Katie Marchetti On Working with Community Foundation
Katie Marchetti connects people with resources with those in need. A deep believer that a rising tide should lift all ships, she's committed to nonprofit work in Middle Tennessee. She is also co-founder of Voices for a Safer Tennessee and a board member at Fisk University. In this episode, Spencer and Carli talk openly with Katie about finding a middle ground in a polarized climate. Together they dive into the importance of entrepreneurship, the significance of Nashville's key HBCU, and complicated conversations on gun rights.
About Katie Marchetti
Katie Marchetti is the Vice President of Philanthropic Services at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, where she leads initiatives to grow funds, connect donors with impactful opportunities, and collaborate with financial advisors.
A respected leader, Katie is the Co-Founder and Executive Board Member of Voices for Safer Tennessee and serves on the board of Fisk University. She is a financial and legal (JD, LLM) executive with over 20 years of experience in international finance and law, having worked in financial centers across the US and Europe.
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Spencer 00:06
Katie Marchetti, thank you for being here on signature required today. Thanks
Katie Marchetti 00:10
for having me.
Spencer 00:11
I have so many different things to ask you about. You are a cool human being, and I want to just read a couple of the things that you're involved with Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. You're the vice president of philanthropic services there, voices for a safer Tennessee Board of Directors and co founder there Fisk University Board of Trustees there. And probably on top of it all, you're a unicorn, born and raised right here in Tennessee.
Katie Marchetti 00:38
I am, proudly.
Spencer 00:39
I have a lot to find out about your story, but before I go through all of that, just give me the intro of who Katie is. Tell me some of your story, and then we'll go into all these things and see what you're up to.
Katie Marchetti 00:51
I'll do my best to not make a short story long, but yes, I was born in Nashville, and left around age 18 for university, went back to Tennessee, UT Law for obviously, law school got my JD there, practiced law for a while, and financial crisis hit was the first of a few watershed moments in my career where I thought, is this really what I want to be doing? And so I moved to marketplace companies. By this point, I was in London and switched to a new company, which we grew from it's a company called GLG, which we grew from about 15 people to about 950 across Europe, Middle East and Africa by the time I left. And in the meantime, my husband had three little girls who are now seven, nine and 11, and they drive me nuts, and are the joy of my life, depending on the minute that you asked me. And we moved back to Nashville about four years ago, five years ago, just before the pandemic, and then I had kind of moved to finance at that point in the meantime, doing nonprofit work, philanthropic work in my free time, non existent free time, I guess I'm like, shout out to all the working parents out there and and then had gone through the pandemic, yet another, you know, watershed moment again and again, trying more acutely to focus on, how do I kind of make money and make the world a better place? You know, every day that I wake up and, and it kind of had a real moment of awareness. And March of last year, after the mass shooting at covenant, I was working in a venture capital firm at the time, and and resigned. And, you know, took the last year to help prop up voices for safer Tennessee. Worked a lot with the FISC board and and that year of kind of taking a break from the commercial world introduced me to a lot of incredible people around Tennessee, and we'll go into that in a lot more detail, but they're just some of the most inspirational, just ingenuity abounding people that are in our backyard doing great things and trying to make our backyard better. So yes, so that landed me fairly recently with the Community Foundation as head of philanthropic services. So now my career is aligned with my passion, and, you know, trying to make the world a better place, trying to make it better for my kids when they get to be my age, for your babies, my babies
Carli 03:32
Love that. We have three girls too. Oh, you do yes. So they're 1311, and 10, almost 12. Probably was almost 12, and then we have a four year old boy, but we had three girls back to back, so I understand that feeling, and they go to school across the street from covenant. So that was a watershed moment, transformative moment in our life that was a lot of people, yeah, it shook us all.
Spencer 03:54
So what brought you back to the states from being in London? I mean, that's a huge life change, cultural change. Meet your spouse over there. What convinces you to come to London or come back to the states, Nashville?
Katie Marchetti 04:06
So I think a few things we have, yeah, this is, I mean, there it was kind of a multi layered decision. But one of the reasons my sister has cystic fibrosis and and so she kind of watching her go through the different health scares and hospitalizations, that was something where I thought, okay, I really do want to be close. Our family is crazy close, and we are in and out of each other's houses and lives all the time, to the point where my husband said we need to talk about boundaries. And I said, I don't understand what you mean. Actually, when we moved house just recently, we had to give our keys to our old house to the new owners. And I said to my husband, we need to give our keys over. And he said, Oh, well, you need to ask your parents. And I said, Oh, my God, that's right, we don't have any keys. My parents have the keys to our house because we never locked our door. Sure, so that just shows it's just like a revolving door. It's a big Italian family anyway, but so point being family was a huge decision. There, being near Margaret, she's doing great, by the way, there's been a ground groundbreaking drug, but called trikafta that anyway, talk about venture philanthropy at some point, but which was incredible, change her life. So she's doing incredibly well now. But being close to her, being close to my family, with the, you know, three kids, I call it the Jenga tower of childcare, just got more and more difficult in London.
Spencer 05:33
That sounds familiar? Yes, I'm sure, pretty sure,
Carli 05:35
We were just talking about that right before we came exactly,
Katie Marchetti 05:37
and you can have those conversations of who has the more important job, or, you know, thing to do only so many times until it's just like, Okay, we're looking to give tours in the mouth here. I've got this huge family that would love to help so. And the third reason was that we had been living as many people in, you know, big cities do a fairly transient life. I think when we had moved to London, or when I had moved to London, I said, Oh, I'd be there for a year, and a year turned into two, turned into five, turned into seven, and then we ended up, I ended up being there for about 15 years and and never thought I would be, but enjoyed every minute of it. And I think that was also played into the mentality, because you think, Oh, I'm not gonna be here forever. Let's just do everything. And the kids, you know, we traveled all the time. We went to museums, and we still do that, but, you know, being in a place that, you know, you probably won't be forever, but, but I think we did get to a point where we thought, okay, we need to, we need to fish a cup bait at this point. Like, are we going to stay here and put down roots or, you know, or move to where we want to be at the end of the day, and one other aspect to it, and I know it's a long answer to a short question, but with the kind of watching the US change and really polarize worried me, and seeing it from afar, with the political landscape, you know, when you're living in a city that's not your own, you can kind of hover above and laugh at things, not laugh, but you can. You can observe things like Brexit, and, you know, there was a Scottish referendum at the time, the euro crisis, the wars, and say, Oh, wow. Stinks for them. Wow. That was a dumb decision or whatever. But it's not your people. And when all of a sudden you you see things you know that are happening in Tennessee or in the US, that is my people, that is my backyard. And I really felt compelled to come back and really dig in. And I mean, I think I started doing that from the minute that we landed, but, but it is. It's something that you know, if you grow up in a beautiful place like Nashville and you really thrive being part of, you know, an integrated community that you miss that when you don't have it, no matter how much nonprofit work you do in your free time, you know it's not, it's not your backyard.
