April 2023 CNM News & Updates
Community Impact, Nonprofit Leadership, Nonprofit Operations, Program Management, Revenue Development
April 28, 2023
As I enter my third month serving as CNM’s Interim President and CEO, I can’t express enough how grateful I am to be in this role and have the fantastic opportunity to serve you! My new role has allowed me to connect with our members in many ways. I admire how you all fiercely encourage each other to keep pushing forward, to continue getting better, and continue to reach for more, deeper impact, advocacy, and collective change.
As we near the end of April, I want to update you on some recent organizational changes and be sure you are among the first to know. As part of our ongoing commitment to serving Middle Tennessee nonprofits, we are looking at 2023 as an opportunity to holistically evaluate our existing services and programs and think strategically about how we best serve the community. We want to ensure that we are meeting the evolving needs of our community in the most effective and efficient way possible. Extensive consultation with our stakeholders, including staff, members, funders, and community members, has been completed along with a survey and a benchmarking exercise. Feedback from our first round of focus groups has been enlightening and will be critical in our service model evaluation process.
Along with initiatives of this nature comes change. I am disappointed to inform you that two of our dedicated and well-respected employees will leave CNM next month to pursue new ventures. Dawn Stone (Chief Impact & Diversity Officer) and Sarah McCormick (Director of Operations) have been with us throughout several transitions. Their contributions to our team, members, and community have been invaluable, and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
As part of our evaluation process, we are critically examining open roles and responsibilities to determine how best to move forward with staffing decisions. Last month, we were thrilled to bring Amiee Sadler on board as our new Community Impact Manager. She has previously supported CNM as an equity workshop facilitator and will now oversee the programs and strategies of a coalition of minority-led grassroots organizations known as “The Village”, serving as a partner liaison between CNM and the Office of Community Safety at the Nashville Metropolitan Mayor’s Office. She is a true asset, and we’re incredibly excited to add her to our team.
In addition, we have made the difficult decision to delay our 30th-anniversary celebration of Salute to Excellence until 2024. Now more than ever, it’s critical that our team focuses on the strategic path we have set, completing our assessment of services, developing recommendations for the future, and successfully undertaking the search for CNM’s future chief executive officer.
We understand that this news may be disappointing, as the awards ceremony is an important occasion to celebrate local nonprofits’ hard work and impact. Please know that this decision was not taken lightly, and we are actively working with event and award sponsors to pivot salute revenue toward additional services. We will, of course, continue to look for opportunities to highlight and celebrate the accomplishments of our nonprofit community.
We remain steadfast in our commitment to serving our mission of amplifying the impact of nonprofits and their partners throughout Middle Tennessee. We are confident that at the end of this process, we will emerge stronger and better equipped to meet the needs of our changing nonprofit community.
We are incredibly grateful for your membership and commitment throughout the years. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me, Charles Sueing (CNM Vice-Chair and Chair-Elect), or Trace Blankenship (CNM Board Chair) directly.
Thank you for your ongoing good work,
Wanda Lyle