Some nonprofit leaders build programs. Others confront the policies and power structures that have contributed to making those programs necessary.
Then some nonprofits do both, work directly with communities while confronting the policies and decisions shaping the problems those communities face. Their leadership carries the realities of neighborhoods into rooms where elected officials and philanthropists help shape funding priorities and public policy.
Durell Cowan, founder and CEO of HEAL 901, operates in that space. HEAL 901 focuses on violence prevention, youth development and mental health support — work that places Cowan regularly in neighborhoods across Memphis and just as often in policy discussions with elected officials.
Cowan acknowledges that his work sometimes moves between agitation and advocacy, but he sees the distinction as important.
“An advocate must have a solution to the problem,” Cowan said. “An agitator is someone who has felt the effects of a policy or a system in a way that has caused harm or they have seen it happen to others and become very vocal about the issue, but they haven’t had the time or direction to learn how to move toward a solution.”
Understanding the root causes of systemic problems, he said, is what transforms agitation into effective advocacy. That evolution mirrors the path of HEAL 901 itself.
“When we started, HEAL 901 leaned heavily toward advocacy, raising awareness about the conditions contributing to violence and pushing institutions to examine policies affecting young people,” Cowan said. “We were doing 95 percent advocacy and 5 percent service.”
Founded in 2018, HEAL 901 has grown into an organization with a staff of 16 that includes administrators, program staff and licensed mental health professionals. Today the balance has shifted. “Now we are about 85 percent direct service and managing programs,” Cowan said.
Yet, advocacy remains central to the organization’s identity.
“If I just come to you with a problem and I don’t have a solution, why would you listen?” Cowan said. “I know I have to expose the problem in a strategic manner so it leads to the solution that I ask for. I am a combination of both, agitator and advocate.”
That approach often takes Cowan and his staff beyond the neighborhoods where their programs operate and into the arenas where policy decisions are made.
Cowan and his team meet with city officials, state legislators, members of Congress and philanthropic leaders. They travel frequently to Nashville and other centers of decision making when they believe pressure can move conversations toward action.
“There are a lot of policies that exist that are outdated,” Cowan said. “It takes someone who understands this to help policymakers realize that not changing these policies not only does harm today but also harms future generations.”
Advocacy at that level requires more than confrontation. It requires translation. “I have to translate what I see on the ground into language policymakers and funders can understand,” Cowan said, “and do it in a way that they are not offended.”
Working in proximity to communities also shapes how leaders like Cowan interpret the problems they confront. “When you see a pattern that affects a certain demographic, you must start looking at the conditions around the situation that lead to negative outcomes,” he said.
Those conditions often extend far beyond the reach of any single nonprofit program. “When you look at the social determinants of health, housing, education, jobs, living wages, it’s the same things civil rights leaders fought for decades ago,” Cowan said.
Memphis has seen billions of dollars invested in efforts to reduce poverty and strengthen communities. Yet many of the underlying challenges remain stubborn. For Cowan, part of the problem lies in how resources move through systems before reaching the people they are meant to help. “The intent is there,” he said. “But it’s the hands the funding has to pass through to get to the people that is often the problem.”
That observation reflects a tension that exists across the nonprofit sector. Philanthropy and government funding often flow through multiple institutions before reaching the communities those dollars are meant to support.
Organizations like HEAL 901 attempt to shorten that distance. Because they operate close to the communities they serve, they often see the consequences of policies and institutional decisions long before those consequences appear in reports or data.
“When you are not on the other side of the problem, you don’t see it and you don’t understand how it feels,” Cowan said. “That’s why I am willing to have difficult conversations.”
He sees those conversations as part of nonprofit leadership itself.
“We know the system. We know what’s going on,” Cowan said. “I expose the problem to city council members, the state legislature and congressmen and then I show them the solution.”
For Cowan, the work ultimately returns to community. “I am about building community,” he said. “We have to galvanize the community and organize. This is the role of nonprofits.”
Recently, Congressman Steve Cohen announced several federal funding allocations to support community initiatives in Memphis.
Among them was $1,031,000 designated for the City of Memphis Youth Violence Prevention initiative. HEAL 901 will benefit from funding provided through that initiative as it expands violence prevention efforts in South Memphis and supports young people most vulnerable to violence.
For Cowan, the investment represents an opportunity to strengthen programs already underway while continuing the advocacy that helped bring attention to the issue in the first place.
Leaders like Cowan can make rooms uncomfortable. They challenge assumptions, question systems and insist that policymakers confront realities that statistics alone rarely capture.
But they also perform an essential role in civic life.
They translate lived experience into policy conversations that shape funding decisions, programs and priorities. In cities still wrestling with deep structural challenges, that kind of leadership can help ensure the solutions being pursued are grounded in the realities people face every day.
— Judith Black Moore is a nonprofit consultant and the founder of Taking Back the Future, a youth-focused nonprofit.
