Inside Memphis Business December/January 2018

DEC 2018 / JAN 2019 | VOLUME XIII | NUMBER 2

PH I LANTHROPY

What Gives?

Supplement to Memphis magazine

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DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 VOLUME XIII | NUMBER 2

On The Cover: Mighty Lights PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY DCA

COLUMNS

PH I LANTHROPY

What Gives?

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A roundtable of philanthropy professionals takes stock of the industry.

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SMART BUSINESS

High-functioning local foundations are changing the rules.

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CREATIVE COMMUNICATION

There’s an important role for fine art in the businessplace.

W E SAW YOU

10 F I N A N C E & I N V E S T M E N T

Financing an entrepreneur can also be philanthropic.

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DEPARTMENTS 11 M E M P H I S 2 0 0

Recognizing our top entrepreneurs as the city’s Bicentennial approaches.

28 Conservation Champion Dale Hall’s fundraising talents take aim at Ducks Unlimited.

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S PA R K S

23 The Future of Giving

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Inside Memphis Business’ 2018 Innovation Awards.

The Community Foundation tends to today’s needs while preparing for what’s next.

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The future of philanthropy is now.

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22 Looking to the Future B Y

FROM THE EDITOR

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features

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••• B Y J O N W. S PA R K S

12 L E A D E R S H I P

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Architect Jimmie Tucker is building his community one project at a time.

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52 H E A L T H C A R E I N R E V I E W

30 The Crystal Awards

A look back at the year’s significant stories in Memphis health and medicine.

The most notable givers in Memphis of 2018.

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60 G E N E R A T I O N S

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Jay Myers bet his company on millennial hires — and he’s glad he did.

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61 C O M M U N I T Y P A R T N E R S H I P

United Capital is providing New Ballet Ensemble with a lift.

••• B Y E MILY A DA M S K E P L IN G E R

62 T H E O F F I C E

SPECIAL REPORT

16 What in the world is blockchain?

It’s revolutionizing business, so get used to it.

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Dorothy Gunther Pugh’s inner sanctum at Ballet Memphis.

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64 F R O M T H E A R C H I V E S

Abe Plough was “Mr. Anonymous,” although the entire city knew of his good deeds.

••• B Y VA N C E L AU D E R DA L E

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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The Art of Giving

Philanthropy in Memphis is thriving — and changing.

Welcome to our December-January issue that’s chock full of stories and columns about philanthropy, a pursuit that Memphis embraces.

The people in our fair city donate almost twice as much as the national average, kind of a blend of grit, grind, and give. The state of philanthropy in Memphis is dynamic. Donors are changing methods, from the big foundations to the employee who gives by payroll deduction. All want to do good, but there are myriad ways to achieve that and to make sure the contributions are getting the desired results.

We spoke with Robert M. Fockler of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis about the current and future state of giving in the region.

We also assembled a roundtable of professionals, four women who are the next generation of philanthropic leaders and with a deep knowledge of how things work for donors and nonprofits.

Tom Jones’ Smart Business column says there’s a revolution in philanthropy and gives us a much-needed perspective on the history of giving in Memphis, from the early philanthropists to today’s ambitious dreamers.

David S. Waddell, meanwhile, has insight on how the world of nonprofits could benefit from more for-profit involvement.

We also talk with Dale Hall, CEO of Ducks

Unlimited, who knows a thing or two about big-time fundraising.

Our respected historian Vance Lauderdale gives us a look at Abe Plough, one of the city’s most consequential philanthropists. And the 2018 Crystal Awards honors some of today’s notables in the philanthropy field in Memphis.

Meanwhile, Andy Meek takes a look at the blockchain revolution, a technology that’s rapidly being adopted by many businesses, and talks with Mark Pryor of The Seam who explains it all.

Frank Murtaugh’s Leadership feature puts the spotlight on architect Jimmie Tucker of Self+Tucker, whose commitment to community goes well beyond brick and mortar.

And the Office looks at the creative workspace

of Ballet Memphis’ Dorothy Gunther Pugh.

Next May is the city’s Bicentennial, so we looked to the past (and present) to find the entrepreneurs who have made a lasting contribution to Memphis.

Jay Myers of Interactive Solutions, Inc. had an opportunity to hire a group of millennials for his tech firm. He recently spoke to a gathering from the Society of Entrepreneurs and told them he’s glad he did, and shared some advice for working with this dynamic generation.

Philanthropy on the cover: Mighty Lights, a privately funded LED installation on the Hernando de Soto Bridge and the Big River Crossing, was unveiled in October. The project had the financial help of no fewer than 20 individuals, corporations, and foundations.

Coming next issue Every year, Inside Memphis Business honors four CEOs who have proven to be exemplary in their fields, leading their companies to success on local, regional, national, and international stages.

We’ve received nominations for the 2019 CEO of the Year awards and are marveling at how exceptional they are. Memphis is graced with tremendously talented, inspiring executives in charge of their companies and organizations, and we recognize four of them every year in our February-March issue.

The 2018 winners were Jennifer Kruchten, Travelennium; Kim Heathcott, Clarion Security; Karl Schledwitz, Monogram Foods; and Daniel Weickenand, Orion Federal Credit Union.

INSIDEMEMPHISBUSINESS.COM EDITOR

Jon W. Sparks

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Brian Groppe

MANAGING EDITOR

Frank Murtaugh

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Samuel X. Cicci

COPY EDITOR

Michael Finger

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR PRODUCTION OPERATIONS DIRECTOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS PHOTOGRAPHERS EDITORIAL INTERN

Michael Donahue, Tom Jones, Emily Adams Keplinger, Vance Lauderdale, Andy Meek, David S. Waddell, Andrea Wiley Christopher Myers Margie Neal Jeremiah Matthews, Bryan Rollins Karen Pulfer Focht, Larry Kuzniewski, Jon W. Sparks Olivia Bates

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Inside Memphis Business is published six times a year

by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 © 2018, telephone: 901-521-9000.

For subscription information, call 901-575-9470. All rights reserved.

Periodicals postage paid at Memphis, TN. Postmaster: send address changes to Inside Memphis Business, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101. Opinions and perspectives expressed in the magazine are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the ownership or management.

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SMART BUSINESS

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Memphis has experienced a revolution in philanthropy in recent decades as the number of foundations burgeoned — increasing total assets here to more than $2.5 billion — and a new kind of philanthropy fused with entrepreneurship emerged.

This revolution has been key to the present momentum in Memphis. With the public sector limping after the Great Recession, foundations stepped up to shape and support city priorities.

Investments were made in education, neighborhood redevelopment, aging in place, parks, the riverfront, anti-poverty programs, and icons like the National Civil Rights Museum and Crosstown Concourse.

There is so much supported by local foundations today that it’s difficult to remember that once, Memphis had only a handful of philanthropies. With histories dating back to 1942 and 1967 respectively, the Jewish Federation (now Jewish Community Partners) and Community Foundation of Greater Memphis — now the largest philanthropy of its kind in Tennessee — were anchors for community giving.

However, the two best-known philanthropies back then were created within a year of each other by two businessmen who began their legendary careers within a year of each other — Abe Plough and J.R. Hyde Sr. Plough borrowed $125 from his father in 1908 to buy a horse and wagon to sell homemade remedies, growing it into one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. He established the Plough Foundation in 1971 and gave grants as “Mr. Anonymous” although all of Memphis knew whom they were from.

(Read Vance Lauderdale’s profile of Plough on Page 64).

Hyde founded his eponymous family foundation a year later after starting Malone & Hyde in 1907 with a small grocery store that grew to become the South’s largest wholesale food company.

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For decades, they were the dominant foundations in Memphis, but that all changed in the 1990s as dozens of new philanthropies were spawned, including one by Hyde’s grandson, J.R. “Pitt” Hyde III, who quoted his grandfather: “For whom much is given, much is required.” That principle led to the creation of Tennessee’s largest foundation — Pyramid Peak — along with numerous philanthropies created by other successful businesspeople and buttressed by the sale of St. Francis Hospital to establish the Assisi Foundation.

And yet, it was not merely the creation of more philanthropies that

made the difference. Rather, it was an entirely new way of acting.

Foundations traditionally were reactive, waiting for people to ask for

In the distinctive language of money and deciding whether to approve philanthropy, Kresge says its goals them, but beginning most notably with were supporting the “articulation of the new foundation by Pitt Hyde and his community priorities to wife, Barbara, a new inform decision-makbrand of philanthropy ing,” enhancing “the called for more than Since 2014, Kresge capacity for transforwriting checks. It inmative change, instead called on funders Foundation has made cluding collaboration,” to get into trenches to more than $5.5 million “strengthening neighdrive results. Because in grants to Memphis borhoods and systems of it, there was of opportunity, and lobbying in Nashville to organizations. “place-based work.” change laws, working Two nonprofits — Knowledge Quest and in Memphis with elected officials to Neighborhood Preservation Inc. — are create public/private partnerships, and spotlighted in Kresge’s annual report. setting civic priorities and backing them Its addition of Memphis to its portfolio up with pivotal funding. built on Bloomberg Philanthropies’ $4.8 It was the presence of these million grant in 2011 to create the Mayor’s high-functioning Memphis philanthropies — with more than $200 Innovation Delivery Team, which has now morphed into Innovate Memphis. million in annual giving — that attract- Kresge was also part of the $5 million matching grant with JPB Foundation, the ed the attention of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the $4 billion Kresge and the Rockefeller Foundation for the Foundation, which “Civic Commons” project whose most broadened its convisible impact is a completely reimagined centration on Detroit Mississippi River Park. to include New Orleans In addition, to create the riverfront and Memphis. that Memphis has dreamed of in almost Since 2014, the Kresge two dozen plans since 1924, Kresge even Foundation has made loaned Carol Coletta, Memphian and more than $5.5 million senior fellow in its American Cities Pracin grants to Memphis tice, to head up the Memphis River Parks organizations, including Partnership to help get it done. a special open-call grant Without philanthropy, it is inarguable program that marked “a that many of Memphis’s ambitions would significant acceleration remain out of reach, understanding that of Kresge’s commitment Pitt Hyde’s mantra is right: “If it were to Memphis,” according easy, someone else would already have to Chantel Rush, program done it.” officer with its American Cities Practice. The program Tom Jones leads Smart City Consulting gave a total of $1.3 million to and is the primary author of the Smart 10 organizations. “Memphis-based City Memphis blog, recognized by the Pew nonprofits are undertaking importPartnership for Civic Change as “one of ant work to expand opportunity for the most engaging” civic-minded blogs Memphians with low income. This suite in the United States. You can reach him at of investments recognizes the good work tjones@smartcityconsulting.com. under way,” she says.

ILLUSTRATION BY DMITRYMO / DREAMSTIME

A New Brand of Philanthropy Drives Memphis Forward

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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project location size project type

Ensafe Office Campus Memphis, TN 10,000 sf Office - Renovation

100 Memphis, Peabody Place, Memphis, TN 38103 ••901.260.7370 • www.belzdesignbuild.com 100 Peabody Place, TN 38103 • 901.260.7370 www.belzconstruction.com

CREATI V E COMMUNICATION

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The Power of Art in the Workplace If I asked you to recall an office lobby that stands out to you, what does it look like? Is it memorable because of its cutting-edge architectural design or interior decor, grand sense of arrival, warm natural light and dramatic artwork, or is it memorable for its dated feeling of being old and tired with a painting that matches the wallpaper and furniture from the early 1990s?

An office entryway is important.

It is a first impression for new employees, new customers, vendors, and visitors. Whether your logo is prominent or not, the sense of arrival or lack thereof is a reflection of your brand. The same artistic elements found in the lobby or entryway should be woven throughout the entire workspace.

graphs, or sculpture in their offices are giving themselves a significant advantage over their competitors.

Employees thrive in a positive and optimistic environment, and research suggests that having art in the workplace increases creativity, efficiency, and even productivity.

Art makes a statement about a company’s values and can even

people talking and opening up to one another in a way that may not have otherwise happened.

Displaying a spectacular art collection does not have to be expensive. Instead of buying outright, companies can lease art periodically to refresh and reinvigorate the space. There are many talented artists, whose work is available and reasonably priced for both renting and for purchase. Organizations like ArtsMemphis or Urban Art Commission can help you identify artists whose work might be displayed in or commissioned for your office.

If you opt to change the work on display every six months or annually, it’s a good opportunity to host an opening and invite your

Art makes a statement about a company’s values and can even reflect its history.

As human beings, we all want to exist in inspiring places: our home, favorite coffee shop, yoga studio or gym, church, parks, museums, and the list goes on. An inspiring work environment, surrounded by people who get the best out of us every day, should be available as well. The presence of art in the workplace can help achieve this effect.

According to spacesworks.com, “Great art is there to amaze, spark ideas and wonder, or to irritate if not confuse you. Whatever the effect is, it shakes you up and opens a new world. A world you can escape to at any given moment of the busiest day sitting trapped behind your computer.”

Art isn’t purely an insignificant interior decorating decision.

Companies that see the benefits of displaying paintings, prints, photo-

reflect its history. It has the ability to demonstrate the company’s spirit and energy to employees, clients, and partners and even make that company more appealing to future prospects. In lobbies, conference rooms, elevator landings, as well as all other areas of a workplace, a carefully selected piece of art can send a message to those who see it, expressing and reinforcing brand values.

Paintings from different regions of the world can show a company’s global reach, while displaying sculpture of a local artist or photographs of area landmarks can show that a company supports and embraces its communities.

Art is subjective and elicits strong opinions, so in communal areas such as meeting rooms or flex spaces, it can serve as a focal point, get

clients to see the collection, engage them in the conversation, and even make it available for purchase to further support the artist. Promotion and coverage of the event, your company’s support of the artist, and the work itself are all examples of content that can be shared via email and social media and work into your existing marketing communications plan.

Whether art in the workplace promotes social interactions, evokes emotions, or facilitates personal connection-making, art overall is a critical component for an inspiring work environment.

Andrea Wiley is director of account management at DCA Creative Communications Consulting, and is an adjunct professor teaching advertising at the University of Memphis. She was the 2015-2016 president of the American Advertising Federation, Memphis Chapter, and can be reached at awiley@ dcamemphis.com.

ILLUSTRATION BY DMITRYMO / DREAMSTIME

TV Shows • Columns • Radio Show • Books • Podcast

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2018 Innovation Awards Breakfast At Holiday Inn at UM on October 4, 2018 • • •

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Winners of the 2018 Innovation Awards presented by Inside Memphis Business were honored at a breakfast held Oct. 4 at the Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis.

The purpose of Innovation Awards is to recognize those who have solved problems that nobody else has been able to address.

This year’s recipients are Gebre Waddell of Soundways; Brian Booker, founder and CEO of One Step Initiative; Van Turner, creator of Memphis Greenspace Inc.; and Drs. Alberto Pappo and Michael Dyer, co-leaders of St. Jude Children’s Hospital Developmental Biology and Solid Tumor Program.

1 Brian Booker and Jennifer Prudhomme 2 Dr. Alberto Pappo and Dr. Michael Dyer 3 Van Turner 4 Gebre Waddell and Josh Hernig 5 Addie and A. J. Lamar 6 Marty Wood and Jill Wagner 7 Miriam Gunter, Morgan Melton, and Mandy Cooper 8 Daniel Weickenand, Diane Jalfon, and Calvin Anderson 9 Carol Coletta 10 Verity Goodell, Adam Thornton, and Alton Cryer 11 Avery Teague and Joseph Summers

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brooksmuseum.org

Transforming lives through the power of art.

FI NA NCE & I N V ESTMENT

••• BY DAVID S. WADDELL

Making an Impact in Memphis My father used to joke that he might disconnect our home telephone because my mother would give money to everyone who called her on it. Between our alma maters, the unions, churches, healthcare providers, arts organizations, human services, environmental causes, animal shelters, politicians, and the occasional down-on-theirluck relative, our phone did seem quite active around dinner time.

My father cleverly learned to secretly turn the ringers off. This was not because he was not a generous man — he was — but because he felt undisciplined philanthropy wouldn’t best serve our family mission, or the organizations that occasionally snared my mom.

Financial stewardship should always include well-designed saving and investment strategies, but disciplined giving strategies should be included as well. With 2018 quickly coming to a close and the volume of “give till it hurts” requests on the way, does Memphis need a new charitable giving plan?

Memphis has a preeminent nonprofit economy housing 6,000 nonprofits, 50,000 employees, and nearly $2 billion in annual payroll.