Carli 07:57
So And how old were they when you guys moved back,
Katie Marchetti 07:59
They were one, just turned three, four and six, okay,
Spencer 08:04
so just a little before they really could have it ingrained, and that's it. Accent, okay,
Katie Marchetti 08:09
But we do, but we, I mean, we, we stay connected to, you know, their lives in London. We go back every summer. Thank you British Airways for the direct London national flight and yeah, and we go to see their their grandparents, obviously, each each summer and every other, every other Christmas. Those flights with three kids, little pricey.
Spencer 08:33
It's one of the amazing things that has been long overdue for the Nashville airport. But having that direct flight from Nashville to London, I've met more people that have never been able to go international. It's never been in the books for them, but that flight is actually not brutal. It's like five and a half, six hours, something like that, and it leaves late at night. By the time you get to London, it's morning time you're adjusted, and you get to see international for the first time,
Katie Marchetti 09:00
And ears and fingers crossed that we're going to get more of them at some point in time, some more directs to to Europe. Because I just, I love that Nashville is becoming this little, you know, base of international business, and it is caught the eye. I will tell you a funny story about London. The first time, when I had landed there, I would get in, you know, black taxis, like the your your standard, what you picture in London, the red busses, black taxis. And I would get in the taxis, and the people would say things like, oh, Nashville. They're like, right, right, Elvis. And I said, No, Tennessee, okay, they're like, right. Nashville. Do you guys have indoor plumbing there? I mean, it was some of those. And one of our last taxi rides before we moved, it was in a taxi. It just shows like the growth of Nashville and the awareness of people around the world. The taxi was labeled, visit Music City. It was, you know, it was, it was actually advertising. In the city. And sure enough, the driver, he's like, I especially chose this. I've been to Nashville five times. I love it. The country music fans and the general just music fans full stop around Europe. They know of Nashville now.
Spencer 10:17
And Jack Daniels, I've been amazed traveling international Jack Daniels. Oh, my God, insanely popular, insanely popular
Katie Marchetti 10:27
They're beautiful. There's black and white ads. Yeah, it's, it's gorgeous, but it made me feel like that's right, yeah, don't mock Tennessee, like we got a lot to offer.
Spencer 10:38
Okay, so, Community Foundation, yes, talk to me about what you do, kind of a generic name that I kind of don't know immediately, just by hearing it, what it does, what it means.
Katie Marchetti 10:49
Yeah, so community foundations, it's such a good question, and because I didn't know either, and I knew the Community Foundation when there were disasters, and the safest place to put your money to get to tornado victims or flood victims was the Community Foundation. I just remember, you know, going online, when I would read about these things and, you know, and send money to the Community Foundation. So they've been around for about 100 years across the US. And it used to be kind of an offshoot of banks that would set aside an amount of money to disperse the community when they needed it, so disasters or particular segments of the population that needed it. So the IRS kind of stamped, you know, approved these types of iterations called community foundations that are, it's still, it's a 501, c6, from a tax perspective. But what they do is allow donors to basically park their money, either with a direction or without a direction, with the Community Foundation, and part of it, they can either, you know, give it to the Community Foundation to in a discretionary way, you know, grant them out to the people that need it, or they can keep, like a donor advised fund within the foundation, and then rely on the Community Foundation to introduce them to the entities that need it, if that makes sense. So we so we have dafts, endowments, family foundations, corporate care, you know, corporate foundations, whatever it is. And so that is so that's kind of what the Community Foundation does on the donor side and on the community impact side, we work with over, you know, 1600 nonprofits across Middle Tennessee really understanding the need, what they're doing. You know, what their plans are, who needs funds and and then connect, ultimately, the donors with the people that are in need of their resources, be they time, money, you know, talent, whatever it is. So and my role there, very recent has been taking over the philanthropic services side. So I work primarily with the donors and the corporations who are wanting to set up funds that ultimately will get back to the backyard and the people who need it, all these people that are doing incredible work across Middle Tennessee, so and it has grown really significantly. I think we're about, we're about 30 years old, and our new CEO, fairly new, is hell Cato, who came from thistle farm. How was amazing. He is amazing. He is absolutely amazing and and so myself and the head of our community impact are both new. It's kind of new roles within the organization. So we have big plans, but what we really want to continue to be is just the central connector within the Middle Tennessee community to ensure that we are aware of all the need and we get the resources from the people that have it to the people who need it.
Carli 13:41
So do you vet these various nonprofits, or do you just develop Do you have relationship managers with them? How do you make sure that they're actually doing what they're saying doing? Because that's so hard. We all want to make an impact. And then you see every Instagram out there of we're doing this and we're doing that, but it's really hard to know it's such a good point
Katie Marchetti 14:01
And we do. And so we are only able to grant to 501, c3, so they have to go through a certain, you know, set of hoops to get the actual accreditation. But we also have a platform called giving matters where, where entities will register, and they will, and they'll kind of prove, I say they're proof of concept, but basically they will, they will kind of fill out a lot of information to kind of show what they do, and then, and then we'll follow up as well. But especially before we give grants, we have quite a robust grant application process where we have committees that review depending on what the entity is. If it's girls and women, it goes to our Women's Fund. If it's, you know, animal welfare, that's the committee that deals with with that so, and we've actually rebooted the process as well. I think we've had a little bit of a little bit of a, I don't know, struggle with transparency, because it's such a big entity. And, you know, keeping. Mean the donors on one side and the nonprofits on the other near the two shall meet. We're kind of trying to break that system a little bit to educate the donors more about the needs of the community, but also understand from the nonprofits to your point, who needs it most right now and who's just doing incredible work that we really want to lean into, you know, to help them grow even more and do more good work in the community,
Carli 15:20
Because I would imagine there's the big guys, right, like the Red Cross or Compassion International, or places doing things, maybe not just in Middle Tennessee, but around the world. Yeah. And you know, they're vetted, and everyone's looking at them very clearly. But the people that are going to change Middle Tennessee are the people that are in middle Tennessee.
