Become a Member

Community Shares accepts new member organizations in the fall. If you are interested in joining Community Shares please complete this application and return it to our main office in Knoxville. The process for deciding new members is done via the membership committee. They will vote on whether or not the organization fits the criteria of membership. Please feel free to contact either the Knoxville or Nashville office with questions.

Before filling out the application, please look this material over to determine if your organization meets our guidelines and criteria and whether your organization will be able to fulfill the participation and monetary requirements of an associate member. NOTE:  If your organization would like to be a member of Community Shares but do not think you can fulfill the participation requirements; you might be interested in becoming an “Adjunct” Member.  Look in the Membership Criteria and Standards section for more information on this type of membership.  

One important piece of the criteria in that all CS Member Organizations must be an organization whose primary purpose is to advocate for progressive social change. Please understand that this is not a judgment on the great work many social service organizations do. However, when CS was founded, we decided to serve only social change organizations since they were seriously underserved in workplace fundraising.  In order to become a member of CS, you must explain how your organization works at a systems level to change the problems you address.  This does not have to be all that you do, but it must be a primary component.

Applications are due by December 5, 2011 (emailed by midnight that day).  Everything should be submitted electronically.  You may send us pdf’s, word (or rtf) documents and excel documents.  It can all be one document or several documents. You can email it or send it all to me on a disk (cd or dvd). If you only have a hard copy of a certain document you can usually take it to someplace like Kinko’s and have them scan it in for you.  If you absolutely cannot send the documents electronically, please call me at 865-522-1604 and we will try and work something out. Late applications will not be accepted. 

Click to download the New Member Application. PDF version

Click to download the New Member Application. Read only version