In fact, our nonprofit per citizen ratio tops all other metro areas in the nation. For comparison, Memphis has 70 nonprofits per 10,000 citizens versus a national average of 50, while Nashville has 45. Memphians willingly support our vast nonprofit network with the highest per capita giving rates in the nation. The average Memphian donates 6 percent of their gross income to charity. Memphians support the nation’s largest nonprofit per capita industry with the nation’s largest nonprofit per capita charitable giving.

As I’ve reluctantly highlighted in the past, the Memphis for-profit economy hasn’t performed as robustly. Analyzing the data back to December 31, 2000, Memphis’ inflation-adjusted GDP (the real size

of the economy) grew by a total of 3 percent over 18 years versus a 35 percent growth rate for the national economy and a 69 percent growth rate for the Nashville economy.

Memphis may not be Nashville, but had Memphis simply kept pace with the national rate, we would have added $20 billion more to our

Does Memphis need a new charitable giving plan?

GDP. At a 6 percent giving rate, that would have contributed another $1.2 billion to Memphis charities. Maybe what Memphis needs isn’t more nonprofits — maybe we need more for-profits.

Over the past couple of decades, the shared interests of investment and philanthropy have created a values-centric investment category known as “Impact Investing.”

According to US Trust, “Impact investing seeks to generate beneficial social or environmental change alongside financial return.” In 1995,

values-centric investors allocated $640 billion to impact investment vehicles compared with nearly $7 trillion today. More and more, investors demand return on their values as much as return on their capital. According to Cambridge Associates, over the past 10 years the Impact Investing fund index returned 5.13 percent annually versus 10.34 percent for unconstrained private equity funds. True, impact investment funds may have trailed their unconstrained peers over the period, but 5.13 percent does outperform the 0 percent portfolio returns for straight philanthropy.

Consider this, Memphis: Given our need for more philanthropists to support our vibrant nonprofit economy, perhaps we should consider GROWING the Memphis economy as a worthwhile moral cause.

As your phone rings this holiday season, pause to ponder whether your charitable donations service poverty, or prevent it. Should you find an overallocation to servicing poverty, consider making an impact investment. You can do this by directly (and correctly) financing an entrepreneur, or by investing in a fund that supports hundreds of entrepreneurs. Epicenter Memphis acts as one such impact fund facilitator and can be found online at epicentermemphis.org.

Bottom Line: If we Memphians shifted even a small percentage of our foremost charitable giving to fund impact investments within our economy, we might discover that the best philanthropic antidote to insidious poverty is prosperity. With impact investing you can do well by doing good!

David S. Waddell is CEO of Waddell and Associates. He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, and other local, national, and global resources.

Visit waddellandassociates. com for more.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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TOP ENTR EPR ENEU R S

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Bicentennial’s Best In the 200 years that Memphis has been around (as of May 22, 2019), the city has brought forth stellar entrepreneurs. In honor of our Bicentennial, Inside Memphis Business came up with a list of notables, most of whom are members of the Society of Entrepreneurs, which has been recognizing top business innovators that have shaped our city into what it is today.

Let’s start with the big three: John Overton, James Winchester, and Andrew Jackson.

Overton acquired the 5,000acre tract on the Mississippi River south of the Wolf River in 1794 for $500. He divided the land with his friend and business partner Jackson who then gave part of his share to Winchester. While the three owned the land, the Chickasaw Indians controlled it until 1819.

That’s when the city’s first real estate boom happened.

Over the years, the city grew in population and enterprise, and sometimes took a beating thanks to disease and financial woes. Several businesses got their start in the nineteenth century and are still around today, such as Orgill Brothers & Co. in 1847, First Tennessee Bank in 1864, Marx-Bensdorf Realty in 1868, and the family-owned Mednikow Jewelers in 1891.

In the 1960s, Joseph R. “Pitt” Hyde III joined Malone & Hyde, the wholesale food company founded by his grandfather in 1907. In 1968, he was elected president of M&H, and in 1972, he was elected chairman. In 1979 came AutoZone, which he steered from one store into a retail behemoth with more than 6,000 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Hyde is one of the city’s top philanthropists and also owns Pittco Holdings Inc.

Frederick W. Smith’s genius idea led to what is today FedEx, a global force in getting things where they need to be.

As a Yale undergrad in 1965, he wrote a term paper outlining his idea. Federal Express started on April 17, 1973, with the launch of 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport. Now, the $65 billion global transportation, business services, and logistics company bears one of the most recognizable names in the world.

It was in 1928 when Thomas Winston Briggs founded the Welcome Wagon Company.

It grew to become Welcome Wagon International with its name a household word around the world. At one time, Welcome Wagon Hostesses made more than one million home visits per year welcoming new families to their communities. Briggs died in 1964 and today, the Thomas W. Briggs Foundation continues his philanthropic commitment.

The Tennessee Encyclopedia writes of Robert R. Church Sr. that he was a successful businessman in the 1860s, owning, at various times, a saloon, hotel, restaurant, and real estate investments. He would go on to become the South’s first African-American millionaire.

When Memphis was reduced to a Taxing District, Church was the first citizen to buy a bond,

for $1,000, to restore the City Charter. He also contributed to many civic causes.

The resident historian of Memphis magazine, Vance Lauderdale, has a profile of Abe Plough on Page 64. In the early twentieth century, he quickly took to business and would eventually head Schering-Plough Corporation.

Kemmons Wilson was on a family vacation in 1951 and found it difficult to find affordable and consistently good lodgings. So in August 1952, he opened the first Holiday Inn on Summer Avenue, and it grew into a worldwide chain of motels. Wilson departed Holiday Inns in 1979 and the company changed its name to Holiday Corporation in 1985 and acquired several brands, including Harrah’s Entertainment, Embassy Suites Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Homewood Suites, and Hampton Inn. The family continues to be involved today with the Kemmons Wilson Companies, which has interests in manufacturing, retailing, and banking. The Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation, formed in 1960, continues its work today from offices in Memphis.

Carlos Cantu joined ServiceMaster in 1986, and became CEO in 1994. He built on the original franchise model and created a network of quality consumer service companies.

Today, ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Inc. provides essential residential and commercial services through a service network of more than 8,000 company-owned locations and franchise and license agreements.

Wallace E. Johnson referred to himself as “a poor

little old peckerwood boy from Mississippi.” But when he joined forces with Kemmons Wilson in 1953, he was already a millionaire in the construction business. He was a prominent builder in Memphis who put up small houses quickly and sold them for low down payments.

He and Wilson ran Holiday Inns together until his retirement in 1977, when he became a vice president emeritus. Ten years later he got back into the home building industry. He died in 1988.

Clarence Saunders devised the Piggly Wiggly self-service stores and changed forever how people shopped for groceries.

In his twenties, Saunders took a sales position in a Memphis grocery company where he observed closely. He opened his own store in 1916 and within a year was selling Piggly Wiggly franchises nationwide. By 1923 the Piggly Wiggly chain included 1,268 stores selling $100 million in groceries and was the third largest retail grocery business in the nation.

Carolyn Hardy’s first job out of college was as a staff accountant at J.M. Smucker Company. In a few years, she was the plant manager and then moved on to become vice-president and manager of the Memphis plant of the Coors Brewing Company. In 2006, she bought the brewery, founding Hardy Bottling Company, producing more than 50 beverages in the facility. In 2011, Hardy sold the facility for $30 million. Later, she launched Henderson Transloading Services, a third-party service provider that works with commodity companies to source grains in the Mid-South.

Joseph R.“Pitt” Hyde

Frederick W. Smith

Carolyn Hardy

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Jimmie Tucker

Founding principal at Self+Tucker Architects

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M U R TA U G H

At a time many boys his age envisioned careers as baseball players or rock stars, Jimmie Tucker had his eyes on architecture. A 7thgrade drafting course (part of his shop class at Lincoln Junior High) convinced the artistically inclined boy that drawings, when translated into structures, could shape the world and impact the life of a community, large or small.

“Our family was working-class, but very much middle class for that period,” says Tucker, a founding principal at Self+Tucker Architects. Tucker’s father worked downtown in the cotton industry and his mother was a nurse. “My parents were very big on education, though they didn’t go to college themselves,” “The city has some says Tucker. “They also wanted me challenges, but to gain experience outside Memphis, away from home.” it’s going in a good In 1968, Tucker was a newspaper direction. It’s a carrier for the Memphis Press-Scimitar when he received a unique place that life-shaping offer for has a lot to offer.” a scholarship to the prestigious Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Ref lecting today, Tucker says his departure from Memphis for the Northeast in such a turbulent year was merely coincidental. During his first year on campus (8th grade), Tucker became enthralled with a classmate’s project: crafting a French cathedral from balsa wood.

“We had these cubicles, and I could walk by and see on a daily basis how his project was evolving,” says Tucker. “His father was an architect, so he’d been brought up with an understanding.

He was my age, but taking things to a whole new level. What got to me was his commitment to

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it. It was a semester-long project. That exposure — to people from varying backgrounds — was a benefit of going to Lawrenceville.

They didn’t have an architecture program, but they had a very strong art program.”

Every year, groups of Lawrenceville students transitioned to Ivy League campuses, so Tucker felt natural in matriculating at Princeton. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture and urban planning and later a master’s degree in architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. He spent the first decade of his professional career in St. Louis, then six years in New York City before returning home to Memphis in 1995 where he founded his current company with partner Juan Self.

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For nearly a quarter-century, Self+Tucker has focused on downtown redevelopment and neighborhood revitalization. Tucker’s team has been involved with the Hope VI program (transforming public housing in Memphis), as well as such large-scale efforts as FedExForum and the Stax Museum and Academy.

For an architect, leadership begins with an ability to collaborate. No project, regardless of scale, can be completed successfully without reaching a synergy with partners.

“Every time we take on a project,” explains Tucker, “we create a marketing initiation form. It’s important that we identify priorities, because every project will not have the same priorities. Someone may be behind a project where design is the highest priority.

Sometimes it’s the schedule. Or the budget may be a challenge.” Tucker’s staff (15 to 20 members) is responsible for understanding clients’ interests, with as many as 25 active projects filling their workday.

Tucker describes himself as one quick to speak his mind, ready to share his views with clients or members of his team. (He notes the more reserved Self complements his style, particularly when patience may be required for a project to move forward properly.) But most importantly, Tucker communicates with every last member of his business and aims to customize assignments. “We try to match people’s passion with a project they’re assigned,” notes Tucker. “How will a member of our team become fully engaged with a client? The client will see the attention they’re given.”

A shared mission — well beyond the bricks and mortar of a project — is integral to the team focus Tucker seeks for every job.

“There’s a lot more appreciation for how meaning and purpose connect,” he says. “You need a lot of engagement from a number of different people: the client, the architect, funders. If a project has a powerful idea, it’s more likely to be successful. Anybody’s idea can be meaningful, and have an important impact on a project. Communication is important. Our approach as a firm is to be very transparent. Even during the interview process, we like to make it clear how different our office [environment] is from many others.”

Among the leaders Tucker admires most is Thomas Jefferson, but not the one you might think. His maternal grandfather shared a name with the country’s third president. “Everyone called him Mr. Jefferson,” says Tucker. “He owned a farm in Canton, Mississippi, when a lot of people were sharecroppers. He grew cotton, corn, and other crops. He was a hard worker and had a big family. He was involved in his community and with his church. He was the strong, silent type, but had high expec-

tations and was an independent thinker. My family strove to meet his expectations. To this day, my mother talks about having a strong father to set parameters.”

Tucker has incorporated his leadership-by-communication for more than a decade at the University of Memphis, where he’s an adjunct instructor and teaches a course called Issues in City Building. He has a frontrow seat when it comes to future leaders, and is convinced Memphis is prime territory for a young person aspiring to impact a community.

“If [U of M] students stay on campus, they really can’t know all that Memphis has to offer,” says Tucker. “The city has some challenges, but it’s going in a good direction.

It’s a unique place that has a lot to offer, an incredible history. If you’re traveling and tell someone you’re from Memphis, you generally get a positive reaction. I’m glad I was able to leave Memphis, then bring something back.”

The ripples of impact a young leader “If a project has might make can be greater in a relativea powerful idea, ly smaller “lake” like it’s more likely Memphis. “You can to be successful. see this in initiatives that are under way,” Anybody’s idea can says Tucker, noting be meaningful, and riverfront develophave an important ment and bike-sharing among others. impact on a Last May, Self+Tuckproject.” er moved into the former Universal Life Insurance Building, the company itself quite literally becoming a revitalization project.

“When I reflect on starting a firm here, and growing up here in the Sixties, there has been change in a good direction. The city is becoming a better place to live. There are challenges.

I heard at a recent conference that 60 percent of the workforce in Memphis is making under $15 an hour. Whether you’re talking about individuals having adequate resources or the city having what it needs to implement innovative ideas . . . how do we address those?

“That’s what makes Memphis such an interesting place to be,” stresses Tucker. “You can start a project that will connect with others and impact the broader community. It’s important to have some success stories.”

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11/2/18 10:33 AM

The World According to

BLOCKCHAIN Revolutionary technology is shaping how we do business and live our contemporary lives.

• • •

B Y

A N DY

M E E K

Strange, in that concepts like blockchain, bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies certainly don’t tend to come up casually in typical watercooler chat or boardroom presentations. Nor is their meaning all that apparent from the words themselves.

But those concepts have been steadily commanding attention and resources from captains of industry, both in Memphis and certainly beyond — which shouldn’t come as a surprise, when you think about it.

Show us a successful business, an enterprise that’s been buffeted by the winds of change and the onslaught of competition and gone on to stand the test of time, and we’ll show you an organization that didn’t get there by accident. They were constantly learning, peeking around corners, anticipating The Next Big Thing. Things like — well, why not blockchain? Who’s to say it might not make the difference at some point in the future between making it and missing the mark? The only way to find out is to be that proverbial man in the arena.

Several businesses and people in the city are striving to come to grips with buzzy new concepts like blockchain — and the strange new language around it that they’re all in the process of learning.

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ILLUSTRATION BY EKATERINA MUZYKA / DREAMSTIME

Members of the business community in Memphis, from occupants of the corner office to founders of smaller bootstrapped ventures, find themselves having to increasingly master a strange, futuristic-sounding lexicon these days.

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“What is it, exactly? Think of it like a spreadsheet, replicated across the globe by tens of thousands of other computers.

And they can share in this information. It’s constantly being synchronized, too.” — Mark Pryor

PHOTOGRAPH BY KAREN PULFER FOCHT

M

ark Pryor, chairman and CEO of local commodities trading and agribusiness software company The Seam, certainly sees blockchain as potentially transformative for his organization — maybe as game-changing as the internet itself. Speaking of the internet, Pryor says if he had to compare where things are with blockchain to the maturity of the internet, he estimates blockchain right now is about where the net was circa 1998. We all knew something was going to happen, but only the keenest visionaries saw that smartphones, social media, and other technology would take over our lives.

So what is blockchain, exactly?

And why should you care about this concept that sounds like some sort of complicated sports play or maybe a wrestling maneuver? Pryor, for his part, describes it in almost philosophical terms: “What it is, in essence — it provides something we haven’t had before. It’s a shared source of truth — a decentralized database that stores a registry of assets and transactions across a peer-topeer network. Think of it like a spreadsheet, replicated across the globe by tens of thousands of other computers. And they can share in this information. It’s constantly being synchronized, too.”

That’s important, he contin-

ues, because what it means is we now have the technology to conduct open, neutral and borderless transactions that don’t require a central intermediary, like a bank. “With software systems in the past, you had to put your trust into, say, Equifax,” he says. “You’d have to trust in some central organization for your data and data processing.

What this technology allows is a decentralized approach, where you have several competitors that don’t have to trust or agree with one central intermediary. They just communicate and transact business-to-business. Or person-to-person.”

That kind of interaction al-

The

41 1on:

Blockchain: From Fortune magazine: Blockchain allows “competitors to share a digital ledger across a network of computers without need for a central authority.”

Cryptocurrency: A digital currency, not connected to a central bank or administrator.

Bitcoin: A type of cryptocurrency, the same way dollars are a type of paper currency.

Google “Bitcoin ATM Memphis” and you’ll see a listing for a dozen or so automated teller machines around the city that handle the currency.

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lows for connections of things like the very complex supply chain in the food industry. And for disparate pieces of the agriculture industry, which The Seam is focused on. The Seam has actually spent almost two decades developing software for industries that include cotton and peanuts — and it’s now focused a great deal on blockchain and how it can take advantage of it, including by working to help create a blockchain-based ecosystem for global trading and fieldto-fabric supply chain innovations.

