The Memphis Community Benefits Ordinance is a blueprint. Learn how to demand one for your community, defend it, and make it stronger. These tools work for data centers, pipelines, factories, and every industry that profits from your neighborhood.
WREG News Channel 3 • Mayor Proposes Ordinance to Invest xAI Tax Revenue Into Memphis Communities
These terms sound similar but carry very different weight. Knowing the difference is your first organizing tool.
In August 2025, Memphis became one of the first U.S. cities to pass a CBO tied to an AI data center. The ordinance directs 25% of xAI's city property tax revenue to communities within 5 miles of its facilities in 38109 and 38116, capped at $100 million total. Community advocates including the Data Center Freedom Coalition are demanding that figure be raised to 75% and the cap removed entirely.
This guide uses Memphis as the model. Adapt every step to your city, your industry, and your community's needs.
Every step below was learned through the fight against xAI in Memphis. But these same strategies have been used against pipelines, warehouses, chemical plants, Amazon fulfillment centers, and power plants. Wherever a corporation profits from proximity to your community, especially a Black or low-income community, a CBO is the right tool.
File public records requests immediately when a new project is announced. Get zoning applications, permit filings, tax incentive agreements, environmental impact studies, and any correspondence between the company and city officials. In Memphis, residents learned xAI had been operating gas turbines without permits only because environmental groups flew drones and demanded documents. Document existing environmental burdens before the new project arrives so you can show cumulative harm.
Identify all affected groups: neighborhood associations, faith communities, environmental organizations, civil rights groups, labor unions, tenant organizations, schools, and health advocates. In Memphis, MCAP, Young Gifted & Green, the NAACP, SELC, Protect Our Aquifer, and dozens of faith leaders formed an interlocking coalition. No single organization can do this alone. Assign clear roles: legal support, media, community outreach, city council engagement, and technical research.
Elected officials respond to data but communities respond to stories. Use EPA EJScreen, CDC PLACES data, and air quality monitoring to build an evidence base. Then connect the numbers to real lives. Boxtown's cancer rate is four times the national average. Life expectancy is eight years below the U.S. average. Frame the CBO not as anti-business but as basic fairness: if a corporation profits from proximity to your community, it owes the community a majority of the benefits it generates.
Use the model ordinance template on this site. Your ordinance should include: a defined percentage of tax revenue going to impacted communities with NO dollar cap; a mandatory community advisory board with a majority of seats held by impacted residents; a geographic impact zone defined by environmental data; enforcement mechanisms with teeth; and an explicit prohibition on PILOTs or tax incentives being granted simultaneously. Identify at least two council members willing to champion the bill before any public reading.
In Memphis, residents showed up to every council session, every health department hearing, and every community meeting during the three-reading process. Visibility matters. Organize transportation to City Hall. Train community members to deliver effective public comments using the training template on this site. Coordinate speakers so each one adds a different dimension: a parent speaking about a child's asthma, a pastor speaking about community dignity, a data expert speaking about tax revenue, a lawyer speaking about permit violations.
Memphis received coverage from TIME, NPR, The Guardian, Capital B, ABC News, Tennessee Lookout, MLK50, and dozens of other outlets because advocates were relentless and disciplined. Write op-eds. Give interviews. Post video of public hearings. Use the social media kit and op-ed template on this site. Assign one spokesperson for high-stakes media moments while training many community members to speak to local press. National attention creates local political pressure.
Any community advisory board created under a CBO must operate under open meeting laws. Meetings must be publicly noticed in advance, minutes must be recorded and made available, voting must occur in public, and the public must have the opportunity to comment. Insist that the majority of board seats belong to residents of the impacted ZIP codes, not city officials, not corporate representatives, and not outside advocates. See the advisory board setup template on this site for state-by-state guidance.
Monitor implementation relentlessly. Attend advisory board meetings. File ongoing public records requests. Track whether funds are actually being disbursed to the right communities. In Memphis, advocates continue to push for amendments to increase the percentage and remove the cap even after passage. A CBO is a floor, not a ceiling. Your job is to keep raising that floor until the community receives what it is truly owed.
