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Window Looking into Nonprofit Knoxville

Written by Daniel Watson

Executive Director 

The Restoration House of East Tennessee

Knoxville’s nonprofit sector is extremely diverse with well over 2,000 nonprofit

organizations according to Guidestar.com; that is one nonprofit for every 86 people!

 These nonprofits are active in almost every area of Knoxville’s society, including:

arts, education, human services, social action, philanthropy, health, environment,

religion, sports, and others. With this kind of sweeping impact, it is hard to imagine

Knoxville without such distinctive nonprofits as Bijou Theatre, Dogwood Arts

Festival, Knox Area Rescue Ministries, Baptist Hospital, Hope Resource Center,

Habitat for Humanity, Community Action Committee, or its 90+ private foundations,

amongst thousands of others.

With hundreds of types of nonprofits, it is often hard to recognize that which is or is

not a nonprofit organization. Generally, all nonprofits, “exist to serve a mission, to

respond to a situation or opportunity that has not been addressed,”1 without

profiting monetarily.

Over the course of Knoxville’s history, when there was a need to be addressed or an

opportunity to be taken advantage of, the creation of a new nonprofit soon followed.

For example, following the Civil War there was an urgent need to educate the

South’s newly freed slaves. In response, Presbyterian missionaries established

Knoxville College. Knoxville College has now been providing quality education to

African Americans for over 130 years. Or consider Emerald Youth Foundation (EYF).

EYF is a faith-based urban youth organization, located in the heart of Knoxville. The

foundation grew out of a vision of Emerald Avenue United Methodist Church in 1988

to serve children and youth in its low to moderate income Oakwood/Lincoln Park

community. Twenty years later, EYF works annually with over 850 inner city

preschool through high school age youth.

Along with communities of faith and government, nonprofits are often viewed as

one of three spokes in the wheel of human service. With over 300 nonprofit human

service organizations in Knoxville, extensive duplication of services is not

uncommon. Unfortunately, such duplication has at times, lead to confusion andfrustration from within the community. When considering the vast landscape of 

faith and community-based organizations in the Knoxville area, there are many

respectable organizations working for noble causes. However, in order to more

1 Zdenek, Robert. "Organizational Culture and Nonprofits." SPAEF: Public Administration and Management: An Interactive Journal. http://www.pamij.com/zdenek.html (accessed April 15,2008).

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effectively address the deep and systemic community challenges Knoxville faces,

there must be an increased emphasis on cooperation and collaboration amongst

these organizations in order to bring about holistic impact.

Knoxville Leadership Foundation is one nonprofit that is helping to lead the way and

unite organizations through its Center for Communities (CFC) program. Over thepast three years, over 52 nonprofit organizations participated in CFC’s capacity

building training and consultation. With a strong emphasis on collaboration and

partnership to achieve greater community good, the CFC program helps encourage

numerous organizations to join forces in strategic partnerships such as Destination

Hope. Destination Hope is a partnership among 5 local nonprofits to help move

women from street-life and addiction into lives of self- worth & self-sufficiency.

Operating alone, these organizations could never accomplish what they are now

capable of accomplishing together.

At times the church has demonstrated a view of the nonprofit world that suggests

that the two are in competition with one another; as if the nonprofit is doing thework to which God exclusively called the church. However, if and when the two

entities can begin to view themselves as potential and essential partners in

Kingdom work, then will there be resources shared, more lives changed, and

communities restored.