And The Seam is far from being the only interested player in Memphis.

In fact, if you look at those other two concepts — cryptocurrency and bitcoin, which have more niche communities around them — blockchain is the one that’s probably the farthest along locally in terms of familiarity and adoption.

D

r. Mark Gillenson, a professor in the Department of Business Information and Technology in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis, points to other industries potentially benefiting from blockchain technology.

There’s speculation, he says, that it could be useful in healthcare to do things like helping to secure and authenticate patient records. Near term, he thinks the greatest business value will mostly be found in the logistics industry thanks to all the companies in that f ield passing goods back a nd for t h to each other and needing to be able to track where those goods come from.

“This is a very revolutionary kind of technology that’s very unique, very innovative, and complex,” he says. “I’m not aware of any competing technology to blockchain.”

One of the benefits it brings, he explains, has to do with security. Not to get too technical, but digital signatures — which are related to something called public key encryption, more on that in just a second — are involved in blockchain security processes.

“When someone signs on to Amazon to buy something, one of the technologies involved in conversing with Amazon or anything over the internet that requires

security is public key encryption,” Gillenson says. “Digital signatures are a kind of a reversal use of public key encryption. It’s a further use of it that’s being used in blockchain to verify that a person who claims to be someone for access to the blockchain is in fact who they say they are.”

Memphis has a robust blockchain “Meetup” community that’s at more than 450 members now (meetup.com/ blockchain901). Meetings are held in the Exchange Building downtown and are focused on applications of the technology in the business and legal communities.

Memphis-based Good Shepherd Pharmacy has also just launched a collaboration to use blockchain technology to make prescriptions more widely available.

Good Shepherd announced it’s teaming up with Lipscomb University and the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University The partnership of Memphis to create a blockincludes setting up chain network a way for individual t hat pha r m apatients to donate cies around the country can actheir unused oral cess. The partchemotherapy so nership, among that patients who ot her t h i ng s , includes setting otherwise wouldn’t up a way for inbe able to afford that dividual patients medicine could now to donate their unused oral be able to have it. chemotherapy so that patients who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford that medicine could now be able to have it. There will also be a way set up to get those prescriptions delivered into the hands of underinsured patients.

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ood Shepherd will be overseeing the process of receiving and redistributing the medication, while Lipscomb University and the Fedex Institute will provide the resources and expertise necessary to build out the blockchain infrastructure.

“I knew that reclaiming medicine would be a good use for blockchain technology but needed a partner who truly understood how blockchain works,” says Dr. Phil Baker, CEO of Good Shepherd Pharmacy.

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“In my research, I found that Dr. Kevin Clauson and his team at Lipscomb were doing amazing work at the intersection of blockchain and pharmacy.”

FedEx, meanwhile, earlier this year joined something called the Blockchain in Transport Alliance. The Memphis-based package shipper joined the alliance’s standards board and launched a pilot project that called for using blockchain for data storage related to resolving disputes. It’s so important, blockchain, that no less than FedEx founder Fred Smith himself said during a conference in New York this summer that “for cross-border shipments, ‘trust’ is a legal requirement for every transaction. What blockchain has is a potential for the first time ever to make the information available for everybody.”

Speaking of FedEx, which of course is a mega-player in the logistics industry that’s so key to Memphis, the city’s industry assets like logistics are one reason Memphis has also begun to attract blockchain startups to do business here. Startups like dexFreight, a Miami-based enterprise that this summer signed a memorandum of understanding to partner with the FedEx Institute of Technology.

R aj at R ajbha nd a r i , dex Freight ’s co-founder and CEO, said that many of the smaller logistics providers in the area who are here as a result of FedEx “are our potential customers.” That’s why it wanted to team up with the FedEx Institute — “not only to gain access to potential customers but also to collaborate in elevating the use of blockchain and complementary technologies in the space.”

He describes dexFreight as a blockchain-based logistics platform that allows shippers, carriers, and other supply chain stakeholders to do business more efficiently, and with more transparency and security. A super-simplified description of what the company does? It uses a blockchain-based verified identity system that lets shippers and carriers find each other, connect and negotiate deals directly, with no middlemen.

Expect developments like these and others to continue, spurred on in part by outside forces. Earlier this year, for exam-

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ple, the Tennessee state legislature passed a pair of bills Gov. Bill Haslam signed that support blockchain technology in the state, in part by protecting ownership rights of certain information secured by blockchain.

In terms of the way the cotton business is done, Pryor walks through how a blockchain-based transaction would unfold in “Blockchain can a way that comproduce radical pares it to someefficiencies in very thing like a digicomplex, paper-laden tal proof of title.

“In the tradiglobal trade,” tional trading of cotton today, the clearing instrument or the title document is an electronic warehouse receipt,” Pryor says. “In a blockchain world, the actual bale — when it’s created, as soon as it leaves the gin — may go into 10 or 20 different warehouses, but it’ll be represented by a token. An electronic digital token that represents this physical asset. So in the future what we’re seeing for trading with bales is, instead of using an electronic warehouse receipt as has traditionally been done, you’ll actually have a tokenized asset on blockchain that represents that bale uniquely and allows you to trade it regardless of what warehouse it might be in.

“The other thing in cotton is just the efficiencies of the global trade process,” he continues. “Currently, there’s lots of paper that’s involved in a transaction of shipping goods to the destination, and blockchain provides a shared source of truth for that, so you don’t have to have a lot of different systems capturing the same information in their own proprietary way.”

You get the sense from taking all this in and from talking to some of the players that we’re on the cutting edge right now of the promise of blockchain. It’s certainly a word that, in the months and years to come, you will definitely hear more of and see the effects of in Memphis, even if you don’t fully understand why right now.

“Blockchain can produce radical efficiencies in very complex, paper-laden global trade,” Pryor says. “This is something that’s going to happen and it’s going to be really amazing.”

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21

Looking to the

Future

Robert M. Fockler PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

The Community Foundation tends to today’s needs while planning for tomorrow.

• • •

B Y

J O N

W.

S PA R K S

The future of philanthropy in Memphis is certainly not etched in stone. There’s a lot going on and philanthropy professionals are working to stay ahead of what’s coming, working to understand what all the parties want, from big foundations to smaller donors to corporate philanthropy to the nonprofits who sometimes live or die by the degree of generosity that’s out there.

Robert M. Fockler, president of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, is in a particularly good position to observe the big picture. The Community Foundation was created to 22 |

manage private philanthropy for families in Memphis. It started small but now works with about 800 families in town.

“Our assets now are about $475 million,” Fockler says, “and last

year we gave away $178 million.

So that’s a lot of impact.”

The Community Foundation reaches that level in part because it has opportunities to work with private foundations.

There have been many partnerships, but Fockler mentions Teacher Town in particular.

“Originally Teacher Town was the initiative to reform K-12 education in Memphis that was really led by the Hyde Family, Poplar, and Pyramid Peak foundations,” Fockler says, “but we were sort of a central gathering point where corporate and other philanthropists could participate in what they were doing. We continue to do that, to find more ways to be big or small servers, or servants to the private foundations.”

Fockler says the Community Foundation is increasingly involved in being something of a community banker for government. “Things like the Harahan Bridge,” he says, “and things like processing of rape kits. Also for the city’s participation in the MLK50 commemoration. We had a fund here set up for that, and then looking forward, the city and county have just set up a fund here for the 200th anniversary of Memphis and Shelby County.”

The Community Foundation also created, with other funders, WhereWeLiveMidSouth.org, which is a central data library with a wide array of information.

And WhereToGiveMidSouth.org is the go-to place for nonprofit information as a comprehensive nonprofit database. “I think we had 20 partners in creating those things,” Fockler says.

“That’s a perfect example of access to information for private foundations, but also to citizens on the street. Whether they’re running a neighborhood association or trying to figure out where to get $50, it has been a huge service and we think that

was kind of our role to throw information out there to be used however it wants to be used.”

Fockler sees two important changes coming in philanthropy.

“I think that some of the traditional funders and foundations are going to be looking at where they want to be in 10 years,” he says, “and they may well not be the same as they are today. They may look at either getting out of the business or figuring out who replaces them. Existing funders are very interested in who is coming behind them, creating the next generation of the Hydes and the Ploughs.”

While change often comes with uncertainty, Fockler is encouraged by where things are at this moment in the Memphis timeline. “For the first time since I’ve been here — and I’ve been here for 44 years — the economy feels stable enough and we’re attracting young professionals. It finally feels like there’s really some possibility of creating economic opportunity that may result in some people stepping into those kinds of roles. I think a lot of the folks that represent Memphis philanthropy, the faces will certainly change and maybe the surnames will change as well.”

Institutions are already cultivating younger people, Fockler says, both to give and to promote philanthropic endeavors: “A lot of organizations, including the Community Foundation, have some sort of young professional programs. Our GiVE 365 Program is a great opportunity for young folks to get involved.”

The program, started in 2010, lets members, who are emerging philanthropists, pool their money. Members donate $365 (or more) for a yearlong membership. The money goes into the collective kitty and members decide which organizations get funding. Half goes to grants for the upcoming year, and half

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The Future of

is put into an endowment.

The traditional foundation world is also looking to the future: “The best example I’ve seen is the Wilson family.

The third generation is participating in the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation, and I think we’re probably not far away from seeing the fourth generation involved.”

Changes in philanthropic organizations are reflecting concerns that donors have.

Donors want data from nonprofits that shows what the programs are doing. Even a longtime giver might reconsider.

“The best example of that is probably United Way,” Fockler says. “I’ve been involved in United Way since 1982.

Historically, as generous as it is, United Way was something natural for people with charitable intent. But I think that strategically, United Way came to the conclusion that they’re tending to treat the same symptoms over and over again. And that’s where their movement came toward trying to solve the issue of poverty, which is a pretty steep hill. But rather than just continuing to treat the same issues that they’ve been treating for the last 40 years, they wanted to actually try to fix something. And United Way’s brand is probably the best example of wrestling with that.”

The Community Foundation has an initiative of its own with the aim of being flexible enough to go where it’s needed. “We have some of our own funds that we can invest in the community through what we call the Community Partnership Funds,” Fockler says. “It’s about a million dollars a year, which sounds like a lot, but obviously solving any problems in Memphis with a million dollars a year — well, its not a lot of money. We asked what’s the wisest use of that money in a fairly short time?”

One thing they discovered

was that so much of the money being spent on K-12 education was going into the classroom — sustaining teachers, building schools, and so on. The big gap, it turned out, was in after school and summer programming. “It is a huge need,” he says.

Fockler says the first results of the first five investments were made known last spring: “In four out of five cases the results were really pretty staggering. In the case of Porter-Leath, which was one of our partners there, I think they set the goal of taking their kids going into kindergarten, having 75 percent of them kindergarten ready. I think they ended up with 81 percent kindergarten ready, which in Memphis, those are pretty staggering numbers. When we’re pulling kids through the system and 81 percent are showing up to kindergarten in the fall ready to learn at level, that’s pretty impressive.”

Fockler has ideas about where he wants the Community Foundation to go.

He says: “We want to create a forward looking endowment that says, if we’re worried about Memphis today, tomorrow, 50 years from now, maybe we need to start saving for that today. And putting it in the hands of the broader community, rather than having to live off any one family’s agenda or any one corporation’s agenda, we’ll ask what the broader community wants.”

Needs change over time.

“What people want may be something very different in five years, or 20 years from now,” Fockler says. “So we want to start challenging Memphians, including our donors to say ‘You’re doing great stuff today, but what about tomorrow?

What do we do to secure the future of Memphis?’”

Giving

A roundtable of philanthropy professionals takes stock of the industry.

Inside Memphis Business set out to discover what’s going on in the local philanthropy community. We found four women who are or have been closely involved in the business and administration of philanthropy and who are keenly aware of the challenges Memphis presents to donors, nonprofits, and recipients.

The city presents an ever-changing landscape for donors who want to continue to find the best way to give meaningfully. And these women are the next generation of leaders in the local philanthropic sector.

Our expert roundtable includes Lauren Young, formerly executive director of the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation and now owner of Sweet Lala’s Bakery, which is in

partnership with JIFF, a nonprofit that works to keep former juvenile offenders out of the criminal justice system; Jenny Koltnow, director of communications and development for

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Church Health; Melissa Whitby, vice president of development for Bridges; and Lauren Taylor, senior program director at the Hyde Family Foundation.

The four are more than colleagues. They are friends who have known each other for several years and often get together to talk about the state of philanthropy in Memphis.

Here are excerpts from the wide-ranging discussion about philanthropy in Memphis: How is the philanthropic scene in Memphis changing?

Jenny Koltnow: There’s a consciousness of change. And there are so many different issues that impact our nonprofit organizations, our philanthropic institutions, and how we make decisions, and how we use resources. There’s a heightened consciousness of what’s going on in the world, so that really impacts, not only philanthropic decisions and where the funds go, but also how our nonprofits respond in that we can’t sit quietly and just take it in. We all have to actively participate in finding solutions in the conversation. Oftentimes, we’re all forced out of our comfort zone so we have to break with tradition and legacy in order to be relevant and respond to current issues.

With all of this going on, there is an enormous emphasis on collaboration.

Our organizations have to find ways to pool resources, to share ideas, to come up with better answers because the urgency and the need to deliver impact is greater than ever. The attention span challenges that we have in our society filter into the philanthropic space. People want us to get it right now. But we can’t just go about our business. We have to be relevant to provide value and really be effective. I think the expectation of effectiveness is greater than it’s been in the past, even five years ago.

Lauren Taylor: Especially today, people want to see change quickly. They want people to react quickly, be responsive.

But my biggest lesson being in philanthropy for almost 15 years is you have to be patient. It takes time and you have to stick with the thing, and I guess I’m thinking about education reform as one thing. You have to stick with it.

Jenny Koltnow: I’ve been at Church Health for one year, making the big switch after 16 years in philanthropy and being responsible for grant-making, first with the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation, then with AutoZone. I have 24 |

From left: Lauren Wilson Young, Lauren Taylor, Melissa Whitby, Jenny Turner Koltnow PHOTOGRAPH BY JON W. SPARKS

Lauren Taylor is the senior program director/learning officer of the Hyde Family Foundation.

She oversees the Foundation’s Vibrant Spaces and Communities, Thriving Arts and Culture, and Engaged Leadership and Civic Pride high-impact areas, as well as the Grants Management and Learning/Evaluation team.

Prior to her current position, Taylor developed the Foundation’s Greening Memphis portfolio, which led to the approval of more than $40 million in grants supporting an interconnected green space, park, greenway, trail, and bike lane system in Memphis. She was also the Foundation’s director of grants management from 2005 to 2008. Before joining the Foundation, she worked in development as the grants and research officer at the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA).

Taylor serves on the City Parks Alliance Board of Directors and Overton Park Conservancy Board of Directors, and recently served on the BLDG Memphis Board of Directors and the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) Board of Commissioners. She was a 2015 PLACES Fellow with the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities; a 2013 recipient of the Memphis Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award; and is a graduate of the New Memphis Leadership Development Intensive (2009) and Fellows Program (2007).

Jenny Turner Koltnow joined Church Health in November 2017 as director of communications and development, overseeing strategic marketing, communications and fundraising. Previously, she was director of communications and community relations for AutoZone, leading corporate communications, community engagement, and philanthropy for the Fortune 300 auto parts retailer. Prior to AutoZone, Koltnow was the Founding Executive Director for the Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation, leading the Grizzlies TEAM UP Youth Mentoring Initiative, facilitating more than $20 million in grants and building the Grizzlies’ community outreach and engagement to international prominence.

She is an avid runner and actively involved in the community, serving on the boards of the Soulsville Foundation and Girls on the Run Memphis.

Lauren Wilson Young is a native Memphian and graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s in English and early childhood education. She earned her master’s in special education and began her teaching career in Nashville. She married her high school sweetheart, Tommy Young, and together they have three children, Stuart, Wilson, and Parker.

They moved back to Memphis and Young worked as an intercept counselor for Youth Villages. In 2003, she began her role as the executive director of the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation and led in this position for 12 years. During this time, she also served as the Chair of the Memphis Grantmakers Forum. Young left the foundation to open her own bakery, Sweet LaLa’s Bakery, and she is now building out a retail store. She serves on the boards of Baptist Memorial Healthcare Foundation, Christian Community Foundation, and St. George’s Independent School.