The fight in Memphis has drawn coverage from across the country. Watch, learn, and share these resources.
The Mid-South Environmental Justice Center is housed within Young, Gifted & Green, the sponsoring nonprofit organization. MSEJC is inspired by the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in New Orleans, the first environmental justice center in the nation. Like its predecessor, the MSEJC is built on the conviction that frontline communities must have dedicated, permanent institutions that combine legal advocacy, community organizing, education, and research to fight environmental injustice and build community power.
Operating at the intersection of environmental health, racial justice, and economic equity, the MSEJC centers the voices of communities in the Mid-South who bear the greatest burden of industrial pollution, including the communities of South Memphis that have been fighting xAI's unchecked expansion.
The Data Center Freedom Coalition is inspired by the historic Freedom School movement, specifically the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools that educated and organized communities during the Civil Rights Movement, turning knowledge into power and power into political change. The Coalition carries that tradition forward: building a community curriculum, an organizing toolkit, and a replicable model for fighting corporate exploitation wherever it lands.
The Coalition believes that the same strategies used to win community benefits from xAI in Memphis can and should be adapted by communities everywhere facing data centers, pipelines, chemical plants, and every other industry that profits from proximity to frontline neighborhoods. The tools on this site are that curriculum.
The Advisory Board Related to Public Use Funds from AI Properties held its first meeting in March 2026. Track all activity here.
Advisory Board Related to Public Use Funds from AI Properties. First meeting held March 2026. Check the City of Memphis website for the most current session recording.
The City of Memphis created a survey to gather input on how xAI tax revenue should be spent within the 5-mile impact zone. This survey is intended for residents of ZIP codes 38109 and 38116 only. If you are not from those ZIP codes, we encourage you to review it as a reference for what community input processes can look like.
Coalition Note: We do not believe this is the best survey tool for capturing the depth of community need. The City of Memphis did not incorporate all of the Community Advisory Board's feedback in the survey design. We share it here for transparency and to help communities elsewhere understand both the possibilities and the limitations of city-administered input processes.
Review the City SurveyEvery template is ready to adapt for your community and industry. All materials are protected by copyright and owned by the Mid-South Environmental Justice Center's Data Center Freedom Coalition.
A full draft ordinance with mandatory community advisory board, majority revenue percentage with no cap, prohibition on simultaneous PILOTs, enforcement mechanisms, and impact zone definition.
⬇ Download PDFStep-by-step guide for requesting meetings with the mayor's office, what to bring, how to frame demands, follow-up protocol, and how to hold administration accountable in writing.
⬇ Download PDFA facilitated workshop curriculum for educating community members about CBOs, environmental justice, and their rights. Includes slide prompts, discussion questions, and a glossary.
⬇ Download PDFReady-to-post captions for Instagram, X, Facebook, and TikTok. Includes graphic copy templates, hashtag strategy, posting schedule, and engagement prompts for campaign moments.
⬇ Download PDFA two-in-one media toolkit: a structured op-ed framework for newspapers and digital outlets, plus a ready-to-send Media Advisory template for press conferences, hearings, and council actions. Both tailored for CBO campaigns.
⬇ Download PDFA printable and digital petition template demanding CBO passage or amendment. Includes a clear ask, signature fields, an impact statement, and instructions for presenting signatures to officials.
⬇ Download PDFA complete email campaign template with sample constituent emails, instructions for finding council member contact info, subject line guidance, and a follow-up escalation sequence.
⬇ Download PDFA complete training guide for preparing and delivering effective public comments at city council meetings, health department hearings, and planning commission sessions.
⬇ Download PDFStep-by-step instructions for establishing a community advisory board under state open meeting laws. Covers notice requirements, quorum, minutes obligations, member selection, and conflict of interest policies.
⬇ Download PDFThe Data Center Freedom Coalition offers consultation and training for communities, organizations, NGOs, and local and state agencies working to develop community benefits ordinances or advance environmental justice campaigns.