Katie Marchetti 15:37
You that see the issue. Got that right? I'm like, clap, clap, clap. But yes,
Carli 15:41
But you don't know where to give it. So I have kids that are like, this person is homeless. I want to help this initiative in Nashville. Do I give to the person that I see selling a paper, or do I give to another cause? And I've actually trying to raise a where children really struggle to figure out how to parent that and where to direct them. So help me?
Katie Marchetti 16:01
I think, I think that's, it's, it's such a good point, because I do. I have the same with my children. And even we moved to the states we were, obviously, we're living in a really small, flat and Notting Hill with five of us. It's about 1000 square feet, which never felt cramped. It was perfect. It's exactly because we all can't get enough of each other and and then we moved to our house in Nashville, and it's bigger. And the kid said, who else is gonna live here? And I said, No, it's just us. And they're like, and they still hadn't thought they'd cracked the code. They said, Yeah, but who's living upstairs? And I said, No, this is all our house. And then my little Mimi, my second kid, said, Oh, well, I saw John, The Contributor salesman that we know. Why doesn't he come and live with us? You said he doesn't have a house, and again, guiding them through. You know, here's what we can do, here's what we can't do, and sometimes I didn't have great answers for that. So, so one thing that we do via the Community Foundation is a lot of education events. So, for example, a lot of it involves kids. And you can get in touch with us for volunteer communities that are child friendly, where we can connect you with, you know, entities that your kids can go and learn about. All right, this is these are the organizations that we can work with to really make an impact. And post, post the covenant shooting, there was a lot of there's a lot of education around how to deal with trauma, with children and crisis. And one of the and everyone was reading about how to talk to, you know, how to talk to your children about this and and more broadly, just well for the community, because you see increasingly inequity in the backyard and across the US and and one of the, one of my learnings was that children, one thing that helps them kind of feel more in control the situation is just to do something. So again, with their hands, have a we had a bake sale, and we raised, you know, probably $500 for for the covenant families. But again, the kids were so happy that they could, you know, mix the cookie dough and and sell the cookies, because they felt like they were really contributing. So I think that the same thing with with the backyard, and raising kids, giving them a truly perspective that you are no better than anyone else, and no one's better than you, but we gotta, you gotta be aware of what else is happening here. You know, when you for instance, fiscal responsibility, we're doing an event next week with a Women's Fund where we're gonna teach, you know, kids and older kids and younger kids, depending on which set they fall in about fiscal responsibility. And, like, $20 yeah, when you go to Target and, you know, and you want to buy the whatever gross doll that I wish they never got attached to, you know, $20 that's a lot of money. But if you spend it here, you know, you won't be able to spend it here. And remember, you also wanted to, you know, give $5 to so and so on the street, like opportunity costs. It's opportunity cost. You're exactly right. And so again, just kind of educating them on the way and bringing them along and not just saying, hey, I'll talk to you about that later. You know, finding a way to bring them into the conversation and letting them get their hands dirty and learn.
Spencer 19:20
Does the Community Foundation have an input for a donor that isn't a family office doesn't have a quarter million dollars, $1,000,000.10 million dollars, I could imagine that the mission may be, hey, we're going to do some research on nonprofits and let you know if you are a smaller dollar donor that these are great places to give. There's other organizations that already rate nonprofits. So do you all have in your role a conduit for individuals that may want to give $100 to something, or is that something that's just not in alignment with. With your particular mission, but there's other places we can.
Katie Marchetti 20:02
So we do have portals where you can kind of give directly. Most importantly, you can learn about, you know, the nonprofits that exist around Middle Tennessee. But we also have fun thresholds that are very small. So if someone you know, again, I've got the women's fun in my brain, but we have, like a girls give opportunity where it's it's kind of engendering philanthropy across generations. So you could go with your mom and, you know, set up a $2,000 fund where it's going to be your fund, and you guys get to talk about together, okay, where should we give? You know, $200 this on Giving Tuesday, or however, much money. So I think we're and we're also trying to just bring people along. We just at the end of the day, we're trying to make the tent bigger. You know, this is not for the ultra high net worth individuals. It can be, but it's not just for them. Okay? That's that comprises, you know, a good chunk of our fund holders, and the long tail of fund holders are the folks who just, they really want to give back, and they also want to ensure that they don't forget about it, you know, because as the calendar year goes on and, you know, expenses start piling up. If you have that money set aside, it kind of keeps you honest.
Spencer 21:18
Yeah, and do you all pay for your operating costs, like most nonprofits, that you're measured by for every $100 given that a certain amount goes towards the cause, and you all have a scrape to be able to cover your overhead cost,
Katie Marchetti 21:31
That's right. So we have, we have a rate. It's, I mean, it's typically 1.25% that we use as our operating costs, so all the funds that are parked at the Community Foundation, we will take that to keep our staff of close to 50 people engaged. It's It is incredible the work that we do with the number of people that we have the first they come from the corporate world. I got there and I was like, we need to hire 30 more people, and we need an org chart. We need a better CRM system. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, we're still a nonprofit. So it's this odd balance between, you know, revenue isn't really a it's not a measure. I mean, it can't not be, because we want to keep the we want to keep the lights on and keep everyone employed, but we weigh it against impact. So the end goal is maximum impact for the community, and trying to strike that balance between no one's going to get rich doing running a community foundation, but can we? Can we maximize the impact that we have money out the door? And it is. It's a mindset shift for me. I'm still struggling with it.
Spencer 22:38
Yeah, and that ratio is a lot better than what you see of a lot of nonprofits that are rated highly that, you know, if you're looked at at 95 cents of every dollar going towards it, you're, you know, in the very, very best. So it sounds like, if I've heard that stat correctly, you might say 98.75 cents of every dollar is going towards that, right?
Katie Marchetti 22:59
That's exactly right. And it's just a matter of, again, continuing to engage our donors, because sometimes, in a way that's not, you know, in their face. Hey, can I tell you about the other 300 nonprofits that we have? It's a so we're continuing to try to create innovative ways to engage the donors, get them educated on the needs of the community through all kinds of events, and let them chat with each other as well, like, you know, having, you know, having events with family foundations, you know, to help them understand how to engage the next generation. That's, it's a perpetual problem and and so we've, we've created some very interesting educational programs to say, Okay, you're the grandfather, the grandmother, the matriarch or the patriarch. Let us set up a day at the zoo for you to watch your grandkids and how they think about giving money to the different animal causes those types of things. So again, making sure that they really, you know, they understand and remember that there's a lot of people that still need it in the community.