Melissa Whitby is vice president of development for BRIDGES. She manages the fundraising efforts for the organization, which raises more than $1 million each year, and successfully led a $10 million matching capital campaign to build a $20 million endowment fund for BRIDGES. Since 2013, Whitby has secured more than $11 million in operating and capital support for the organization.

Bridge Builders youth in grades 6-12 learn to be leaders who step outside their comfort zones and seek out diverse perspectives. But they also hone other critical real-world skills like communication, problem-solving, and decision-making as they explore effective citizenship and social responsibility.

Whitby is also the current president of the Memphis Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. AFP is the professional association of individuals responsible for generating philanthropic support for a wide variety of nonprofit, charitable organizations. Founded in 1960, it advances philanthropy through its more than 30,000 members in 227 chapters throughout the world. The Memphis Chapter was founded in 1985 and represents more than 150 members.

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always observed that there have been so many brilliant initiatives started to tremendous fanfare — and then they just stop. Then three or four years later, somebody comes up with the bright idea that looks awfully like what happened in 1992, 1998, 2003, and 2010. The need for people to endure, and for funders to say, “This is important to us. We’re going to stay the course.”

There have been some remarkable initiatives started to address poverty, and workforce development, and health access, and all sorts of other things. But they just stop. I love sports analogies, and I’m a distance runner, so any of us could get up tomorrow morning and run a 5K. We might walk, we might take a few water breaks, but we can get there.

But if you want a complete marathon, you really have to train. And you might get injured, and you might have to lift weights, and you might have to change your diet, whatever, but you have to work at it and endure.

We have to face this as the sort of proverbial marathon, where we’ve got to hang in there because there have been some remarkable things that have been initiated by the Hyde Family Foundation and the Wilson Family Foundation, but we have to give ourselves more than three to five years to see real progress.

Lauren Taylor: We’ve always had plans that have driven how we fund, but we did a new strategic plan last year that’s a five-year plan. It’s very outcome driven in that we’re changing the way we work.

Throughout the year we’re evaluating, looking at certain indicators we said we want to affect. And then we’re having discussions asking, “How is this going?” and asking questions internally. And some of these things we’re not going to see change for years, but we can start course correcting, and I can already see how it’s changing how we fund things.

What are the barriers to collaboration?

Lauren Young: What’s hard is when we’re all funding very similar things, and it’s not for the lack of wanting to all come together and spend more time talking about these issues in a room, but it’s a matter that we’re all governed in a different way. There is a lot of miscommunication that happens between nonprofit and the foundation because the nonprofit is making assumptions that the money’s available or the money will be there, or that the commitment is there, but then that donor has been there, maybe for four or five years, and feels tired or drained, or maybe has

had something else dangled in front of that donor. We were always here at our foundation [Wilson Family Foundation] loving the work of the Hyde Family Foundation, so I got to know people there and got to know other people in the philanthropy community. That’s how this group came together when we were building our foundation saying, “Help me do this,” because we needed someone who’s already done it so that we’re not spending more time recreating something.

But then you find it’s so hard to put each other on our calendars, and then hard to talk about the issues in conjunction with all of the programs at work that you have going on, under the umbrella of one foundation. I wish there was more donor education and more individual education about how this operation works because there’s a lot of confusion. The corporate industry that’s not involved in the philanthropic effort on a day-to-day basis is a very different culture. I think about what it costs to really run this work well, effectively and efficiently. And I think there’s a lot of corporate entities that aren’t as willing to stay the course because they’ve got a whole other driver of employees that they’ve got to try to maintain a level of like, “Well, this is interesting for two years for our employees, but we got to change organizations this year.”

So there’s this tension that happens all the time about trying to keep everyone focused on some of the principles and having donors focused on the fact that we’re all funding together. But, you’re not able to be in the same room often enough.

Lauren Taylor: I hope to build the philanthropic sector, and everyone here has been very involved over the years.

The Grantmakers Forum, which is a convening of grantmakers of different kinds in Memphis, has strengthened over the last few years, and now it’s formally merged with Momentum Nonprofit Partners, which is focused on building the capacity of the nonprofit sector. I’m really hopeful that that is going to be a great partnership because we’ll be simultaneously building both sectors and providing professional development for both sectors.

Melissa Whitby: The Grantmakers Forum had been defunct for some years and our group basically breathed the life back into it, and that was the whole point: If we get together, we learn from each other. That benefits the organizations we’re supporting, and we should lead by example and inform each

other about what’s happening in our foundations.

Lauren Taylor: There’s a ton of opportunities, and we’re making a big bet on Momentum. Our foundation decided we really need to invest in the capacity of organizations we fund, so we’re supporting Momentum. Organizations that we’ve funded for years have major capacity issues still. So we’ve started a pilot in one of our program areas where every organization we’re funding can apply. They receive general operating support from us, but they can apply and get multi-year support if they go through capacity building with Momentum, which we’re also going to support.

Lauren Young: What I love about it is that the exposure of a weakness in a nonprofit doesn’t keep it out of the funding. That elevates your ability to get funding, and I think that’s part of the trouble right now, or had been in the past, is that nonprofits wouldn’t expose a weakness for fear of not getting the grant. Nonprofits would show all the best parts of themselves in a grant, and what’s missing is the very part that really needs the most funding. Now, the fact that it’s all under one umbrella under Momentum, is that funders and nonprofits have more commonality to talk openly, and to be able to say, “Okay, what is the issue and how can we help you address it?” and not be shamed into not telling you. There’s more dialogue and there’s a more true relationship that’s being built and I hope that that makes partnerships.

Lauren Taylor: In any area that we’re funding, there are always policy issues.

To do this work, we have to collaborate.

I don’t think we can do any of the things that we do without collaboration with the public and private sectors, and it’s not easy. It can be really messy, but there are major payoffs from it when it goes well.

Some of the traditional ways we funded things, especially as grantmakers, these one-off grants, will not work anymore because they can’t take things to scale. We have to match up grant-making funds with loans from banks. There have to be some nontraditional mixes of funding to really bring certain things to scale. And that requires major collaboration.

Lauren Young: And that’s the challenge. I also serve on the Christian Community Foundation, and certainly am super involved with the Community Foundation’s work and their GiVE 365. We’re getting people around the table, talking about philanthropy, but

talking about unique strategies. I think the old way was you gave somebody a list of naming rights and say, “Hey, which building do you want your name on?” And you pick the one, and then everybody comes around, you have a big cocktail hour and celebrate it. That’s not what this generation wants. It wants something more passionate, more mission-driven.

We can’t have a town without philanthropic gifts, and this whole town was built on the people who came before us.

That’s probably what I would say about this generation, they miss that part of it. You’ve got to really remember those pieces of history that truly matter, and then let that build a fire in you. There are some really interesting ways to fund now that are so different in the thinking from 10 and 15 years ago. I realize when I talk to friends who are either moms or corporate partners, it’s just a different language. We’ve got to figure out how to explain it in a way that makes it matter, too.

Lauren Taylor: The Community Foundation’s LIVEGIVEmidsouth.org platform is where you can go learn what the issues are in Memphis, and then who’s working on them. The giving side of it profiles nonprofits, which I think provides a level of accountability and insurance that, is a smart investment to invest in these organizations. That’s one tool and some people will use it. But I think there has to be a mix of different options.

Lauren Young: The [Greater Memphis] Chamber has the ability to give time to their employees to get more education in philanthropy, or in some kind of nonprofit. More companies are giving time to employees, to maybe do givebacks. Some of our top organizations could try to explain and spread that and you would get to more people than just relying on foundations. When you start thinking about corporations, you get thousands of people with some really amazing ideas. If you create the platform, or even if just they put LIVEGIVEmidsouth.org in their network and say, “Hey, we care about our city. We want to make sure you’re aware of this.”

Melissa Whitby: In looking at the giving trends just for BRIDGES over the last couple years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase of gifts through corporate entities. We’ve seen an increase in payroll deductions and in people giving monthly. People want to be more hands-on with their philanthropy.

We have a whole other building that we just took back after ALSAC rented it

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Growth is the driving force for Octavius Nickson.

He knows that making a positive impact requires purpose and perseverance. Octavius needed a collaborator who shared his passion for creating change and opportunities for others.

See Octavius Nickson’s story at my.triumphbank.com

DO GOOD. BETTER. 901.726.5725 momentumnonprofit.org We help Mid-South nonprofits succeed.

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for five years. We moved back into that space and we’re looking at that as a training ground. We got partnerships with the county, with the city, with Le Bonheur, where they’re coming to us saying, “We have these things that we want to involve youth and we need space to do that.” We are trained well in how to do that.

How do you measure success?

Jenny Koltnow: One of the areas expected for funders is measuring success. It takes resources to have legit metrics, and they don’t just happen. Most nonprofits have small teams, and oftentimes there’s no one that has a deep analysis background. And a hired consultant costs money. But the expectation is that you’re measuring. So, it is exciting to see organizations not only fund the capacity building but also measurement and evaluation. That is huge. And then even, to have training for staff, because when that happens, not only can programs be evaluated and approved, but it opens doors to all sorts of other opportunities.

The other piece of it is, “How do you tell that story?”

One of the things that’s been really eye-opening for me at Church Health, among many others, is how important dental care is in our community, especially for people who are low income because they don’t have dental care. The semi-annual visits that we all have are a luxury to them. When people have a healthy mouth, when they don’t have pain, their comfort level, their confidence, their mental health, and their self-esteem go from 0 to 10 almost overnight. And with that, their relationships with their family and friends, their ability to perform on the job and actually access better jobs or participate in workforce development, training programs is extraordinary.

The combination of visual storytelling and the metrics combined to explain how this all works takes a lot of work. But that’s where the resources need to be in order to move through those progressions and to ultimately sustain and grow that care for our patients.

Lauren Young: It’s a problem if you invest for three to five years and say you’re done but haven’t shared that story and not brought other funders along, and you’ve not developed the individual interest. We’ve seen huge investments from local foundations, but when their resources pull out, the [recipient] organization collapses because it’s too big of a gap to fill. That’s where I would say I personally started to become almost cynical, because it’s like, “Gosh, you’re putting all of these resources in, but you don’t know how to extend the lifeline, and have others come along.”

In five years, you’ve got to be working toward that timeframe, but you’ve got to start in year one filling that gap. And I think there’s so much work and there’s so much passion, it’s hard to pull your head out from underwater and be like, “Oh yeah, we’re five years now.” And so I think that’s what’s happened with nonprofits, either whether it’s capacity and leadership, or whether it’s the fact that other foundations weren’t being outspoken enough about their work.

It’s a double-edged sword, because as a donor you don’t want to be out there saying you’re spending a ton of money, or you’re doing all of these things because you have to if you’re bringing other people along. But you’re also exposing the very thing that you are trying to keep private, to some degree. I know we have the

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“anonymouses” in Memphis, and they can, in some ways, be difficult to work with because that makes you not celebrate the work, or it makes people shy away from telling their story because they can’t say who’s behind it. And then it doesn’t necessarily fuel you.

Talk about poverty in Memphis and how it impacts philanthropy.

Lauren Young: I agree with the sentiment that I don’t see enough change from the poverty perspective. I don’t have statistics to prove it, but it seems like the gap is widening. And maybe for the work that I’m in — because we opened a bakery inside of a juvenile intervention facility — I was reflecting on the fact that we’ve been seeing the same number of kids in juvenile court for the last five years. That number hasn’t really grown, that it’s more than 600 kids, but it’s not shrunk to be less than 600 kids. So we’re kind of creating this cycle of poverty for the kids and not seeing ways for them to get out.

Think about the families that they’re coming from, and the things that they’re up against. Those challenges haven’t shifted with all the programming put into their space. So, it’s concerning. People are getting in deeper debt, and you get into a bigger conversation around education and the way we educate kids now. You have access to scholarships or things that allow you to pull out just a little bit more, but you’re not putting in altogether the bigger picture of understanding finance.

So, poverty is bigger, even for those who are educated and for those who have access to education. They’ve found themselves in a deeper debt, and they weren’t intending to come into that.

Melissa Whitby: I was at the Community Foundation for 13 years and now I’m on the other side of the table, raising funds. So I’ve had time to look at both sides, and I feel like the funders need to work more collaboratively. When you look at generational poverty and all the issues that go with it, one nonprofit can’t solve that alone. We need to have more than one year’s worth of funding to be able to start to chip away at that, and we need lots of funding. The foundations can’t solve poverty even if they pooled their funds together, so we need the foundations to help leverage national support for the programs that they’re supporting and are proving to work. But that takes a lot of time. It’s not something we’re going to do in just a few years.

Lauren Taylor: For us [Hyde Family Foundation], we have three main pillars in our strategic plan, and one is access and opportunity. We have, in the last decade or more, primarily focused on K-12 education and improving access to quality education. We’re seeing improvement with some of the schools that we support, especially schools with the most economically disadvantaged children. Their outcomes are better. So that’s been our focus when it comes to poverty reduction.

We’re looking at how we can support pre-K, and with that we’re seeing more wraparound services for families, not just in pre-K, but in K-12, too. And then we’re also looking at what we can do in post secondary.

We’re partnered with Southwest Tennessee Community College — how do you make it as accessible and lowcost as possible for people to be prepared for community college, graduate from college, and have a career path there.

Transform the way you give.

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis lets you be more strategic and intentional about your charitable giving, and ultimately do more for the causes you hold dear. Join those who contributed $210 million this past year and discover a smarter way to give. cfgm.org

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F U N D R A I S I N G

Conservation Champion Dale Hall’s fundraising talents take aim at Ducks Unlimited.

• • •

B Y

S A M U E L

X .

C I C C I

Does Dale Hall have a favorite type of duck? Some days it might be a shoveler. Others, it could be a gadwall, or even a pintail. At the end of the day, though, Hall prefers any bird that might wander through the American Wetlands. If there are waterfowl, that means he and Ducks Unlimited are on the right track.

Ducks Unlimited, an organization that began in the early twentieth century when Americans saw the adverse effect the dust bowl had on the environment, is dedicated to conserving wetlands across North America. To date, the nonprofit has worked in over 14 million acres across Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

Hall will step down as CEO of Ducks Unlimited next year after a decade in the position. In a recent interview, he reflected on how his passion for the outdoors led to heading an organization that is devoted to conservation, and how he has honed his talents as a fundraiser

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to keep that mission going.

Before Ducks Unlimited, he had a 30-plus-year career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and was eventually asked by President George W. Bush to lead the agency, which he did from 2005 to 2009.

Hall has a long history with the outdoors stretching back to his childhood, when he would hunt and fish while growing up by the Cumberland River in Eastern Kentucky. His interest in the wetlands was sparked while attending Louisiana State University, and from there he went into Fish and Wildlife, going all over the United States and spending time in Mississippi,

Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, Oregon, Atlanta, and Alaska. After stepping down as director of the agency, Ducks Unlimited thought he would be the perfect candidate for its vacant CEO position. His insights and experience were crucial in running the Rescue Our Wetlands campaign, the organization’s flagship, seven-year initiative that aims to bring in $2 billion to invest in conservation. The nonprofit says it expects to reach that goal.

Hall points to water issues as one of the biggest problems he’s seen during his tenure, and hopes the campaign, which began in 2012 but went public in 2015, will help fix that. “The water issue we’re facing is the largest of the century,” says Hall. “Wetlands are nature’s sponges; they hold back water from a flood. They act as kidneys, purifying the water and taking

toxins out of it and keeping rivers cleaner and removing sediment.” For most Americans, Hall says, the water they get out of the faucet is from groundwater sourced from the wetlands, as opposed to surface water.

More than just helping wildlife, maintaining these wetlands is crucial to providing healthy drinking water for people, too.

Over the course of the campaign, Hall has stressed the importance of conveying to the public a better grasp of the work Ducks Unlimited is doing.

In addition to conservation, it sponsors programs like the Greenwing Program, which brings in youth to learn more about conservation and make the organization’s ecological endeavors more transparent. “We want the public to understand our natural purification systems that are already out there, and are much cheaper than installing

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a treatment plant in a city.”

That education ties in to Hall’s personal involvement in fundraising: “Our main challenge is to have the people understand what we do, why we do it, and why it’s important to them. My approach when I go talk to someone, whether it’s an individual or another CEO, is to go in and tell them what exactly we do with their money and talk to them about the wetlands and why they are so important.”

The Rescue the Wetlands campaign will end next year, and with it Hall’s position at the head of Ducks Unlimited.

