by Dr. Kevin Dean, President & CEO, Tennessee Nonprofit Network
Alright, let me pour a cup of coffee (my fourth today – I am WIRED!) and continue the story of how Tennessee Nonprofit Network came to be. (You can read our previous post here to learn more about who our organization was before emerging as TNN!) It’s a tale with some serious moments, but honestly, it all started with a simple, awkward fact: we were kind of an outlier.
My journey started back when I was at the Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence in Memphis. I had recieved some funding from the Assisi Foundation of Memphis, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, and an anonymous donor to travel the country as I built out the strategic plan. They had a clear vision: to help us build a premiere capacity building organization. As a naturally curious lifelong learner, I couldn’t have been more excited to get out there and learn from the best and brightest. I even got to take Carrie Burke, our Board Chair at the time, along with me to many of these meetings, which was incredible because it meant our board was able to grow and learn right alongside me.
I was a sponge, soaking up knowledge from folks at places like CompassPoint, PolicyLink, Independent Sector, RVC Seattle, and even National Council of Nonprofits. The conversations were great, until they got to that one question: “So, who runs your state nonprofit association?”
I’d have to shuffle my feet and say, “Um, well, Tennessee doesn’t have one.” You could practically hear the collective gasp. It was a bizarre truth to them, like telling them you lived in a house with no roof. We were one of the last—and biggest—states in the country to not have a statewide voice for nonprofits.
Meanwhile, the staff and board of what was then Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence were busy relaunching the organization as Momentum Nonprofit Partners. With a focus on capacity building and convening for Memphis-area nonprofits, our focus was narrower than a state association but provided much of the same services, only with a more limited regional scope. But I couldn’t shake the idea that Tennessee was missing out on something. I started paying attention to other state associations like the ones in Michigan, Minnesota, and Kentucky, and I saw what we were missing.
While the idea became permanently stuck in my head, I knew we had to focus on Memphis, and we all wanted Momentum to be what Memphis had wanted and needed, but I needed more conspirators. I came back to Tennessee with a new mission: find my people. I reached out to leaders across the state, and here’s the crazy part: we had never formally met. This was a state so siloed that just getting us all in the same room was considered a novel idea. But in 2018, we did it. Leaders from the Center for Nonprofit Management (now Center for Nonprofit Excellence – Middle Tennessee), Venture Forward (RIP), and Alliance for Better Nonprofits (RIP) all came together. It was kind of like a team-up movie where all the characters realize they’ve been in the same place the whole time.
We formed a partnership built on a shared membership model, which was a first of its kind for four different organizations like ours. Our first big, collaborative project was tackling a monumental problem: getting affordable health insurance for nonprofit employees across the state. We spent months pouring our energy into it, working in Nashville, convinced we were on to something. And then we got the bad news: we couldn’t launch a plan without a statewide nonprofit association and several million dollars. Talk about a “back to the drawing board” moment. The air went out of the room.
But that failure, as frustrating as it was, ended up being our turning point. It was what pushed us to get on that conference call with Tim Delaney. We’d start our own state nonprofit association, dang it, even if the four of us had to be the board members for it!
And it wasn’t some stiff, formal meeting in a boardroom. It was late in the afternoon, and we all came together at Tari Hughes’ house in Nashville. As we got ready, there was a bottle of wine opened and a charcuterie plate set out. It all felt a little like we were plotting a heist, but instead of jewels, we were after something far more valuable: a better future for Tennessee’s nonprofits. We were nervous, and deeply skeptical that this grand plan would ever work. Even after talking to Tim Delaney, the weight of everything it would take felt monumental. We realized an association wasn’t a nice-to-have; it was a must-have. But we also knew we weren’t just going to snap our fingers and make it happen. We were all committed to making something happen, even if it wasn’t the immediate creation of a statewide association. That shared vision of what could be was more powerful than our doubts. It was the first step on a very long road, and we knew it.
Looking back, it’s funny to see how much we’ve evolved. In the beginning, public policy wasn’t even on our radar. We were so focused on the nuts and bolts that we didn’t realize the real power of a unified voice. That would change very quickly.
We started building the framework for the association, or at least the concept of one. Tari and I wanted a statewide conference. Laura and Jerry wanted more coordinated trainings. All of us knew that we couldn’t let this fall apart. It seemed like we were on the right track.
And then.
Just as we were gearing up to make a big move, a little global event called the COVID-19 pandemic came along. But that’s a story for the next article.
PS. A quick, somber note for the history books: while they were critical to our founding, both Alliance for Better Nonprofits and Venture Forward no longer exist. The work we started together, however, lives on through Tennessee Nonprofit Network.