Carli 24:06
That’s so neat. I love what you're everything that you're saying as a mom, as somebody that wants to culture, cultivate givers out of our household, and it's something my parents were really intentional about with me throughout time. I bet you have some great stories though, about people you've met, because everyone has a different giving mentality. Yes. And if you talk to my 10 year old, she wants to save the squirrels that keep getting hit by cars across the Middle Tennessee. There's so many foundations for the squirrels. She's like, Mom, can we get a special bird feeder? Because they're in our bird feeder. But I everyone has a different giving story of what breaks their heart, and so I bet you get to know people really intimately, very quickly when you see what breaks their heart.
Katie Marchetti 24:55
My God, I cry all the time now. So I'm going to try and. Not to do it today.
Carli 25:01
I cry at commercialS. So, yeah, it's fine day. Commercial at Thanksgiving.
Katie Marchetti 25:06
I can't the public commercial. The target goes on and on. And I didn't used to cry, by the way, I remember crying one time. So at the end of my rope, it was, I'd been up for 48 hours practice. Was during practicing law, and I called my dad, because I of course, like when you're in crisis, you just call your dad, and I was and my dad said, Who is this? And he said, My daughter doesn't cry. Who is this? He said it tongue in cheek. He's trying to be funny, but, but anyway, so now becoming a mom, I think my whatever internal damn wall just kind of changed my body, with my children, but giving stories that have mattered. Every damn day I see people who, despite every reason to kind of put a middle finger up to the world and just check out, they keep showing up every day and the impact that they make the thing that, well, multiple things wow me, but women, in particular, single women, never mind if you're a black or brown woman like you have everything kind of stacked against you in the states and the incredible folks that are making such a difference. And it starts with, I'm going to take care of the five people you know in my circle who I know have also, for instance, had breast cancer, and when they go to the hospital, they, you know, they don't have childcare, so they miss their appointments. You know what I'm just going to see within the five of us who can take care of kids when one of us has to go to an appointment, and then that grew and grew and grew. This is a real entity. And so now I think they have, you know, 1000 clients that have used the service, those types of things where it's you just you look at the backyard, and I had the same moment of recognition in the mirror with me again after the covenant shooting, even though that wasn't the only time, but it's the one that comes to mind most recently where I said that happened, and I said, in my mind, I was like, we're leaving, like, I can't wake up to this reality every day. And two of the people that I started voiceover, safer Tennessee with started, we started on this text, and it was just like, can we just all get on the phone, cry together? Let's all go me. And I said, guys, I don't think I can handle this. And and one of my friends, Aaron halfkin, who runs a think tank in Tennessee called think Tennessee, she said, but did you see what the women in Iran just did to protest the the police beating an eventual death of of one of the women there for wearing her hijab inappropriately. She said they just, they just didn't go to work one day, and it just had this massive impact on the community. What if we did something very visible to show, you know, the government, that we're here to stay? And that was the birth of voices for saber Gen Z and the linking arms event that was kind of our end goal, because we hadn't thought that far ahead, but, but it was, it was a looking in the mirror moment and saying, If not me, then who, like, what am I waiting for? Am I waiting for? You know, the government to do it. They might get to it eventually. Am I waiting for? What other nonprofit hasn't been, you know, started like, I'm a white woman that has enough resources to make a difference. Look in the mirror, that's who's gonna make a difference and and the fact that I'm now connected with all these other people who have had those same moments, it was, you know, you just kind of look around and say, I can either I can partner with someone, if there's an entity that's there that is really going to do the work, or, you know, I can do it myself. So yes. So those those moments of moments of giving every day, and also seeing even in Europe, because I worked with a lot of international organizations, Women for Women, Vital Voices is another one where they worked a lot with post war victims, particularly women, who are often victims of rape and and their whole family you know, have been murdered, just these stories that you can't even, cannot even fathom, cannot even fathom, and again, their resilience to wake up every day, and look to the people that have resources, and this is on a much more global scale, but we have a responsibility, like we are the richest country in the world, we have a responsibility to look to people even outside of our borders, in addition to in our backyard, to help so yes, many crying times.
Spencer 29:44
You’ve mentioned Kevin and a handful of times, and I think that really serves well to talk about safer in Tennessee. And maybe I can just set up a framework for you for this part of our discussion, because I think it'll help. Lens into helping me understand the initiative better. So if you take me a born and raised Tennessee and so I've been raised in a family of gun owners, Carly and I own several guns ourselves, and we're second amendment people, but at the same time, our kids were across the street from covenant. So Carly and I have a unique perspective in that for a couple brief moments when the covenant shooting was happening, the Associated Press on Twitter released that it was St Paul, that's where it was the shooting was at, and it was, without question, the most horrifying moment that Carly and I have ever shared as we drove over only to on the way hear the correction over to covenant. And so there are some mornings where, as a dad, I have these intrusive thoughts where I say goodbye to my kids going off to school, and I have an intrusive thought of saying, what if? What if this is the last time I'm saying goodbye to them? And that feels deeply wrong to me to have to ask that question. But the framework that I struggle with in and what I hope you can help me understand the framework for safer for Tennessee is that I struggle with how to balance the mindset that murder is already illegal, committing these crimes are illegal, and I'm not sure how legislative policies can change the actions of just horribly disturbed individuals, and that's the framework that I wrestle with. So I have some hard questions for you in it, in that I hope to be able to best understand that. So can you take that framework as someone that is pretty new to hearing from someone in the safer camp. I mean, this is so much your mission to help me understand that. Yep,
Katie Marchetti 32:07
sure. So first sentiment is within the people who started voiceover Tennessee, I think we were about 60% gun owners.