“With the close of the campaign approaching, I thought about it and decided that it would be the right time to step down as CEO next June,” he says. “Then the next CEO can come in and start leading his own pathway with whatever we do for our next

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almost every issue we’ve campaign, and we’ll be able faced from a natural resource to continue the progress that standpoint,” says Hall, “from we’ve made to get people even the Everglades, to Chesapeake more excited and get them to Bay, all the way to the Hawaiian understand the importance of habitats. I think there these great habitats.” are some good stories Hall will continue his involvement with “The water issue in there about the people that I’ve been Ducks Unlimited and able to work with and the outdoors. He plans we’re facing is how the teams dealt to volunteer extensive- the largest of with those issues.” ly with the organithe century.”

At the end of his zation and continue career, it’s clear that Ducks to serve on various boards Unlimited has left an indelible for wetlands and wildlife. impression. “Ducks Unlimited On a more recreational side, and the people here have been many of the members of Hall’s the blessing of my professional hunting club are themselves career,” he says. “It’s always Ducks Unlimited employees. been fun, and people are always Finally, he has ideas for a book wanting to just give back. They incorporating many of the just want to make a difference. experiences he’s had while And I’m not sure what else traveling across the country any of us could ask for.” for work. “I’ve been blessed in my life to be involved with teams that have addressed

Dale Hall, who steps down as CEO of Ducks Unlimited next year, oversees the $2 billion Rescue Our Wetlands campaign for the nonprofit.

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The Association of Fundraising professionals — Memphis Chapter

presents

the

2018

Crystal Awards

in the community and volunteering their personal time. Additionally, Cushman & Wakefield donates a significant portion of all earnings back into our community’s nonprofits.

For more information on AFP, go to afpmemphis.org.

her life of philanthropy. Her mission — to help the unsheltered — began last year when, as a fifth grader, she launched a sock drive at her school.

That effort continues this year with her devotion to all aspects of the project: making a video, designing a flyer, co-ordinating logistics of the schoolwide sock drive, and counting

Inc. and, with his wife, have been significant backers of United Way of the Mid-South. Both have served on the board of United Way and played active leadership roles, including leading the Campaign Cabinet, advocating for United Way at campaign events, and inspiring United Way Board Members and Executive Volunteers to be advocates. Their leadership and influence has allowed United Way to impact hundreds of thousands of individuals and families. Additionally, they have both served as Campaign Chair to support the annual campaigns of more than 450 companies.

In 2016, J.W. was Campaign Chair during a critical time when United Way was

Harriett and Hilliard Crews

Elaina Fik

Dorothy McClure

socks every day for three weeks.

More than 400 students ages 2-14 were involved in the project. Elaina collected more than 4,000 pairs of socks for Manna House, which serves the unsheltered. Elaina devised a crazy sock day with her principal to celebrate the success of the sock drive. She was elected as an officer for the 2018-19 Student Government and hopes to continue the sock drive through her 7th and 8th grade years.

transforming its mission as an Impact organization. To support the United Way’s new initiative on poverty, Driving The Dream, J.W. and Kathy contributed a substantial matching gift challenge to raise $200,000.

Kathy has been a leader in the creation and launch of United Way of the Mid-South’s latest initiative, Women United.

Memphis is well known for having a philanthropic heart. There are all sorts of philanthropists, and the Memphis chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals has, for many years now, acknowledged the best in several categories with its annual Crystal Awards.

OUTSTANDING PHILANTHROPIST

OUTSTANDING CORPORATION

have been notably generous to a variety of not-for-profit organizations in Memphis. Some of these organizations include: Church Health, University of Memphis, Teach for America, and Youth Villages. The couple consistently show how deeply rooted in Memphis they are, and have become a model of philanthropic spirit.

Additionally, Harriett and Hilliard regularly open their home and network to organizations, encouraging their own friends to join them in supporting causes near and dear to their hearts. When the Crews champion a cause, they do so with deep commitment, and others follow the example they set.

commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm, was founded with the goal of building up Memphis. When Larry Jensen co-founded his commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm in the early 1990s, he set a course to build community service into his company’s mission.

The firm has a community-focused arm called Community Advisors that works to restore overlooked and blighted areas in the Mid-South. Greg Spillyards and Jamie Tipton have been leaders in this work. Not only is community work at the core of what the company does, but the majority of their employees are active

Harriett and Hilliard Crews

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Cushman & Wakefield | Commercial Advisors, a

OUTSTANDING YOUTH IN PHILANTHROPY - INDIVIDUAL

Elaina Fik is wasting no time in

OUTSTANDING VOLUNTEER FUNDRAISER

J.W. and Kathy Gibson are long-term supporters of Memphis in business and philanthropy. He is chairman and CEO of Gibson Companies,

OUTSTANDING FUNDRAISING EXECUTIVE

Dorothy McClure joined the MIFA staff in April 2011 assuming responsibility for MIFA’s major individual donor campaign, the Circle of Hope. She has increased the revenue of this campaign to a record high of $1,265,000 for Fiscal Year 2018. This campaign represents more than 30 percent of MIFA’s annual

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private contributions. She cultivates relationships with donors, works closely with board and volunteer solicitors, connects donors with MIFA’s work, and continually develops new strategies to inspire giving. In conjunction with MIFA’s 50th anniversary, Dorothy created two additional campaigns to boost the Circle of Hope. The first, the Jubilee Challenge generated over $100,000 in new income for MIFA. The second, the 50@50 Campaign, secured a $250,000 challenge grant.

Dorothy mentors less experienced staff members, gives generously to MIFA and to her church, Idlewild Presbyterian.

Her work exemplifies the art and science of fundraising.

John Smarrelli

OUTSTANDING EXECUTIVE LEADER

Dr. John Smarrelli Jr. is the 22nd president of Christian Brothers University as well as the University’s first permanent lay president. He has led CBU through a period of unprecedented growth and change. He has been involved in philanthropic fundraising for higher education and community endeavors for many years. Since arriving in Memphis in 2009, his leadership and executive skills have proven invaluable to CBU and to the Memphis Community.

John has been committed to Catholic higher education principles of respecting the dignity of all persons.

Specifically, he ensures that CBU

operates under the five Lasallian core principles: Concern for the Poor and Social Justice; Faith in the Presence of God; Quality Education; Respect for all Persons; and Inclusive Community.

The CBU motto, “Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve”, is not merely a tag line, but a truth to be lived by their students, faculty and staff.

OUTSTANDING YOUNG PHILANTHROPISTS

Brittany and David Spence founded The Forrest Spence Fund in 2007 in memory of their first child, Robert Forrest Spence. Shortly after birth, Forrest developed complications and fought for life for 55 days before

OUTSTANDING YOUTH IN PHILANTHROPY GROUP

The St. Mary’s Community Fund (SMCF) is a student-run organization that aims to educate young women about philanthropy through community service, fundraising, and grant making. The goal of the group is to serve Mid-South non-profit agencies through hands-on community service and grants. For the 2017-2018 school year, the SMCF awarded $42,000 to five local non-profits. SMCF members fundraise for these organizations through solicitations of private donors and fundraisers.

Throughout each school year, SMCF members participate in the entire grants process, including reviewing grant ap-

Brittany and David Spence

his illness overtook him. While in the PICU, Forrest and his family had highs and lows every day, but they were met with a compassion and love that gave them hope and helped them survive the most difficult journey of their lives. Brittany and David pledged to make a difference by assisting with the non-medical needs of critically or chronically ill children and their families throughout the Mid-South.

The Spences meet individual patient and family needs by working with institutions to better recognize and meet those non-medical needs; connecting families with counseling and support groups; covering the cost of counseling for bereaved families; and by providing grants to families demonstrating need.

plications and presenting the organization seeking the grant to SMCF members at monthly committee meetings. Then members conduct site visits in order to choose the grant recipients. While the St. Mary’s Community Fund was established to support 501c3 organizations, it also instills a love of service and philanthropy within St. Mary’s students.

The SMCF members selected Books from Birth, Carpenter Art Garden, Exchange Club Family Center, Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, and Multi-National Ministries this year. For the 2018-2019 school year, 47 St. Mary’s 9th-12th grade students will be members of the SMCF. 35 members served the SMCF last year and 12 new members are joining the organization this year.

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 | INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM |

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Watkins Uiberall, PLLC Certified Public Accountants Memphis • Tupelo 901.761.2720 • 662.269.4014 www.wucpas.com

Providing quality accounting and business consulting since 1971.

GIVING GUIDE PROFILES Give back to the Mid-South this year by supporting one of many wonderful nonprofit organizations. On the following pages, you can find out more about the area’s leading nonprofits — what they do, who they help, their impact, successes, and connections. Looking to feed a passion project or aid in making a difference in our area? Opportunities abound. Start here to see how — and why — you could become involved with a worthy cause right here at home.

GIVING GUIDE

ABOUT US ESTABLISHED: Established in 1983, Baptist Memorial

Health Care Foundation is the fundraising arm of Baptist Memorial Health Care. The Foundation raises money to benefit Baptist’s programs and services.

Generous donations from grateful patients, families and the community help support the Foundation.

ADDRESS

350 N. Humphreys Blvd., Memphis, TN 38120 PHONE

901.227.7123 WEBSITE

bmhgiving.org facebook.com/baptistonline @baptistonline linkedin.com/company/baptistonline

LEADERSHIP

Jason M. Little President & CEO J. Scott Fountain Senior Vice President & Chief Development Officer Jenny Nevels Executive Director

SPECIAL PROMOTION

MISSION: Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation supports the Baptist Memorial Health Care system, which provides excellent care to patients in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. We partner together to develop the advancement of patient care, addressing current health issues, helping those most in need, and molding new generations of health care professionals, while honoring our vision of the three-fold ministry of Christ — healing, preaching and teaching. Board of directors’ grants and other fundraising initiatives help establish new projects and facilities such as: Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief services include adult, children and teen grief support groups, Camp Good Grief, Teen Camp Good Grief, and individual bereavement counseling.

Services are also provided at Milla’s House in midtown Memphis and the NEA Center for Good Grief in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Universal Parenting Places (UPP), provides parents with practical information, guidance and emotional support in a welcoming and warm environment.

Baptist Cancer Center patients receive world-class cancer care, including a variety of treatment options and access to research trials and adult cancer genetic counseling services.

Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital continues to expand its pediatric services and

specialists with a thriving emergency department, pediatric intensive care unit, and a Pediatric Eye Center.

NicView™ cameras, provided on each bed in the newborn intensive care unit at Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, give reassurance to parents of their baby’s condition when they can’t be in the NICU. Baptist Reynolds Hospice House provides compassionate care to patients with life-limiting illnesses. Donations help support room and board for those patients who need assistance.

GIVING OPPORTUNITIES Donations include bequests and stock gifts, AmazonSmile, employee giving and gift-in-kind. Visit https://www. bmhgiving.org/ways-to-give.

Be the Good in Grief

The death of a loved one can be overwhelming. Finding support can bring new hope. The Baptist Centers for Good Grief help children, teens and adults openly grieve and discover healthy ways of coping. With three centers in the Mid-South, our grief centers connect families to bereavement services, camps, plus individual and group counseling—and all services are free of charge.

All of our services and future growth depend completely on the generosity of others. If you would like to help, please visit bmhgiving.org.

KEMMONS WILSON FAMILY CENTER FOR GOOD GRIEF 1520 W. Poplar Ave., Collierville, TN 38017 MILLA’S HOUSE 28 S. Evergreen St., Memphis, TN 38104 NEA BAPTIST CENTER FOR GOOD GRIEF 1717 Executive Square, Jonesboro, AR 72401

SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

ABOUT US

Christian Brothers University is a four-year, private university affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.

The University was founded by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, a Catholic teaching order.

ESTABLISHED: CBU was the first college in the City of Memphis established in 1871.

LOCATION

650 East Parkway South, Memphis, Tennessee 38104 CBU is located on a 75-acre beautiful wooded campus in midtown Memphis, Tennessee.

PHONE

(901) 321-3270 CONTACT

www.cbu.edu giving@cbu.edu facebook.com/ChristianBrothersUniversity twitter.com/FromCBU

John Smarrelli, Jr. President

MISSION Christian Brothers University is a Catholic university in the studentcentered tradition of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. CBU fosters academic excellence in a range of programs to prepare students from all faiths and backgrounds for careers and lives informed by the Lasallian values of faith, service, and community.

Mark Billingsley Vice President for Advancement

BOARD OF TRUSTEES OFFICERS

Stephen T. Dunavant Chairman Louis F. (Bo) Allen, Jr. Vice Chair Emily Greer Secretary James L. Reber Treasurer John Wigley NAB President John Smarrelli Jr. President SPECIAL PROMOTION

MEMBERS

CORE VALUES FAITH: Our belief in God permeates every facet of the University’s life.

SERVICE: We reach out to serve one another and those beyond our campus.

COMMUNITY: We work to build better communities and a better society.

Robert Buckman Brother Francis Carr, FSC Judge J.R. (Bobby) Carter James C. Collins David L. Cunningham, Jr. Tyree C. Daniels Brother Chris R. Englert, FSC Richard L. Erickson, Jr. Andre K. Fowlkes John Mitchell Graves Russell J. Hensley Margaret Hodges, M.D. James J. Isaacs

GIVING OPPORTUNITIES: Charitable gifts of cash, stock, or securities from individuals, corporations, foundations, faith, and civic groups provide much needed support for our students and programs.

Vice President for Advancement, Mark Billingsley, (901) 321-3278

Michael E. Keeney John R. Lammers Maria Lensing James Maclin, Jr. Douglas Marchant Father Robert W. Marshall, Jr. Harold G. McNeil, Jr. Paul J. Posey, Jr. Brother Michael F. Quirk, FSC, Ed.D. Cathy D. Ross Brother Larry Schatz, FSC Joshua A. Shipley

Bemetra Simmons Christopher E. Singer Stephen L. Waechter Greg Wanta Laurel W. Williams TRUSTEES EMERITI

Joseph F. Birch, Jr., AFSC Bena Cates H. Lance Forsdick, Sr., AFSC Richard T. Gadomski, AFSC Robert G. McEniry, AFSC Joyce Mollerup

HELP THE

CHRISTIAN

BROTHERS

the Lasallian Mission of EDUCATING MINDS and TOUCHING HEARTS.

CONTINUE THE

LASALLIAN

MISSION OF EDUCATING MINDS

AND

TOUCHING HEARTS. www.cbu.edu • 901.321.3270

SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE MISSION Ducks Unlimited conserves, restores, and manages wetlands and associated habitats for North America’s waterfowl. These habitats also benefit other wildlife and people. DU’s work also benefits more than 900 other species of wetland-associated wildlife, as well as people and the communities in which they live.

GOALS Ducks Unlimited is the world’s leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation.

ABOUT US ANNUAL REVENUE: $221 million NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 500 ESTABLISHED: 1937 SOURCES OF FUNDING EVENTS, SPONSORS AND MEMBERSHIPS: 25% DONATED CONSERVATION EASEMENTS:

19% 39%

FEDERAL AND STATE HABITAT SUPPORT: MAJOR GIFTS AND ENDOWMENTS:

12%

ROYALTIES, ADVERTISING & OTHER REVENUES:

5%

Headquartered in Memphis for the past 25 years, DU got its start in 1937 during the Dust Bowl when North America’s droughtplagued waterfowl populations had plunged to unprecedented lows. Determined not to sit idly by as the continent’s waterfowl dwindled beyond recovery, a small group of sportsmen joined together to form an organization that became known as Ducks Unlimited.

ADDRESS

One Waterfowl Way, Memphis, TN 38120 PHONE

1-800-453-8257 WEBSITE

www.ducks.org facebook.com/DucksUnlimited @DucksUnlimited @DucksUnlimitedInc

VISION The vision of Ducks Unlimited is wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. DU will achieve our vision through diverse public and private partnerships to address the full range of factors that continue to erode waterfowl habitat across North America.

