Dear friend,
Registration is now open for NFG’s 2025 National Convening: Seeding (and Ceding) Transformational Power! This year’s convening theme, Seeding (and Ceding) Transformational Power, is a call to action. We aim to seed many ideas and investments, build new opportunities to fund ongoing organizing and power building, and resource communities methodically and in collaboration with one another toward a larger vision — building a multiracial democracy and just future.
Our team is excited to announce that the first 150 registrants will receive a custom covening-themed poster by Hatch Show Print, an iconic letterpress print shop established in 1879. Now operating out of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Hatch continues to design and print limited-run posters by hand.
In the coming months you’ll see regular communications from our team about the seedlings being planted in preparation for our time in Nashville. In this month’s newsletter we’re previewing details about NFG’s Amplify Fund & Democratizing Development Program Learning Visit in Nashville!
Following NFG’s 2023 National Convening in Wilmington, NC — Nashville emerged as a region of focus for 2025 based on:
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Close relationships with local leaders through partnerships with Amplify Fund, Funders for a Just Economy, and Democratizing Development Program. Read more about NFG’s past projects in Nashville here;
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A lack of philanthropic support at the regional and national levels;
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The potential for grassroots leaders to influence community power building across the country;
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And a core belief that the South has always been as much an organizing ground for our freedom dreams, as it is for technologies of violence.
Nashville holds a complex and compelling history that continues to shape its present-day movements for justice and equity. While the city has evolved into a symbol of Southern cosmopolitanism, synonymous with honky-tonk, cowboy boots, and country music, this narrative masks the deeper struggles and negotiations over identity, belonging, and power in the city. From Euro-American settlers to disaster capitalists, displacement is a story that has defined Middle Tennessee from its fledgling days as a frontier settlement. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s land was violently expropriated from Indigenous peoples; in the late 1960s construction of interstate highway I-40 uprooted the thriving Black residents who lived and owned businesses in North Nashville; and today relentless gentrification resulting from development projects catered toward corporations and wealthy transplant continue to push long-time residents out.
The struggle over Nashville’s identity also persists, as the juxtaposition of bachelor(ette) parties alongside a resurgence of neo-Nazi activity; a reveal a stark contrast to Nashville’s manufactured image. But efforts to reshape the economy and influence the use of land to the benefit of a small ruling class have not gone uncontested. Community organizations, such as Amplify Fund grantees Stand Up Nashville (SUN) and The Equity Alliance (TEA), have consistently built campaigns by and for working-class, BIPOC folks to address their immediate needs and ensure Nashville has a sustainable future.
On Tuesday (7/15) morning, Amplify Fund and DDP will kick off the convening with a Learning Visit that aims to illuminate the context and history of racial justice organizing in Nashville, with a particular focus on how rapid development has shaped the city.
Participants will examine how narratives about Nashville’s culture often ignore communities of color and obscure systemic inequities, in the battle for the story of the city. As the adage goes, “as the South goes, so goes the nation” — this conversation will reveal how Nashville’s organizing informs broader movements across the country and illuminates what to expect from a state that has actively advanced Project 2025-like policies.
Guests of the visit will also hear from local organizers, many of whom were born and raised in Nashville, and engage with local culture and cuisine, which, like the city’s music, tells stories of resistance, resilience, and creativity. By immersing in these experiences, funders will gain a holistic view of how housing, labor, and racial justice intersect and learn actionable ways to support transformative work in Tennessee and beyond.
If you are interested in joining Amplify Fund, DDP, and its local partners, you can select the Learning Visit as an “add-on” when registering through Whova. Space is limited to 50 funders.
Registration for NFG’s 2025 National Convening will be available until June 27, 2025 (or when sold out)! NFG’s room block at the Grand Hyatt Nashville is also ready for booking. Please note: NFG is not using a third party system for reservations. Make sure to use the unique link provided to ensure you receive NFG’s group rate. Below you’ll also find more information about scholarship and sponsorship opportunities for the convening. And stay tuned for next month’s newsletter where we’ll be sharing more information on the daily plenaries and concurrent sessions you can expect in Nashville!
In solidarity,
Team NFG