Spencer 32:21
So that is that not many people would say yeah
Katie Marchetti 32:22
Yeah, you're in familiar territory with our composition. So I think the first thing to note is that legislative policy, very quietly, has changed so significantly that we in Tennessee just kind of are just now waking up to it. So pivotal moments have been guns and trunks, what known as the guns and trunk law. And I'm going to get the date wrong, but I think it was 2007 and I can correct that, but, but when that passed the number of guns stolen out of cars and subsequently used for violent crimes have gone up exponentially. I think that there were maybe two, two or three, and before the law was passed, guns stolen out of trunks across the state of Tennessee, they just never assumed that they were there. We're up to 6000 a year, and those guns just because they're already involved in a crime of theft, they are subsequently used for, oftentimes, for violent crimes. The legislation said it's legal for you to store your legal for you to store your gun unlocked in your car and it wasn't safely secure it, that's right. And then permitless carry as well. In 2021 kind of broke a system that had been it's very interesting something you know Tory Johnson, who's a former da, references this a lot, but before, before permitless carry was enacted, you had to have special permission from the sheriff's office to have a gun. And you know, if it was if to walk around with one, you had to have, there was a very specific training protocol you had to go through.
Spencer 34:11
I went through a concealed carry myself, so I had a permit all of that.
Katie Marchetti 34:15
Yes, and you and you remember kind of how robust the system was. It's similar to, like, getting your license drive a car, and when that was removed, and then a lot of the background check legislation was removed, so that you can buy a gun anywhere, you know, online, at a gun show, the gun show exception, guns are just more readily available and they're naturally it's like having a if we took away The seat belt law, the number of you know, injuries that would occur from you know, a car wreck would be significantly more deathly, you know, than they currently are. So I think what we have done at voiceover saver Tennessee is just called attention to how much the legislation has changed. So and yes, mental health, making everyone feel like an included part of the community, exponentially important, you know. And again, Sandy Hook promises a lot with helping kids, even from kindergarten, you know, you look around, if you see someone who's feeling left out, you reach out to them. And if you feel like there's something wrong, you tell a teacher, there's some incredible age appropriate protocol that is that's worth looking at on their website, but with voice for safer Tennessee, we are. We're kind of focused on three tenants that are bipartisan in nature to the point that and I said this, I've said this so many times, but if you tick off people at both ends of the spectrum, you're doing something right so, and that was something that hadn't really been tried before, where we as as an entity were already bipartisan. I think we identified folks that were right minded on both sides of the aisle in the initial kind of founding circle. And we had chats about, okay, well, what do you you know? What do you think we could get behind? What do you think we as Republicans or Democrats could really get behind, not or and, and we lost some of the things that, for instance, the right wanted on our, you know, tenant block, some that the left wanted on our tenant block. But ultimately, we came up with stuff where we said, Actually, we can really defend this, we can all and in all honesty, hand over heart, really stand by these tenants and say, Yes, this is important. And those are they're very simple. It's safe storage for guns in your car and in your house, eliminating loopholes and background checks and and implementing temporary restraining orders for those who are posing immediate threat to themselves or those around them. So it's a pretty these are pretty standard, and I think it's something that well, according to all the polls recently, 80% of Tennesseans stand behind but we've gotten to the point where you're so polarized from a political perspective that there's no talking, it's just kind of shouting from both sides. So we have kind of militantly guarded this safe space in the middle where we can have conversations. And if you're there for a political sound bite or a Twitter blurb, it's just not the place for you. There is a place for you. This isn't it. We're here to kind of have the hard conversations and bring people together. And what we found is, oh, my god, there are so many people in the middle. It's just it is the overwhelming majority of our state who really care. Like the Tennesseans that are Tennesseans by birth, the Tennesseans that are new from California or New York or wherever the heck they're coming from, they are from England, like I'm thinking of our friends from the pub. We love people coming from pubs, but they, they all, they're aligned in the fact that they want this community be safe for their kids and their neighbors and and that is, you know, facilitating those conversations, whether it be in a church and a park, in a school, wherever it is, just having people chat, and this is what I feel like one of our biggest victories has been with voices for safer Tennessee has been destigmatizing conversations about guns, like it's okay to talk about it, you know, and even the visibility with our yard signs. And actually brought you two voices for safer Tennessee buttons so you can wear it around and have people ask questions, ask you questions about it. But we've, we've, we've prompted the conversation. We said, You know what? You actually you think everyone thinks the same. They don't like let's, let's come and have a conversation about it. Just because I voted for this person for President, you voted for this person, it doesn't mean we don't align on the fact that our society should be a bit safer, so let's talk about it, and again, not trying to take away guns firm Second Amendment believers on our board. And that's and it's the US. It's probably not going anywhere anytime soon.
Spencer 38:52
So I really appreciate the heart posture behind saying we want to destigmatize the conversation around it, and say, let's get this out in the open. And a lot of it is first trying to understand where each of the camps are and knowing a baseline, because that's one way that this conversation gets hijacked immediately, is that there are beginning assumptions around where someone else might be starting, and it may not at all be true. It may be true, and that's okay. If it is true, it's just, let's not assume where someone is at before we're actually able to understand the facts and positions. So I have two, like, really specific questions. Do you mind if I ask you those, just because I really do my best? Yeah, I really appreciate your your openness and transparency through it all, because it's very educational for me. The first one is centered around covenant itself. Self, the shooter acquired the weapons as I understand it, and you can help fact check me in a legal manner.
Katie Marchetti 40:08
That's right. That's I understand it. Yes, yeah.
Spencer 40:12
Some of what I've heard in the discussion about some of the changes that safer for Tennessee wants maybe wouldn't have impacted covenants specifically. Do you view that differently? Because some of the conversation around it is most gun owners that I know, the most fanatical Second Amendment people really do believe in the importance of storing things safely, and recognize that this is a really serious matter, but maybe start with that. That question first is that it was covenant just the the starter for a movement that was already bubbling below the surface, or is there something about the changes that would say, No, you don't properly understand it. Spencer, this would have been preventative.