E XECUTIVE

BOARD OF

VOLUNTEER

LE ADERSHIP

DIRECTORS

BOARD MEMBERS

Volunteer leadership Rogers Hoyt, Jr. President Paul R. Bonderson, Jr. Chairman of the Board Doug Schoenrock First Vice President Chuck Smith Secretary Wendell W. Weakley Treasurer Steve Maritz President, Wetlands America Trust

Shawn de Cento Kathy Christian Doug Frey Bob Hester Joe Mazon Al Montna Connie Parker Gary Salmon Ronal Roberson Christine Thomas Steve Cook Scott Crawford Rob Gokey David Flink Mark Low Julian Ottley Clay Rogers Jim Talbert

Dale Hall CEO Dan Thiel Executive Secretary Amy Batson Chief Fundraising Officer Earl Grochau Chief Financial Officer Govan Hornor Chief Information Officer Steve Pacheco Chief Marketing Officer Nick Wiley Chief Conservation Officer Gildo Tori Acting Chief Policy Officer

SPECIAL PROMOTION

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES Ducks Unlimited is a grassroots, volunteerbased organization. Its members are conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts who live primarily throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. DU has programs and memberships for all ages including youth, high school, and college.

FUNDRAISING EVENTS DU volunteers host more than 4,000 grassroots fundraising events annually, such as member and sponsor banquets, shooting and fishing tournaments, and golf outings.

Event dollars represent some of DU’s most important sources of revenue. Since event dollars are typically unrestricted, DU is able to spend these funds in our highest priority areas and use them to leverage additional funds from other sources.

Bill Ansell Paul Boehne Lou Caputo Jim Cerza Brian Dillon Tom Enos William Hamill Jeff Heidelbauer Galen Johnson Howard Johnson Rusty Legg Bill Sarafin Bob Spoerl Nels Swenson Jay Taylor David Victory Pete Albrecht Harold Cannon Linda Daugherty George Dunklin, Jr.

Jerry Harris Dave Hinman Larry Jensen Tom Jernigan Tammi Kircher Peter MacGaffin Edward May Jay Owen Rex Schulz Michael Scuse Sam Smolik Pepper Snyder Joe Stough Mike Woodward Jan Young Mickey McMillin John Tomke James Couch David Blom Kevin Harris

SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

International Performers

ABOUT US

Educational Programs

ANNUAL REVENUE: $2,664,563 (FY18 Financials) NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 12 FT and 6 PT ESTABLISHED: 1994 SOURCES OF FUNDING INDIVIDUALS: 14%

MISSION GPAC’s mission is to serve the community by presenting the highestquality artistic endeavors to educate, engage, enrich and transform.

CORPORATIONS: 16% ORGANIZATIONS: 67% FOUNDATIONS: 3% ADDRESS

1801 Exeter Rd., Germantown, TN 38138 PHONE

901-751-7500 WEBSITE

www.GPACweb.com facebook.com/gpacweb/ @gpac

E XECUTIVE LE ADERSHIP

Paul Chandler Executive Director Liz Mulroy Venue Director Parke Kennedy Development Director Emily Hefley Programming Director

SPECIAL PROMOTION

GOALS Located in the heart of Shelby County, GPAC serves the greater metro Memphis area of over a million people and is accessible to all members of the community. Currently in its 24th season, GPAC continues to awe patrons with the breadth, depth, and quality of the artists presented, performance after performance!

From the grand season opening with vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin, GPAC and its guests will journey through an exciting and amazingly diverse array of music and dance, including jazz, American music, and artists from India and South Africa. GPAC will host over 60 arts programs and performances this year in its acoustically perfect 864-seat venue, presenting exceptional dance and music, year-round educational activities for all ages, rotating visual arts exhibitions, and multiple community events, welcoming over 100,000 visitors annually.

The 2018-2019 GPAC Presents season features 14 world-class shows in the Center Stage, Jazz, and American Music Series.

Local arts organizations presenting all or a portion of their season at GPAC include Opera Memphis, IRIS Orchestra,

BOARD MEMBERS

Shiela Pallerne Vinczeller President Lee Grinspan Vice President Kathy Simonetti Secretary William H. Watkins Treasurer Patrick Lawton City Administrator

Pam Arrindell Sam Beach Joey Beckford George Brown, Jr. Dr. Jorge Calzada Dr. Brooke Dishmon John Elkington Mitch Major Patrick O’Connor

Germantown Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, GPAC Youth Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Memphis, New Ballet Ensemble, Collage Dance Collective, Children’s Ballet Theatre, and Madonna Learning Center. Between September 2018 and June 2019, over 240 arts-related events will occur at GPAC, providing excellent, accessible, and inviting arts, entertainment, and culture to the region.

At the same time, GPAC will work tirelessly on its most ambitious and visionary project to date— the construction of The Grove. This new, $4 million-plus outdoor performance facility will create an unparalleled community asset—a unique place where guests will experience the power of the arts to connect and inspire. The Grove at GPAC will attract new audiences, fortifying GPAC and its local arts partners and enhancing our community’s quality of life.

All of this is made possible by generous support from the community, corporations, foundations and individuals. To learn more about supporting GPAC and The Grove, please contact Parke Kennedy, Director of Development at (901) 751-7505.

Mike Palazzolo Ann Parker Matt Price Carol Ross-Spang Honey Scheidt Malinda Grisanti GPAC Guild President

WITH YOUR SUPPORT IT’S HAPPENING AT LIFE LONG LEARNING

OUTREACH

NATIONAL TOURING ACTS DANCE INSTRUCTION

YOUTH SYMPHONY PROGRAM

MUSIC EDUCATION

HELP GROW THE GROVE!

OPENING FALL 2019 SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

osten

Pancreatic Cancer Support

Research

Advocacy

Education

Hope

ABOUT US ANNUAL REVENUE: $250,000

Kick It 5k

Support Group

ESTABLISHED: 2003 SOURCES OF FUNDING INDIVIDUALS: 90% CORPORATIONS: 5% ORGANIZATIONS: 5% ADDRESS

6060 Poplar Avenue, Suite 140 Memphis, Tennessee 38119 PHONE

901-606-7542 WEBSITE

www.kostenfoundation.com facebook.com/KostenFoundation/ @KostenFDN EVENTS:

Support Group: Meets on the second Saturday of every month at the Cordova Public Library from 10 am - noon.

Kick It 5K: The annual Kick It 5K takes place in early April at Shelby Farms Park and is the largest fundraiser for the Kosten Foundation. It consists of a 5K run, a one-mile family walk, food, live entertainment, team photos, a survivor ceremony and an awards ceremony.

Purple Night: In early Fall the UT Health Science Center Pancreatic Cancer Research team and the Kosten Foundation host Purple Night at the UT Health Science Center. The event gives individuals the opportunity to meet the UTHSC pancreatic cancer research team.

Symposium: The annual Symposium, held in November at the UT Health Science Center, features nationally recognized speakers who cover the latest advances in research related to Pancreatic Cancer.

Tribute At Twilight: Held annually in November, this event honors and remembers those lost to pancreatic cancer and celebrates survivors. Free and open to the public.

E XECUTIVE LE ADERSHIP

Alan L. Kosten Chairman Of The Board Jeffrey A. Goldberg President Kathryn Gilbert Craig Director of Community Engagement SPECIAL PROMOTION

MISSION To establish support and a forum for communication among those afflicted with pancreatic cancer via support group meetings, our website, social media channels, and events.

To assist with the training of future pancreatic cancer surgeons.

To provide funding for a yearly Memphis public lecture on pancreatic cancer delivered by a nationally and or/internationally renowned expert on the disease.

To provide funding for clinical and basic research toward improving outcomes of those afflicted with pancreatic cancer It is our sincere hope that we can provide an informative, compassionate, and humane approach toward improving the quality of life for those afflicted with pancreatic cancer and their families. Additionally, through research efforts, it is our very realistic passion to find a path to the early diagnosis and cure of pancreatic cancer in our lifetimes.

ABOUT THE HERB KOSTEN FOUNDATION: The Herb Kosten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research was founded in 2003 by the family of Herb Kosten after his death due to pancreatic cancer. Kosten’s family sought to improve community support, awareness, and funding for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest known cancers.

As the only organization of its kind in a five -state area, the group focuses on providing access to resources and support through a combination of communication, initiatives, programs, and events. All members of the Foundation are volunteers who donate hundreds of hours each year and believe in leading by example. The organization has raised close to $2,000,000 for pancreatic cancer research and hosts a very active monthly support group meeting for patients, their families, and anyone interested in learning more about pancreatic cancer.

In 2004, in honor of Kosten’s love of tennis, the Memphis-based organization began hosting annual tennis tournaments to raise money to fight pancreatic cancer and in 2011 the group held its first Kick It 5K run/walk.

The annual event has grown to include more than 2,000 participants. Money raised from

Herb Kosten the Kick It 5K and other Kosten Foundation events help fund pancreatic cancer research and support fellowship training for future pancreatic cancer surgeons at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. In addition, the Foundation presents a yearly symposium headlined by nationally recognized leaders in the field of pancreatic cancer. For more information about the Kosten Foundation, its programs, and events, visit the website at kostenfoundation.com.

9th Annual

APRIL 7, 2019 S H E L B Y F A R M S PA R K • 2 P M FOR SPONSORSHIP INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT ALAN KOSTEN (901-606-5330) OR JEFFREY GOLDBERG (901-606-7542)

Memphis

REGISTER ONLINE BEGINNING JANUARY 2019 @

www.kickit5k.racesonline.com

SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE MISSION Located at the Lorraine Motel, the National Civil Rights Museum chronicles key episodes of the American Civil Rights Movement, examines today’s global civil and human rights issues, provokes thoughtful debate, and serves as a catalyst for social positive change.

VISION FOR THE FUTURE We envision a just society where all people have equal access and opportunity, and where individuals and structural racism are issues of the past.

ABOUT US ANNUAL REVENUE: $8 million NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 52 ESTABLISHED: 1991 SOURCES OF FUNDING EVENTS, SPONSORS AND MEMBERSHIPS: 25% MAJOR GIFTS AND ENDOWMENTS:

13%

ADMISSION, RETAIL, AND OTHER REVENUES: ADDRESS

450 Mulberry Memphis, TN 38103 PHONE

62%

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES There are a number of programs and events in which volunteers can participate at the museum year-round. The King Day Celebration each January celebrates the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the national holiday where up to 600 volunteers are involved. Each April 4th is a program of remembrance commemorating Dr. King’s death. The museum has engaged younger audiences through its annual Ruby Bridges Reading Festival, Drop the Mic Poetry Slam, as well as its Small but Mighty summer story time and educational outreach programs.

PHONE: 901.521.9699 FAX: 901.527.1229 WEBSITE

civilrightsmuseum.org

E XECUTIVE LE ADERSHIP

Terri Lee Freeman President

GIVING OPPORTUNITIES There are plenty of ways individuals and corporate entities can stay connected with the museum’s mission. Individual donations can be made online or at the museum. Recognize a loved one or community leader with a special brick in the courtyard of the Lorraine Motel. The Endowment Fund is central to ensuring the work of the museum continues. Bequests through a long-term gift can leave a legacy for future generations. The museum appreciates generous donations and loans of archival materials, books, photographs, clothing/textiles, audio/visual items, fine art and historic objects. Volunteers assist the museum during special events.

FUNDRAISING EVENTS The National Civil Rights Museum’s Freedom Award is bestowed annually on individuals who have fought for freedom, justice, and equality in America and around the world. The museum’s signature event, the Freedom Award, is a three-part occasion with a student forum in the morning, and a pre-show gala and awards ceremony that evening.

The Night at the Lorraine is a cocktail event that highlights live music, dancing, food, and the history of the Lorraine Motel as a place of refuge where harmony and creativity permeated through a difficult period of discrimination and fosters a greater sense of community by sharing this history across generations.

GOALS FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR • Deliver a 21st century tour experience, interpreting and educating guests about the African American experience and the American Civil Rights Era. • Expand the national/global recognition of NCRM as an authentic civil rights asset and the most comprehensive museum on the civil rights movement.

• Stimulate positive community change and the development of a new generation of civil and human rights leaders through partnerships, programs, and scholarship.

SPECIAL PROMOTION

NCRM_M

T H E P OW ER

of PLACE. MORE THAN A MUSEUM, A PUBLIC SQUARE. There is power in experience.

MORE THAN EXHIBITS, LESSONS.

There is power in knowledge.

MORE THAN EVENTS, OPPORTUNITIES. There is power in connection.

MORE THAN HISTORY, TODAY AND TOMORROW. There is power in moving forward.

MORE THAN A DESTINATION, A JOURNEY. There is power in purpose.

S E E . L E A R N . E N G A G E . A C T.

450 Mulberry Street | Memphis, TN 38103 | civilrightsmuseum.org

SPECIAL PROMOTION

NCRM_MphsMgznGivingGuid2_PwrOfPlaceAd.indd 1

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GIVING GUIDE

MISSON Save lives by meeting the most critical needs in our communities and investing in breakthrough research to prevent and cure breast cancer.

ABOUT US NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 3FT, 3PT ESTABLISHED: 1992 INCOME DISTRIBUTION

$10.9 million granted for breast cancer/breast health services and programs and $3.2 million for breast cancer research since 1993.

PHONE MEMPHIS (MAIN OFFICE)

901.757.8686 JACKSON, MS

601.932.3999 GULFPORT, MS

866.475.6636 WEBSITE /SOCIAL MEDIA WEB: Komenmemphisms.org FACEBOOK: @komenmemphisMS

@komencentralms @gulfcoastraceforthecure TWITTER: @komenmemphis

@komenmagnolias

@komengulf E XECUTIVE LE ADERSHIP

Raphael McInnis President Sr. Manager, Regulatory Affairs Medtronic Memphis, TN Gretchen Reaves Secretary Community Volunteer Memphis, TN Danielle Bowlin Board Treasurer Director, Finance Optimization Medtronic Memphis, TN John Anthony Program Director Mix 98.7 fm Jackson, TN Vickie Blevins Owner/Operator James Middleton Jewelers Memphis, TN Barbara Bowman Vice President Consumer Banking Manager Regions Bank Jackson, MS

SPECIAL PROMOTION

Since 1993, Susan G. Komen Memphis-MidSouth has provided almost $11 million in direct grants to local healthcare providers in the Mid-South and over $3.2 million to breast cancer research.

For every dollar that Komen Memphis-MidSouth Mississippi raises, 75% remains in the local community for breast healthcare grants and educational programs. The remaining 25% funds breast cancer research.

Your support enables us to provide much needed healthcare funds for the local community and continue our mission to eradicate breast cancer through education, support, screenings, diagnostics, treatment, and research. The Susan G. Komen network is the largest non-profit funder of breast cancer research in the United States. Only the US Government funds more breast cancer research.

Below are the organizations in the Mid-South that we have supported financially since 1993 through our Local Grant Program.

Alliance Charitable Foundation, Baptist Healthcare Foundation, Baptist Medical Group, Baptist Memorial Hospital Cancer Center, Baptist Memorial Hospital DeSoto, Baptist Memorial Hospital East/Women’s, Baptist Memorial Hospital Tipton, Breast Cancer Institute, Carpe Diem of the Mid-South, Center for Healthcare Quality, Children and Family Services, Christ Community Health Services, Church Health Center, DeSoto Health and Wellness Center, Julie B. Baier Foundation, Memphis Breast Care, Memphis Cancer Foundation, Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, Memphis Chapter of Hadassah, Memphis Health Center, Memphis-MidSouth Affliate, Methodist Healthcare, Pink Sunday, Reach for Recovery, St. Andrew AME, St. Francis Hospital, STAARS, Tennessee Men’s Health Network, e Memphis Cancer Center, Regional One Health (Regional Medical Ctr at Memphis), Tipton County Commission on Aging, TN Department of Health, total Women Body System/Necessities Bag, University of Tennessee, University of TN/West Institute for Cancer Research, Urban Health Education & Support Services, West Tennessee Area Health Education Center, Wings Cancer Foundation, and YWCA of Greater Memphis.

