Blog

This commentary piece from the Alliance Executive Director originally appeared in the December issue of the Mississippi Business Journal. The recent challenges facing nonprofits have dominated public discourse, overshadowing a fundamental truth: Mississippi’s nonprofit sector remains one of our state’s most vital economic drivers and community lifelines. As executive director of the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy, I see firsthand the transformative work of thousands of organizations operating with integrity, transparency, and remarkable efficiency across our state.

The Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy (the Alliance) was created to enhance coordination, collaboration, and communication among nonprofits, maximizing existing funding and expanding resources. The Alliance also focuses on embedding equity into nonprofit work, aiming to ensure equitable outcomes. During the 2022 Jackson water crisis, nonprofits worked to meet urgent needs. Recently, with funding from the US Water Alliance, the Alliance and its partners have been studying equity in disaster response, recovery, and resilience efforts. 

Two big, related questions have hung over many in philanthropy these past several years: first, how best to protect democracy, and second, how to work to bridge differences in a polarized time.

Social change isn’t possible when nonprofit leaders are exhausted. Extended paid leave helped me — and can help others.

The Southern Trends Report, produced in partnership with Candid includes eight years of data on grantmaking in the southern region through 2021. The latest updates also include expanded data for 2019 and 2020.

Unless you have been on a media fast, you have probably heard about ChatGPT, which is an AI language model developed by Open AI. It launched publicly at the end of November 2022

Published in the chronicle of philanthropy By Darren Walker, Heather Templeton Dill, Kathleen Enright, Sam Gill, Brian Hooks and Elise Westhoff The United States has a strong, globally respected tradition of independent philanthropy that includes and is exemplified by the nation’s private foundations.

In April 2019, the Mississippi Association of Grantmakers and the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits joined forces to create a new entity, the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy. All aspects of the alliance, including its structure, programming, leadership, and partnerships, now focus on building strong relationships and creating opportunities for mutual learning, sharing, and networking between grant makers and nonprofits.