Katie Marchetti 41:10
I understand your question, and I'll take it in two parts. The first, the primary tenant that I think would have impacted and who knows the outcome of the tragedy that happened at covenant, the temporary restraining order piece is is a crucial one. So I think that the individual who committed this atrocity, their parents knew that that this person was a threat to themselves and potentially to other people, but there was no means to remove firearms. I don't think that they were aware either that firearms were in the person's possession. But so that, I think that if we made it such, that folks who are around you, if they considered that you were a threat to yourself or someone else, then there would be a legal procedure by which those firearms could be removed. And again, the background check loophole. I don't you know that probably wouldn't have impacted, because I think this was a first time vendor, if memory serves appropriately. So in terms of the origin of voices, are safer Tennessee. I think the people who founded it, we were, we were all in different levels of engagement on firearm safety more generally. So I wouldn't say, I'm not going to say that it wasn't a catalyst in some way, shape or form, to create something, but I think a lot of folks have been engaged in this discussion already, but we realize that a lot of what's happening, I will not say, is ineffective, but we needed a slightly different tack. In Tennessee, we're in, we're in a super majority state where they're a very commonly promoted argument is that it's a slippery slope. You know, if you, if you remove or implement one standard that would make it harder to acquire a gun or even require you to safely store it, it's all down here from there. And we're all going to be living in a 1984 or, well, in novel and, you know, yeah, and so be it. And, you know, everybody comes to their views of the world in different ways. So I'm not, I'm not saying that's good, bad or indifferent, but I will say that's not what we stand for. But what voice are safer Tennessee. The tactic we're trying to take is make it very Tennessee specific. So we are, you know, by Tennesseans, for Tennesseans, we are not. That's not. We've, yes, we've received donations from elsewhere because a lot of people heard about us, even in Sydney. It was so funny hearing from people and friends in Melbourne, they said, Is this human chain? Thing was that your friends and then said, Did you see that? Apparently, it was on the ft. That was That was interesting. It made international news. It made international news. But it's also important, you know that people realize that, like, yes, this looks very strange from outside the US. It looks like a uniquely us problem, and the stats support that as well, which is a tricky when we talk about the mental health argument, we have the same mental health stats as any other developed nation that's not in a war environment right now, but yet we have this unbelievably metrics, breaking stats on firearm injuries. So, so back to the original question, how we thought about it. There has not been a truly bipartisan entity focused on this issue ever in Tennessee, yeah, and if it was, it was, it was for veneer. Actually, I literally can't think of one right now, but, but that was the tech that we were trying to pursue. And I think a lot of us have been involved with Moms Demand before, with every town, with all these entities, again, that are focused on creating a safer, safer world for our kids. But they their messages due to i. Or whatever, the people involved, who knows, weren't as effective as we wanted to see with our own legislature and our own legislature. There are people that we know, there are people that you know we grew up with, that we know we have conversations with them where we have more in common than we do distinct. And how can we do this in a real Tennessee way, in a Nashville way?
Spencer 45:24
That's what we're trying to do. One more hard question. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you answering this, because again, the opportunity to have the dialog just doesn't exist very much, right? Because anyone that is in a position of authority in the state risks a hot mic somewhere absolutely being portrayed. And then before you know it, they have, yeah, they're done on either side, right? Whether you're Republican or Democrat, you can't talk about it at all. And so it's just a really valuable format. And I, again, I just so thank you for it. The three pillars that you identify, two of them, I think most gun owners can get there pretty quickly to say the safe storage. Anyone that is a gun owner in a meaningful capacity recognizes the importance of how vital it is to have your firearm securely stowed. And secondly, the background check, like I was seeing stats that, you know, the backlog of having checks run, there's, like, hundreds of 1000s of records that haven't been uploaded into the system. I know a lot of passionate gun owners, and that's not something that they're also really objecting to, right?
Katie Marchetti 46:42
It's the third we did, by the way, get a significant win in the legislature this year with quite a bit of money to reconcile our background check system across counties. Crazy,
Spencer 46:55
Crazy for that to be behind building blocks. It's all about the third one to say, you know, the moniker associated with it is red flag laws. And the question that I have for you is a lot of people that are passionate. Gun Owners spent much of covid and 2020, and all the things afterwards, having a lot of fingers pointed at saying, you know, you should do this. Either it's mask wearing, it's vaccination. And there was some really intense language that, as you well know, kind of tore much of the fabric of our nation apart about saying, you know, you're a bad person if you don't do something or not. And so I think the deepest fear of a second amendment gun owner is that if there is a disagreement that they get in with their neighbor, or if there's some covid in 2030 where someone is not complying with the law, is that there will be an effort to weaponize the type of law here to say, Okay, well, if you're not willing to be vaccinated, then that clearly means you're a crazy person, which means that you should have your guns confiscated. Interesting. Okay, so that's the logic train. That's there. There may not be an answer in this moment, but I just wonder, with that lead in what your perspective might be to speak to some of those people that will be listening to this podcast that want to know what the thought.
Katie Marchetti 48:33
Yes, interesting so and
Spencer 48:38
Again, thank you for letting me know i love it really,
Katie Marchetti 48:40
Haven't heard, I literally have not heard that, that train of thought yet, and in opposition to that tenant so and I'll give you one stat, interestingly, one of the things that we did with voices in our early days was commission a poll across the state on the three tenants With primary Republican voters, self identified primary Republican voters. Interestingly, background checks were, you know, in the upper 70s, the Red Flag Law that you're referencing also like 73% the one that dropped a significant amount was safe storage, of being in opposition to Yes, because they did not want gun owners to be punished in any way. So if someone removed a gun from your car and used it in a violent crime, if it came out that you know, the gun wasn't secured to begin with, there was Yeah, and it was still, it was still a strong majority in support of implementing safe storage. But that truly surprised me, because I thought exactly the restraining order piece would be that's a thing.
Spencer 49:49
Maybe in the notes for the podcast we'll link to that. Is it publicly?
Katie Marchetti 49:54
Yes, okay, yeah, I'll send, I'll send you a bunch of stuff so you can, so you can link it for all the. The data nerds out there that want more info. You're talking
Spencer 50:02
to one, yeah,
Katie Marchetti 50:05
I'm like, give me a spreadsheet. Table up. So with, with that thought, the the the backstop in our legal system, and again, speaking from my law days, 100 years ago, we require a due process period. And it is, it is a big threshold to overcome. So your scenario with, you know, I got in a fight with someone, and they said you would have to prove, for example, to a judge, that this person is, has been determined by, you know, a medical professional that they are, you know, legally unable to make good decisions for themselves or enough evidence. And you know, you would have character witness like the burden is on the person accusing the other individuals. So the threshold, I don't ever envisage a world where due process would be. We got in an argument, and they said, my dog was stupid, and so they're crazy, so let me go take their guns like that. It's just not in the realm of possibility and our current legal system. But I hadn't heard that argument before, so that's helpful to know. Yeah,
Spencer 51:22
it's a really fascinating framework, because I think the covid era revealed things that this country hasn't seen in a long time, and worries and deep seated worries, restrictions on the ability to work and on the ability to travel and to, you know, see your loved one that was dying in the hospital or giving birth, and things that culturally, we just had never imagined. And so the two between guns in Tennessee and some of the policies that we saw nationally just, I think, have gotten linked in a way that is just a really valuable discussion. And so, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. No
Katie Marchetti 52:08
No worries. And I think, and everybody we were, we were really thrown into unprecedented times over covid. And a lot of people were, they were, they were more alone or with your lovely family who is driving you nuts 24 hours a day, and now I'm doing the math, and I think you guys probably had a young one during that time. Yeah, he was nine months old. That's intense, yes. So yay for you.