T. Taylor Burnett Chief Executive Officer The Face & Body Center of Plastic and Hand Surgery Associates Jackson, MS Sophia Cole Director – Sales Enablement Medtronic, Inc. Memphis, TN Barbara S. Craft, MD Associate Professor of Medicine Director of Breast Cancer Treatment and Prevention Program University of Mississippi Medical Center Jackson, MS Leslie Daniel Community Volunteer Memphis, TN Mike Davis Realtor Keller Williams Realty Jackson, MS Ormonde Deallaume Attorney Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz Memphis, TN

Sandi East Senior Account Manager HUB International Jackson, MS Nikki Huffman Administrative Assistant Landers Automotive Group Memphis, TN Melody McAnally Attorney Butler Snow Memphis, TN Christy Moore Billing Administrator Specialized Physical Therapy Jackson, MS Dr. Janice Nazario Family Medicine Baptist Medical Group Memphis, TN Pooja Shah Sr. Business Application Analyst FedEx Services Memphis, TN Odessa Simon-Hawkins, MSN, RN, CFNP Clinical Administrative Supervisor Merit Woman’s Hospital, Flowood, Ms

Karen Sock President and CEO P2P Biloxi, MS Rochelle Sandifer Family Nurse Practitioner Family Health Care Clinic, Inc. Jackson, MS Lakesha Williams Vice President SunTrust Bank Premier Banker Memphis, TN Kyle McGowan Senior Accountant Pfizer Memphis, TN William Winstead V.P. Development & External Relations Boys and Girls Club of Greater Memphis Memphis, TN Lorraine Wolf Community Volunteer Memphis, TN Elaine Hare Ex officio Chief Executive Officer

EVENTS FEBRUARY: APRIL: MAY: AUGUST:

Rock the Ribbon Dance Party & Silent Auction Metro Jackson Race for the Cure (Jackson, MS) Grant Award Luncheon Survivor/Those Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer Luncheon SEPTEMBER: Gulf Coast Race for the Cure (Gulfport, MS) OCTOBER: Pink Tie & Pearls Party (Jackson, MS) Memphis Race for the Cure NOVEMBER: Disparity Round Tables, Laughs for the Cure

ROCK the RIBBON

FEB 9, 2019

Dance Party & Silent Auction Dr. Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster The Great Hall • Germantown, TN

SPECIAL PROMOTION

GIVING GUIDE

ABOUT US ANNUAL REVENUE: $19 million NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 50

For over 95 years, United Way of the Mid-South has brought the time, talents, and treasures of our citizens together so individuals and families in need can enjoy a better quality of life, making the Mid-South an even better place for all. We do this by being the leading catalyst in stimulating support and services for individuals and families as they progress from poverty to prosperity.

ESTABLISHED: 1923 ADDRESS

1005 Tillman Street, Memphis, TN 38112 PHONE

(901) 433-4300 WEBSITE

www.UWMIDSOUTH.ORG facebook.com/uwmidsouth @uwmidsouth linkedin.com/company/united-way-of-the-mid-south/

Rev. Kenneth S. Robinson, M.D. President & CEO E XECUTIVE LE ADERSHIP

Rev. Kenneth S. Robinson, M.D. President & CEO Lori Spicer Robertson Chief Communications & Engagement Officer Gia Stokes Chief Financial Officer Angelia Allen VP, Strategic Development Mary Sexton VP, Resource Development BOARD MEMBERS

Scott Fountain, Chairman of the Board Baptist Memorial Health Care Christopher Anderson Enterprise Holdings R. Scott Barber Horseshoe Casino and Hotel SPECIAL PROMOTION

MISSION: To improve the quality of life for Mid-Southerners by mobilizing and aligning community resources to address priority issues. We strive to advance people from where they are to where they dream to be by addressing the building blocks for success--education, financial stability and health. United Way offers partners, donors and volunteers the ability to fulfill their dreams of how they can support their community through their financial contributions and their commitment of time and talent.

GIVE: Give of your financial capital with a gift of money, trust, stocks, and/or other forms of funding to invest in the advancement of individuals and families.

VOLUNTEER: Serve the Mid-South community with your passion through Volunteer United, our online volunteer engagement tool, and accelerate impact by creating lasting change.

ADVOCATE: Use your intellectual power by delving deeper into the data, contacting your elected officials, and championing our cause to make a difference.

ENGAGE: Connect with us through our Leadership Groups, invite us to speak or engage your networks by hosting an event to benefit United Way.

Shannon A. Brown FedEx Express Irvin Calliste Memphis, AFL-CIO Labor Council Darrell Cobbins Universal Commercial LLC Jerry Collins Memphis Light, Gas & Water Roland Cruickshank Methodist University Hospital, Methodist LeBonheur Cathy Culnane AutoZone Mike Edwards Paragon National Bank Greg Gibson International Paper J.W. Gibson Gibson Companies Jeffery Greer FedEx Freight

Alisa Haushalter Shelby County Health Department Mary Ann Jackson Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz Melanie A. Keller Meritan, Inc Ari Litvin Wells Fargo Advisors, Memphis Ursula Madden City of Memphis David May Regions Bank Jean M. Morton SunTrust Bank John Pettey, III Raymond James Nataline Purdy Communities In Schools of Tennessee at Memphis Kenneth S. Robinson United Way of the Mid-South

Paul Shaffer IBEW, Local 474 Randy Stokx Deloitte Services LP Manoucheka Thermitus St. Francis Hospital Charles Thomas AT&T Josh Tulino Valero Chris VanSteenberg First Tennessee Bank Craig L. Weiss Tower Ventures Kevin Woods BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Richard Wright Ernst & Young, LLP JT Young Memphis Light, Gas & Water

UW_BizJ PIP Ad (2).pdf

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Helping people escape poverty is too big for any one person, any one organization, or even any one sector of business.

This work needs everyone to roll up their sleeves and bring their time, talent, and treasure together in a united way.

The key to the Mid-South’s economic prosperity is poverty reduction. Every time one person escapes poverty, we all beneďŹ t. Thank you for supporting United Way of the Mid-South!

SPECIAL PROMOTION

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An ADR above the national benchmark is the best predictor of colon cancer prevention.

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YEAR IN REVIEW

HEALTHCARE

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Something Ends, Something Begins at West Cancer Center

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ith a firmly entrenched relationship for the better part of the last decade, it was easy to take the partnership between Methodist Healthcare and West Cancer Center for granted. When news came out this fall that the two organizations would be splitting, it caught some observers of the Memphis medical scene off guard. Methodist and West had planned to collaborate with inpatient and surgical services through a comprehensive cancer center in the $275 million Gary Shorb Tower (slated to be finished in 2019), but those plans have been scrapped. Methodist is now exploring other options for the space.

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ever. West Cancer Center moved swiftly to lock down a new partnership as a founding member of OneOncology, a national association of independent oncology practices. So far, the two other members are Tennessee Oncology and New York Cancer & Blood Specialists.

The hope is that the collaboration among premier oncology specialists can advance the understanding of cancer patients’ needs and the overall level of care for those afflicted with the disease.

Another facet of the partnership is West Cancer Center’s pursuit of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation. (Methodist is also seeking an NCI classification). So far, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is the only NCI-designated institution in Tennessee. Nationwide, there are 70 institutions across 36 states that hold the designation, and are recognized for scientific leadership, resources, and depth of cancer research in multiple capacities.

West’s executive director, Dr. Lee Schwartzberg, believes the new partnership will help West Cancer Center

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join that select group. “Today’s challenging and complex healthcare landscape requires that we build new solutions that advance our mission to provide dedicated, clinical excellence with a focus on the latest, most innovative personalized treatment plans,” says Schwartzberg. “This is a natural next chapter for us and maintains patients at the center of all that we do.” OneOncology will have more than 225 oncology providers, an estimated 60 locations, and treat close to 158,000 patients per year. Connecticut-based General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm, invested $200 million in the new partnership.

Baptist Memorial Healthcare Fills West Memphis Void with New Hospital

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n September 2014, Crittenden Regional Hospital in West Memphis closed its doors, laying off more than 400 employees and leaving the county without its own hospital. Paramedics would be forced to whisk at-risk patients across the Mississippi to get them to a hospital. Depending on traffic and a patient’s location, logistics could end up being a nightmare for medical personnel.

Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation (BMHCC) stepped in with a new facility, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Crittenden, which recently finished construction. The $43 million, 65,000-square-foot hospital will have 10 patient rooms, two emergency operating rooms, an endoscopy room, cancer infusion room, and a variety of other medical services.

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Crittenden is expected to employ more than 100 people and plans to open its doors later in December. Baptist has a 10-year lease on the hospital, with an option for a 10-year renewal.

BMHCC can also buy the building outright, but if so, must keep the hospital open for a set number of years, or ownership will transfer to the county.

Campbell Clinic Expansion

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Crittenden

Campbell Clinic Breaks Ground on Germantown Expansion Plan

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f business is going well, why not triple the size of your base? That’s what Campbell Clinic is doing, with construction underway on a huge expansion to its Germantown campus thanks to an increased demand for musculoskeletal services. An additional 120,000 square feet stretches to the north and east of the original location, covering a five-acre lot that remained vacant for years. The project marks a major upgrade toCampbell Clinic’s facilities, and is set to be built on land purchased in the early 1990s by the Campbell Foundation. The Clinic partnered with Rendina Healthcare Real Estate for the design, development, and construction of the facility. Overall, the project is expected to cost around $40 million.

The expansion looks to add many new features to Campbell Clinic’s base of operations. It marks the first time Campbell Clinic has a dedicated sports performance and physical therapy center, effectively doubling the clinic’s PT services. An ambulatory surgery center contains eight operating rooms, while there is plenty of leftover general clinic and leasable space.

The Germantown expansion is the fruit of a five-year plan that Campbell Clinic implemented to spur its growth across the Memphis metro area. The new building is estimated to create around 185 jobs over a threeyear period, and plans to open its doors in October 2019.

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UTHSC Professor Leads Fight Against Ischemic Strokes

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t’s been a strong 12 months for the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Grants galore, a new simulation lab, and key staff additions are just some of the highlights, but perhaps one of the most notable achievements was recognition of Dr. Anne Alexandrov’s work via a $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Alexandrov, Mobile Stroke Unit chief nurse practitioner and and professor in the College of Nursing, is leading a study titled “ZerO Degree head positioning In Acute ischemiC stroke (ZODIAC). Her research explores how patients’ head of bed positioning can affect ischemic stroke symptoms and clinical outcomes. Ischemic strokes, specifically large artery strokes, are the most dangerous type, and in Memphis they constitute 30 percent of diagnoses.

The standard of care is that patients are treated with mechanical thrombectomy to remove blood clots in the brain. However, most patients have their beds elevated 30 degrees or higher, which could lead to clinical deterioration. To help combat potential treatment complications, Alexandrov believes that laying patients flat can help prevent neurological complications. “Our preliminary studies show that brain blood flow can increase as much as 20 percent on average in ischemic territories when the patient’s bed is laid flat,” says Alexandrov. No risk of increased intracranial pressure (ICP) “is present during this early period, so laying a patient flat should not increase concern about increased ICP. We also found that pneumonia is rare with zero-degree head of bed positioning when nurses cautiously monitor the airway and use side-lying positions.”

Reducing complications for stroke patients is a step in the right direction for one of the deadliest medical afflictions in the United States. Dr. Alexandrov’s team will conduct randomized clinical trials at several locations across the country.

Methodist Solidifies Base With New Facilities, Leadership

Methodis Medial Group, Primary Care office in Southaven.

town Hospital welcomed a new leader after a nationwide search for its next president. The hospital selected Rebecca Cullison, FACHE, who has a history with Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, beginning her career with the organization back in 2004 as an administrative resident. Most recently, she served as chief executive officer at the retirement community The Village at Germantown.

Dr. Anne Alexandrov

Rebecca Cullison

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n late September, Methodist Healthcare began construction on a brand-new facility at the corner of Getwell and Nail Rd. in Southaven. The 12,000 square-foot facility, set to be finished in April 2019, will be the new home of Methodist Medical Group — Primary Care office, which is currently on Airways Blvd.

The head physicians providing comprehensive medical care at the facility will be Walt Carnahan, Kyle Kimbrough, and Susan Scott. The project is being handled

by Memphis-based F&F Construction, Inc. In Shelby County, Methodist Le Bonheur German54 |

Dr. Frank McGrew

Stern Cardiovascular Completes Research on AngelMed Guardian System

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tern Cardiovascular Research participated in a trial of the AngelMed for Early Recognition and Treatment of STEMI (ALERTS) system that studied patients at high risk of having a myocardial infarction (heart attack) due to acute coronary syndrome or bypass surgery. America sees more than one million cases of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) every year, with as many as 400,000 resulting in death. Early detection of AMI can lead to an improved clinical outcome, and the AngelMed Guardian system, an implantable cardiac device, serves to detect early onset of AMI before symptoms are visible.

The research team, led by Dr. Frank McGrew, found the AngelMed Guardian system to be a viable solution for at-risk patients. Stern implanted the device into several people and were able to easily trace symptoms and provide immediate care in the case of a heart attack.

Patients who receive care within one hour of symptom onset are more likely to survive and drastically cut medical costs.

With studies proving the devices viability for patients, AngelMed Guardian system received FDA approval for commercial use. Upon detecting a change in ST segments that could lead to AMI, the AngelMed Guardian system provides a series of auditory, visual, and vibratory warnings.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES 2019

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Joshua Spotts Realtor What advice would you give someone who is looking for help to buy or sell their home?

Buying or selling a home is more than a financial transaction. A successful partnership between client and Realtor means a shared passion for a common goal. Clients need someone who will listen, learn their needs and desires, and work closely with them. I strive to get the job done and be responsive to all their real estate needs, but also provide prompt service, personal guidance and professional competence from contract to closing.

How will a buyer or seller know when they’ve found the right agent to represent them?

Ideally, an agent that is passionate about their job, loves their city and region, and keeps up with the latest trends and strategies is the strongest partner for someone who is buying or selling a home. I am a native Mid-Southerner and I love Memphis. I am raising my family here and I am a passionate advocate for many organizations in our community. My goal is to share that passion with clients to help them find their dream home.

What are some of the new tools available to buyers and sellers in the real estate industry?

Our society is mobile and business transactions take place virtually everywhere. I offer my clients cuttingedge technology, including a custom app that allows mobile-device users to view real estate listings based on their location, then contact me with the single push of a button. My clients have had particularly good results with this and other services I offer.

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PERSPECTIVES 2019

RECRUITING AND STAFFING:

Kirk Johnston Senior Managing Partner, Vaco Memphis | Memphis How does the Mid-South job market compare to others across the country?

While people are getting priced out of large cities like New York and San Francisco, Memphis is at an advantage to attract transplants from both metropolitan cities and rural communities. Now is better than ever to recruit top talent from across the country. Memphis is home to some of the biggest employers in North America, but there are plenty of professional opportunities unknown to outsiders. We have one of the largest medical districts in the nation. There are also countless startups, small businesses and nonprofits that employ dedicated professionals interested in making a positive difference.

It makes sense that outside corporations have been eyeing

the Bluff City and investing in its economic development.

What hiring trends should we look forward to seeing as we begin 2019?

Unlike the job market 10 years ago in the height of the Great Recession, today’s economy is a candidate’s market, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported seven million job openings at the close of the third quarter this year. Companies will begin investing more in recruiting and retaining top talent to remain competitive.

This means they should be ready to offer generous salaries and benefits based on the market’s demands, not what they deem is “good enough” for the desired candidate. Hiring managers need to become more proactive in the hiring process and speed their

decision-making timeline from the initial screening to the final job offer. Time is no longer on their side, and they should keep the process moving efficiently.

This is a sharp contrast to recent years, when it could take weeks or even months to make a job offer. If managers drag their feet, they risk losing their dream candidates to other companies in that time.

What else should hiring managers do to improve their recruiting efforts in 2019?

Because candidates now have more power in the hiring process, companies should invest in recruitment marketing this year. Candidates are now the ones screening companies. And those companies should treat candidates the same way they treat customers. Hiring managers

need to become more strategic in their recruiting efforts.

We’re beginning to see hiring managers adopt methods similar to those used by marketing experts. Such methods include inbound recruiting, employer branding and social recruiting. A positive “candidate experience” is essential not only to winning over a top candidate, but also to maintaining a company’s positive reputation regarding how it treats its employees.

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For orders placed by December 19th, we guarantee delivery of gift card and tote bag by December 23, 2018!

You can also order online at memphismagazine.com or call 901.575.9470.

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The Memphis magazine Fiction Contest for Mid-South writers is back ...with a lean and hungry new look!

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he Very Short Story Contest welcomes entries up to 750 words, maximum. Winning stories will be published in Memphis and will be archived on memphismagazine.com. Whereas the fiction contest was in years past a once-ayear event, the Very Short Story Contest

will recognize ten winning entries annually, every month except February and August.

The Very Short Story Contest is presented by Novel, Memphis’ newest independent bookstore. Winning authors will be honored with a $200 gift certificate at Novel.

CONTEST RULES: 1. Authors are strongly encouraged to bring Memphis or the Mid-South into their stories.

How to do this is open to your interpretation.

2. Entries will be accepted throughout the year. The winning entry in any given month must have been received by the end of the second month prior (i.e. March’s winner must be received by the end of January).

