a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a brilliant inventor who harnessed electricity, and a wise statesman who helped shape the nascent American nation. Yet, often overlooked in the chronicles of his remarkable life is his profound
By Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network In the heart of the burgeoning United States, amidst the fervor of the American Revolution and the burgeoning abolitionist movement, a beacon of hope and self-reliance emerged from the marginalized African American community of Philadelphia. The Free African Society, founded in 1787, stands as a
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