Spencer 52:35
You're still worried. Good job.
Carli 52:38
Yes. But Daniels, thank you, exactly.
Katie Marchetti 52:41
Shout out to the liquor industry, but I but it was, it was interesting over covid And again, being told, you know, being told, No, like, the kids couldn't see their grandparents for two years because we couldn't travel internationally, and when we did, my God, it, I have never seen anything like it. But what was very interesting and, maybe we can. I'm poking this bear, so feel free to scrap it if you need to. But what was fascinating is, in Europe, because everyone is living so much closer together all the time that they were so much more amenable to heavy restrictions. They're like actually, if it's for the good of society, you know, I'm happy to do it for a certain period. Don't get me wrong, like London and other places, you weren't allowed to, if you took a walk in the park, to sit down, because that was the beginning of a gathering, for example. And I remember talking to my friend who was seven months pregnant. She's like, I'm trying to get my kids out of the house. And the police officer came up and said, You can't sit down. And I looked at him, and I was like, Would you like to carry me around Hyde Park? Oh, my God, but again, you know, you have these things. But she said, But I get it, you know, they don't want people gathering. And you're dealing with a city of 16 million people, you know, and things spread quickly anyway. Point being, I always observe that, that if there was something that was kind of for the good of the community in Europe, probably because war and all that stuff is such a more recent memory for them that they are much more willing to kind of sacrifice some of their individual liberties if it would mean kind of making their making their neighbors healthier, potentially healthier anyway. It's it's not, it's not a monolith. The US is not a monolith. Some of the beauty is so much of the beauty in our country is the individual, individuality and the the unwillingness to, if there's a line, like in the UK, people will gravitate toward the line or a queue, you know, they'll stay on the line. If they see one, they're like, whoa. I'll go stand in that. I wonder what it's for, whereas the US and my father's Italian, so I can say this, they see a line, and they're like, oh, that doesn't apply to me. I'll just go to the front.
Spencer 54:49
So what an interesting cultural example. That is a fascinating story. You bring a unique perspective of having lived extensive periods of time on both sides of the pond. And born in Tennessee, but experiencing it from from both perspectives, that's maybe the way to spend the last 10 minutes is, I'd love to hear about Fisk and your role on the board there. Fisk has gone through a lot of different transition and change, culturally, financially, missional, a lot, so I'd love to just hear an update of, yeah, how's it doing?
Katie Marchetti 55:26
Okay? So first so I joined the board in April of last year, and we had gone through a president we were actually actively going through a presidential search at the time that I joined and Dr Genia Clark is our new president as of, I guess, October of last year. She is a wonder. I mean, if you have not tracked this woman's progress, I encourage you to do so. She blows my mind every time I meet her. So, from an entity perspective, an utter coup that we have her at the helm. And so Fisk has gone through. There's been a lot of there has been, there's been a fair amount of change, but I think that they are continuing to struggle with HBCUs, what HBCUs struggle with across the country, when you're looking at an entity that has a minuscule endowment compared to private or sorry, predominantly white institutions, pwis, it is. It's a wonder that they can keep the lights on, I will say.
Spencer 56:30
And just for the audience that may not know, an HBCU, HBCU,
Katie Marchetti 56:33
Historically Black College and University. So we'll see you here. Spelman Morehouse, we've got a lot that that kind of grab, grab the news a lot, and are doing just incredible things for a segment of the population that has been overlooked or, you know, purposefully sidelined oftentimes. So FISC is actually the, the oldest entity of higher education in Middle Tennessee, older than Vanderbilt, which is incredible. And we have, there's so much history there. I can't believe that in trivia stat, I would not have guessed, never have guessed it. And and encourage you to look up the the background. It is, it just, it will really move you to the court. And it was created right after the Civil War and and it just yeah, it blows my mind every time I walk on the campus and I look at, you know, how much has happened there, from, you know, the civil rights movement to to, more recently, we have, you know, obviously, this incredible art collection. But we we are, we're getting all the trains aligned and really going from strength to strength, and we have so many incredible people and the faculty and the board membership and the executive leadership and in the community as well that. And I'm quoting a friend of mine, he very notably stated a couple weeks ago that if, if Fisk isn't doing well, Nashville isn't doing well. So when I look at I was there at commencement a few weeks ago, and the inspiration seeing all these they're not children, they're adults.
Carli 58:14
I keep saying kids, because they're younger than me, the more they look like children. They really do.
Katie Marchetti 58:17
They really do. And just these incredible human beings from all over the world, graduating from this institution in the in the struggles that they are having to deal with from a day to day, nothing compared to my very privileged time at Notre Dame, for example, and they're still just crushing it. So I anyway, so I'm really proud to be part of that entity, and I'm excited to be part of, you know, opening the doors a little bit to to Nashville. And I'm looking forward to kind of getting more people on campus and and checking out the wonder that is Fisk University.
Spencer 58:53
That's a great, great update. I just have been interested to learn from someone that's living it just what the opportunities are, what the challenges? If you had to give you know, one or two things that you feel like are opportunities or challenges for FISC right now, where do you think those might be opportunities or challenges?
Katie Marchetti 59:13
Let's see the I think getting just more further integrated in Nashville, it has been in the backyard for so long. And I think of a lot of the corporations that are moving here, they aren't. They know about Vanderbilt. They now know about Belmont, yeah, and I want them to know about Fisk as well. And so we're working actively to kind of create some real connective tissue between Amazon, Oracle, you know, all the entities that are here, assurion, they're gonna be right up the street, and they're right up the street. I mean, it's so funny, because Fisk, due to, you know, our interstate kind of cutting off the black community to the white community historically. You know, it's been, it's kind of been pushed aside. And you. It's so interesting to talk to folks, you know, and corporations here. And I talk to them about this, and they say, Oh, that's right, where is that place again? Like it's about half a mile from you. Yeah, come and check it out. Yeah, that's amazing. And another, and by the way, another growth area for Fisk as an entity. We have an incredible science program and a new Entrepreneurial Center and focus. So again, kind of leaning into that.