3. Each story should be typed, double-spaced, and should not exceed 750 words.

4. With each story should be a cover letter that gives your name, brief author bio, address, phone number, and the title of your story. Please do NOT put your name anywhere on the manuscript itself.

5. Manuscripts may not have been previously published.

6. Manuscripts should be sent to fiction@memphismagazine.com as .doc, .rtf, or .pdf files.

G E N E R A T I O N S

Building a Farm Team

Entrepreneur bet his company on millennials and continues to reap the rewards.

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There was news in November when it was announced that Memphis-based Interaction Solutions, Inc. (ISI) had been acquired by AVI-SPL, a global giant in the audio-visual and videoconferencing business.

people and had to replace them.

He thought outside the box and figured instead of getting experienced people, he’d hire millennials who could be trained — a sort of farm system as Myers has writIt was a huge step for Jay Myers, he likes to say. It was ten two books about who founded ISI in 1996, guiding how he handled the AV company through the Millennials want to risky, but the busithose unexpected fast-changing world of technoldo something good ness, in four years, went from $11 million situations that chalogy, finding solutions to for the community. to $25 million. lenge any entreprecrises, pairing state-ofHe learned from neur. The first was the-art tech with rigorWhat they’re doing that. In October, he when his account ous customer service, and with you has to be manager embezzled achieving such success spoke at the SOE’s Enmore than a job. $250,000. He faced it that he was inducted into trepreneurs Roundforthrightly and, not the Memphis Society of table meeting on dealing with without pain, Entrepreneurs (SOE) millennials. It might behoove brought the employers to hear him out since earlier this year. company out AV I - S P L h a s a recent study indicated Memof it. That phis still has a way to go to be a made several top destination for that young generation.

While it’s generally accepted that the millennials that are here are very fond of Memphis, some data crunching by realtyhop.com, tyhop.com a national site for home sales and data, suggested that our town only scores a C. The survey focused on the job market, median incomes, housing affordability, mobility/geographic diversity, and education levels. And perhaps number jugglers can determine average home prices, but they can’t quantify what’s cool and funky, or measure the ratio Jay Myers of grit to grind. Myers certainly believes in the generation.

Here are some excerpts from Myers’ guide to making the most of millennials:

acquisitions and expansions in recent years, so adding ISI, which is dominant in Tennessee and around the region, continues that plan with expanding its reach in Nashville and hiring more sales and support people there.

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inspired him to write Keep Swinging, Swinging, which was about dealing with adversity.

The next book was Hitting the Curveballs (he’s a huge New York Yankee fan), which spoke to how he handled the Great Recession that hammered businesses a decade ago. Just about the time it started, he lost some of his best

How are millennials different?

We baby boomers say: “You have no communication skills.

You make statements and form opinions because you’re engaged with social media.”

Understand this, social media didn’t exist when we were their age. The first thing I had to

figure out with our folks is that it is a different world.

What doesn’t work?

Baby boomers, do you remember your first job and how you got motivated? In sales in the ’70s, I know for me it was all about intimidation, threats, cussing. You don’t make your numbers, you’re out of here. Do or die. That won’t work with millennials.

How are they the same?

They want to grow their careers. Baby boomers, is that much different from us all those years ago? When you’re recruiting millennials, think about the opportunities for them.

What about their attitude towards work?

Millennials do not like to obsess about work 24/7. They don’t want to be labeled by their job.

They also want to be treated with respect. And they don’t want to be called the entitlement generation.

What do we do affirmatively?

Meet them on their terms. They are the most tech-savvy generation in the history of mankind.

When you’re trying to recruit, you need to be able to challenge them to do more. There’s plenty of energy. Don’t limit to what is expected, but demand more.

What else can we do?

Give back to the community.

They want to do something good for the community. Get them involved. Put the energy to use for the nonprofit or whatever you’re doing. What they’re doing with you has to be more than a job.

A full transcript is available on the blog at the SOE website (soememphis.com).

PHOTOGRAPH BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

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Dance Partners

United Capital and New Ballet Ensemble join to boost exposure to the arts.

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Soldiers in New Ballet’s Nut ReMix

While the wealth management firm United Capital provides financial guidance to clients, it also has made a serious investment in the Memphis arts community by sponsoring this holiday’s Nut ReMix performance by the New Ballet Ensemble (NBE).

“For us, it is not just about work and wealth, but also about serving,” says Michael Deutsch, managing director of the Memphis office of United Capital. “We believe in giving back to our community —

outing has become a holiday tradition for the youngsters.

“Our sponsorship not only provides buses for transporting the children and tickets for the performance, but this opportunity allows students to see

together on a daily basis where the common denominators are excellence and innovation.”

“Nut ReMix is in its 16th year,” says Julie Goebl, director of administration and philanthropy for NBE. “It is a Memphis-based take on the Nutcracker that includes all kinds of dance styles and a tweak to the storyline. For instance, it is set on Beale Street, and the skirmish between the mice and the soldiers is a hip-hop battle with a peaceful resolution between the warring sides.”

For the students, Goebl says Nut ReMix is a very exciting performance. The Memphis Symphony Orchestra performs along with the dancers. Lil Buck (Charles Riley), a world-renowned dancer from South Memphis and graduate of the NBE program, takes part as well.

The collaboration evolved from the interest of Jeni Linkous, a senior relationship

and E: embrace (embracing the youth in Memphis). Sometimes you just need to be present.”

This collaboration is also an example of leveraging impact.

Deutsch has served on the board of Binghampton Christian Academy for several years.

Through that experience he realized that supporting New Ballet’s Nut ReMix performance was a means of serving a variety of United Capital’s initiatives through one endeavor.

“Nut ReMix would be impossible for us to produce without support from for-profit businesses in the Memphis community,” says Smythe.

“By providing transportation and tickets, United Capital is opening a window to the world of performing arts so that these students, if they are inspired, can walk through a door to a bigger world.”

Deutsch says, “Memphis

Michael Deutsch

Katie Smythe

Julie Goebl

Jeni Linkous

we’re Memphians serving Memphians. We personally and professionally invest our time and money in our community.

We do so by giving our employees time off for their individual volunteer endeavors and by supporting their deeper engagement as board members of area nonprofit organizations.”

The partnership with NBE gives students from Binghampton Christian Academy a chance to expand their exposure to the arts. The

some of their peers performing at a very high level of talent,” says Deutsch. “That exposure is invaluable in encouraging students to see themselves on the stage, too, or feel empowered to reach for their dreams.”

“Founded in 2001, New Ballet Ensemble and School is a thriving after-school dance program in the heart of Cooper-Young,” says Katie Smythe, founding CEO and artistic director of NBE. “Aspiring dancers from vastly diverse backgrounds come

manager for United Capital.

Her daughter was a student at NBE and Linkous wanted to support her endeavors. She is now a board member for the nonprofit arts organization.

“United Capital began supporting NBE with what we call ‘time, talent, and treasure,’” says Deutsch. “Jeni gives of her time and talents, and we provide financial donations.

It follows our ACE format: A: provide access to resources, C: connectivity (personal contacts),

is a city that is very kind and charitable. We need to keep building our collaborations and recognize that we can find those Memphis stories in need of support. Memphis can do this all on its own — not copy something from somewhere else.

Our collaboration with New Ballet Ensemble is an example of what makes Memphis so authentic. Everybody has a role to play. Memphis has such momentum — we need to get on board and serve.”

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The Office Dorothy Gunther Pugh Ballet Memphis

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Dorothy Gunther Pugh founded Ballet Memphis in 1986 with two dancers and a budget of $75,000, so she knows a thing or two about trying and triumphs: today the company has 22 dancers and a $4.6 million budget. That happens when you deftly travel the path of organizing, wooing donors, nurturing dancers, keeping up with changes, and tending to the main thing: Making thrilling art for appreciative audiences. A tribute to Pugh’s savvy leadership is the ballet company’s gleaming new home that opened last year in the heart of Overton Square. !1

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With performance theater making a resurgence in Midtown, Pugh wanted Ballet Memphis to follow Playhouse on the Square and Hattiloo Theatre in setting up shop around the recently revitalized Madison and Cooper district.

The new space is impossible to miss. Large windows, a perforated copper curtain that protects those inside from too much sun, and layers of metal make the building stand out among a more conventionally-designed lineup of nearby

shops and restaurants.

The distinctive exterior is abetted by inviting outdoor seating for Ballet Memphis’ resident restaurant, Mama Gaia, and public courtyards. Working with the design firm archimania, Pugh had it firmly in mind that the building would be a civic place, a central location that connected Ballet Memphis with the community. “I didn’t just want people to see us and feel that they could come in,” says Pugh. “I wanted to remind everyone who works here that we are in service to the world around us, and not just trying to be another typical ballet company.” The large windows

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along Madison Avenue provide a glimpse into dance rehearsals and pilates lessons, while the large hallways and meeting rooms provide extra space for working or discussion.

The ground floor consists of storage areas filled with more than 10,000 costumes (Ballet Memphis manufactures most of its apparel in-house), a large performance venue, and the four main studios where Ballet Memphis’ dancers can practice.

“I named the studios Dream, Fly, Imagine, and Discover,” says Pugh.

“When people are in the studio, I

want those to be the things that we are all experiencing, and I want to help people experience that if they’re involved with ballet.” Even for those outside ballet, a walk past the eastern side of the building brings with it a glimpse of an upcoming production, with a storefront display window, a la Saks Fifth Avenue, showcasing a full array of costumes.

And there’s plenty of space to go around. When not serving as a bastion of classical dance, Ballet Memphis makes its space available as an event venue. Any

of the studios, meeting rooms, board rooms, or even the whole building, can be rented out for parties or various corporate functions.

Throughout the interior, the spacious design ensures that the whole building is well lit. Even the more conventional second-floor office spaces avoid the common drudgery of workplace aesthetic with large windows.

The continued presence of light gives the whole working space a positive, energetic feeling, and the artists a better base in which to function creatively.

Pugh’s personal office continues the theme, with bright artwork and a large window overlooking the parking lot and surrounding neighborhood. Her bookshelves are filled with photographs of her ballet career, various awards (Memphis magazine named her Memphian of the Year for 2017), and numerous books. When a new production is under way, she assigns choreographers literature in anticipation of the theme of a show.

One prominent book, which has a whole compartment to itself in the office, is Occult Witchcraft & Magic. “There’s a lot of ancillary information that I think feeds into old stories in ballets,” says Pugh, “and I think most people don’t understand that.” The tales in the book provide a good entry into the realm of the supernatural, which is a heavy theme in Ballet Memphis’ run of Giselle next April. “If we’re going to have a witch, or something magical, we want everyone involved to understand that culture.”

That didacticism permeates every facet of Pugh’s role at Ballet Memphis. “A lot of people don’t understand what it means to be a real ballet company, one that auditions dancers from around the world and has top-notch choreographers and a lot of expenses,” she says. “There is no other dance company like that here in Memphis. We have a lot of exciting things going on here, many full-time artists who are great, and this is really for everyone in the community.”

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Abe Plough

His Creed: “You do the greatest good when you help the greatest number of people.”

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No magazine devoted to philanthropy would be complete without the story of Abe Plough. After all, there’s a good reason our city has named streets, parks, and buildings after this gentleman.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY UM LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Not only did he construct the greatest pharmaceutical empire Memphis has yet seen, but after he retired he devoted practically all his time, energy, and — let’s be realistic here — money to countless charitable endeavors.

And that effort has continued after his death in 1984, in the form of the Plough Foundation he had established in 1960.

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1892, Plough came to Memphis around 1900 when his father, Moses, opened an auction business at 45 Jefferson, later moving it to various locations downtown. According to historian Selma Lewis, who contributed the entry on Abe Plough for the Tennessee Encyclopedia, the boy attended Market Street School, “where a teacher taught him to calculate figures without pencil or paper.

He said this ‘mental arithmetic’ served him well in his business career since he never needed a pencil to calculate his acquisition of 30 companies for the

Schering-Plough Corporation at a cost of more than $1 billion.”

At an early age, Plough decided the drug business would be his future, so his first job — supposedly without pay — was with the Francis Drug Store at 912 Vance. But in 1908, the Plough legend truly begins: He was barely 16 years old when his father loaned him $125 to start his own business, the Plough Chemical Company.

Working from a room above his father’s store at 230 South Main, he developed “Plough’s Antiseptic Healing Oil,” using dishpans to mix a potent blend of cottonseed oil, carbolic acid, and camphor. Plough drove a horse-drawn buggy to peddle his “sure cure for any ill of man or beast” to country stores and was so successful that he soon added perfumes and cosmetics to his growing business.

But let’s get something straight. Some biographies claim that Plough made his fortune when he “invented” St.

Abe Plough and CBU president Theodore Drahmann at the dedication of the Plough Library.

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Joseph aspirin and even point to various sites in Memphis where this marvelous event took place. Well, they’re wrong. The St. Joseph aspirin brand was developed in the late 1800s by the Gerstle Drug Company of Chattanooga. Founder Leopold Gerstle had first moved to St. Joseph, Missouri, after coming to America from Germany, so that’s probably where he got the name.

Abe Plough’s genius was his ability to seek out other successful products and companies. He purchased Gerstle in 1920 and embarked on a national marketing campaign for St. Joseph, promoting it as “the children’s aspirin.” His efforts paid off; according to an old Memphis Press-Scimitar article, by the 1950s his company was cranking out 540,000 aspirin tablets every hour. Over the years, Plough also acquired other well-known brands, including Maybelline and Coppertone products. Even so, Plough once acknowledged that St. Joseph aspirin “first put him on the road to the big time.”

That big time included the 1951 grand opening of the 250,000-square-foot manufacturing complex at 3022 Jackson.

Records show that within a few years, the Plough Company reported sales of a quarter-billion dollars.

Even using his old-school “mental arithmetic,” I’m sure Abe Plough considered that a pretty good use of his father’s $125 loan.

In 1971, Plough merged with the German firm Schering AG to form ScheringPlough Corporation. The business was later bought by the Merck pharmaceutical chain, which eventually closed most of the Memphis

operation. Plough retired as chairman of the board in 1976 and announced that he could now devote time to his real passion — philanthropy. Many of his financial gifts to the community were made as “Mr. Anonymous” but everyone knew they came from Abe Plough.

All the people and places that benefited from his generosity over the years would fill this magazine, because he was determined to help everyone in the Mid-South, no matter how much effort or money was required. After his death in 1984, the privately owned Plough Foundation has carried on his legacy, with a special emphasis on improving the quality of life for our community, whether battling substance abuse and family violence, or working to improve parks and schools. Over the years, the Foundation has made grants to the Memphis Zoo, Shelby Farms, ArtsMemphis, Memphis in May, Big River Crossing, Rhodes College, the Greater Memphis Chamber, Facing History and Ourselves, Lifeblood, Bridges … the list just goes on and on.

“We generally award grants over multiple years and [the total amount] can vary significantly,” says Rick Masson, executive director. “Generally the Foundation awards between $5 million and $10 million a year.”

Decades after his death, Plough’s legacy is recognized

by Plough Boulevard leading to Memphis International Airport, the Plough Library at Christian Brothers University, the Plough Recreation Area at Shelby Farms, the Plough Center for Sterile Drug Delivery Systems at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, to name a few.

For someone who wanted to be known as “Mr. Anonymous,” Abe Plough is fondly remembered by thousands of grateful Memphians to this day.

INSIDE MEMPHIS BUSINESS.COM | DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019

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11/2/18 1:26 PM

An Evening with Kristin Chenoweth Saturday February 9th, 2019 at 6pm The Guest House at Graceland

Join us for a special event to benefit The University of Tennessee West Institute for Cancer Research. This intimate evening will begin with fine dining at the Guest House and will conclude with a private concert

by Emmy and Tony Award winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth. Proceeds from this event will help fund our commitment to adult cancer research and supportive care services.

Visit WestInstituteGala.org for details and tickets For Sponsorship Opportunities contact Rola Obaji - robaji@westclinic.com • 901-484-8252

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A moment of joy.

A source of inspiration.

An act of kindness.

A reason to believe.

What’s inside?

What will it bring?

An old friend.

A new beginning.

Some welcome relief, perhaps.

Or a cause for celebration.

A first impression.

A second chance.

The opportunity of a lifetime.

The help you’ve been looking for.

A distinguished past.

A promising future.

What’s inside, you ask?

Possibilities What we deliver by delivering.

SM

© 2018 FedEx.

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