Nonprofit comes full circle with Vince Gill benefit show

Saturday’s Closer to Home benefit show represents a full-circle moment for founder Michele Pillar, as well as its famous headliner, Vince Gill. 

Gill played the Williamson County nonprofit’s first-ever benefit show in 2000, and is set to return for two private shows with just 100 audience members each at Green’s Grocery in Leiper’s Fork this weekend. Past performers have included Wynonna Judd, Christopher Cross, Peter Frampton, Jo Dee Messina, Michael McDonald, Phil Vasser and Steve Winwood, among others.

It’s a gift that Pillar — a contemporary Christian artist, Grammy Award nominee and event producer — doesn’t take lightly. The audiences appreciate the non-traditional model without a banquet room, silent auction, and speeches, too. It’s just dinner and an intimate show from a world-class artist.  

“If an artist gives me a Saturday of their career, they're giving me a piece of filet mignon,” she tells Williamson Scene. “They only get so many Saturdays in their whole career.” 

Throughout the year, Closer to Home gives lots of good gifts, too. Each of them are anonymous. 

“I have no idea what color they are,” Pillar says. “I don’t know anything about their personal persuasions. I know their needs.” 

Referrals come from social workers from various organizations, including Williamson County Schools, Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute and Juvenile Court and Services. Each gift has a money cap and a timeline, which can be extended with clearance from Closer to Home’s board. New referrals come in every week, Pillar says. 

Closer to Home is able to be nimble with its single employee and completely private funds. In some cases, all other funding options are exhausted, and in some cases, the situation is extraordinary. 

Examples include gas cards for a single mom commuting to chemotherapy treatments, help with medical bills for a hearing-impaired child and a scholarship to a basketball camp for a child that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it. 

The road to this nonprofit was not easy for Pillar, who paused her music career for a time in the '90s to work on overcoming her difficult past, which she wrote about in her book, “Untangled: The Truth Will Set You Free.”

Eventually, through her faith, she was able to forgive her mother — something she says was not between the two of them but between she and God. Closer to Home came out of that forgiveness. 

“I started it in honor of my single mom, and I just think of her so often when I'm doing this,” Pillar says. “I understand these people, when I read the application. I just think of my mother and how courageous she was — resourceful. She was really resourceful, and it's nice to be able to take some of that strain off people.”

The nonprofit is guided by the goal of neighbors helping neighbors. 

“Everybody wants to help their neighbor, but they don't know what their neighbor's going through, and they don't know how to help,” she says. “Your neighbor can be really suffering and you might not even know.”