Spencer 1:00:27
That's my passion. That's it entrepreneurship, right? I'm like, we'll get you over there. Entrepreneurship contains the power to change communities more than any other thing that I know, it's incredible to see one entrepreneur succeed, right? They rarely forget the roots. And they come back. They create jobs, they mentor, they coach. And it really can be transformational for hundreds or 1000s of people, if you get one,
Katie Marchetti 1:00:55
If you get one, and again and high Todd lifts, all ships. I was thinking about because one of my VC firms that I was involved with focused on blockchain. And you look at, you look at the places where blockchain has really been embraced in technology and ingenuity. It's been in places where they can't necessarily rely on the current structure, so they have a government or a banking system or a judiciary system that is backwards or rife with bribery or fraud or whatever it is, and so they have to create their own system. And I feel like within the US, you can look at communities that have been underrepresented, underrepresented, and they are the source of so much ingenuity, and because they've had to be and and it's inspirational, and it's we have to pay attention, because they've they correct a lot of codes.
Carli 1:01:46
I'll just say, before you wrap up Spence and all the rest, the thing I hear through your whole story is grit. I just hear that you love to support gritty individuals. You see it in what you're doing in nonprofits. I see it what you're doing at Fisk. Even see it with what you're doing at safer Tennessee, being willing to have these hard, gritty conversations that no one else will. And I just think the future of our country has to lay in learning how to be gritty and how to raise a gritty generation. And so I'm just super impressed by you, and I love that that word just kept coming to my head as you talk, this woman loves grit.
Katie Marchetti 1:02:22
Oh my gosh. So give me a problem, I get excited. Yes, I had with the Community Foundation. Somebody popped out my office the other day and they said, oh, like, you could, just got to be swimming. And how different this is from the corporate world. I'm like, I love it. Like, throw a bucket of, you know, noodles on the floor, and tell me to sort it out, and that's when I get excited. So yes, and I, I don't know I really appreciate that, because I feel like I'm nothing compared to the people that I'm surrounded with. But yeah, if I can do my part to raise them up,
Carli 1:02:59
I want to do it. So no, I think humble grit is the secret sauce, my friend. Keep it up. Work on that.
Katie Marchetti 1:03:05
Katie,
Spencer 1:03:07
Thank you for being here. Echoing Carly, it's really great to hear someone that is a very effective communicator. I can see the legal training from the very beginning, and it's interesting how that has been a traced theme through a lot of the things that you've done in your life, of pulling upon that the cultural perspective that you bring, of being able to tell some of the stories that I had no idea about, some of the things that you've talked about in London, and the experience that you bring is just interesting and particularly appreciated in the dialog, because you have not shied away from controversial areas. And that's important, because regardless of whether parties end up coming to the same place of agreement by the end of the discussion, the real travesty is, if you can't have the discussion at all because totally agree, then it's all over. I mean, there's no redemptive that's right outcome.
Katie Marchetti 1:04:04
If there's silence between two people, if marriage is any proxy for this, where we, how we don't solve problems, is when we, you know, get in an argument and then just don't talk. Yes, that's it just festers. And I think of it. This is a disgusting metaphor, but I used to say it when I was in private equity, and if something went wrong, I was like, hit it right now. Like, address it right now, because otherwise it's the infected thing that the band aid sits over and just gets grosser and grosser. Take the band aid off. Take a good, hard look at it, clean it out, and then move on, because otherwise it's just going to get worse.
Spencer 1:04:39
One thing we love to do Katie with every guest, is to have them bring something in to reveal a little bit about themselves. So what am I holding? Here?
Katie Marchetti 1:04:48
You are holding a fine art piece by violet Buckley. This was my my daughter's art piece, and she had read a book, and I actually don't know the name. Of the book, but it's so sweet. And it was about a little girl that lived in a black and white world, and she wasn't happy with the lack of color, but she didn't know how to bring it. And so she helped a neighbor, I think was the background. And as soon as she helped the neighbor, it created a little a little flower in the black and white world, which was green and pink. And then the more good things that neighbor did for other people, the more the world started to color and it and it reminds me of of two things. One, just the power of one person, one act of kindness, how contagious it can be, and how you never know also what people are going through. And two. This is the world that our kids are expecting from us. They're expecting a world of color that is better than what we've what I think that we're potentially going to give them, and we owe it to them. And every day that I'm, you know, sitting in my office or having a hard conversation, or coming back from the legislature and just wanting to, you know, slay my head against the wall. I look at this, or anything that my kids do, and I'm like, No, you're showing up the next day because we have to again, if not us, then who? So thank you, Violet Buckley, for showing us this, this future of the world.
Spencer 1:06:21
So I really appreciate that culturally, there's something that Carly and I certainly remember, and it was a product of a culture probably 20 years ago. Do you remember pay it forward? I love pay it forward. Yeah. So it kind of took the United States by storm for a period of weeks, where people would buy in the drive through line, the mule, the person behind him, and you saw some of these chains that, literally, the whole thing lasted all day, and it revealed a character of the nation that we haven't seen in a while. And what a great message that, I think is captured in that drawing, to say yes, regardless of what we believe and where we're at, there's room for that mindset of, hey, let's pay it forward. That's right. Remember that we're all fellow citizens here in the United States trying to be in a great country.
Katie Marchetti 1:07:14
And I'll say one more thing too, on on the impact of, you know, connectivity and helping other people when we have, you know, increasingly common severe weather events, you see the folks who, without even thinking about it, run out their back door to try to help at their own human risk. And you know the lives of people around them as well. They're not asking, Are you Democrat or Republican? Who you plan on voting for? There's neighbors and and that, and they're, they're so excited to help their community. And that is, that is what we're about as Americans, as Tennesseans, as middle Tennesseans, you know, there's far more that you know unites us and divides us. So if we can continue to have thoughtful conversations to bring each other together, let's keep doing it. So I appreciate the chance to do that today.
Carli 1:08:02
I'll tell violet, she made my day. It's a beautiful, beautiful piece.
Katie Marchetti 1:09:00
I'll tell her that. Thank you. Cool. You.
