Giving Tuesday, the global day of giving, is an opportunity to deepen a culture of philanthropy in our communities. The spirit of Giving Tuesday goes beyond the number of donations made. It’s about each and every one of us chipping in and throwing our support behind a worthy cause. It’s a resolution of hope that together, we will be able to go far and build a more equitable society for all.
This Giving Tuesday, we’re working to build a more fair and equal Tennessee by encouraging our supporters to give to different organizations doing critical, on-the-ground work throughout the state. Please join us by lifting up and supporting these great organizations!
Learn more about each organization and make a gift at the links below.
Be About Change
Be About Change empowers youth through literacy and leadership programs, combined with family and community support. We are dedicated to enhancing the lives of today’s youth in Tennessee— building their confidence and preparing them to serve the community. Be About Change does this through four programs:
1) Reading Success: supplemental literacy support for elementary school students who struggle with reading (this simplifies teaching by providing struggling students with temporary interventions, allowing teachers to retain their current primary curriculum);
2) Families and Schools United: support for elementary school families that struggle with attendance and chronic absenteeism;
3) Project LEAD: leadership and financial literacy for youth ages 12 to 18 and their families;
4) Whole Community Support: a single donation platform for individuals and organizations to make an impact in multiple areas, including with Be About Change agency partners.
Café Momentum Nashville
Café Momentum is an award-winning restaurant and culinary training program. We aim to transform young lives by equipping Nashville’s justice-involved youth with life skills, education and employment opportunities to help them achieve their full potential. In building Café Momentum, our primary goal is to build a sustainable model that provides justice-impacted youth (ages 15-19) with the holistic support they need to TRULY THRIVE.
Elevated Development
The purpose of Elevated Development is to bring awareness to the severe impact of the wealth gap on communities across America. We strive to provide financial resources that will ultimately lead to a healthier lifestyle and prosperous community.
Elevated Development works with those that have been impacted by and provides financial resources and information that will help close the wealth gap. The majority of our resources are focused on empowering high school and college students and low to moderate-income families. Through our tailored curriculum, programs, and resources, we work to make financial literacy, freedom, and stability as educational and engaging as possible.
Healthy and Free Tennessee
Healthy and Free Tennessee is a network of agencies, organizations, and individuals working together to promote sexual health and reproductive freedom in the state of Tennessee.
Our organizational focus is on the intersections of racism, the criminal legal system, and reproductive justice. We fight to improve access to reproductive health care for marginalized communities and fight punitive policies that seek to criminalize reproductive outcomes.
MICAH Memphis
MICAH Memphis aims to equip people of faith & goodwill to organize communities for systematic change through collective action.
Nashville Peacemakers
The mission of Nashville Peacemakers is twofold—to give youth in distressed neighborhoods the basic life skills and self-worth to choose peaceful alternatives to violence, and to support the mothers whose child has been victimized.
Nashville Peacemakers vision is to be the catalyst of change on a worldwide scale, so all children live to be adults who lead productive and meaningful lives.
OUTMemphis
For the last 33 years, OUTMemphis has been serving the LGBTQ+ Community of the Mid-South and Tennessee, working to empower, connect, educate and advocate for our vibrant community. From a small, volunteer-run, grassroots organization to a major Memphis provider of PrEP/PEP, the nonprofit organization offers mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment among other programming. The Metamorphosis Project is its nationally-recognized program for youth 18-24 year olds facing homelessness and instability. The largest provider of temporary housing for LGBTQ+ youth in Tennessee, its community-driven team has housed more than 150 young adults.
Raphah Institute
Every person deserves an opportunity to heal from harm.
The Raphah Institue addresses issues surrounding youth incarceration and victim trauma by using restorative practices in felony juvenile court cases. Together, all parties talk about the harm caused, its impact, and ways to repair it. We respond to the difficulties people who are poor have in finding high-quality and affordable childcare by investing in home-based childcare providers in their community.
Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance
TECA believes in systems that promote equitable outcomes and excellence in education.
Educators of color need a shared, elevated voice and a stronger presence to help craft these types of strong accountability systems that we know ultimately lead to improved outcomes for students of diverse backgrounds.
To make this happen, TECA engages and convenes educators of color with opportunities to fellowship, develop layers of mentorship, and explore leadership opportunities.
Tennessee Higher Education Initiative
Tennessee Higher Education Initiative disrupts systems of harm and creates opportunities for autonomy and success through education, support, and advocacy with and for justice impacted individuals.
Tennessee Higher Education Initiative is a grassroots, community organization committed to principles of harm reduction, healing, and centering the lived experiences of the people we serve. We fulfill this commitment by recognizing and addressing systemic injustices that have marginalized and stigmatized communities and continue to leave people behind. We engage in reimagining and building towards the world we want to see through systems work, direct service, and through the language and context through which we operate.
Tennessee Poor People’s Campaign
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is uniting people across Tennessee to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality of religious nationalism.
