Inside Out is Broken Down
As the non-profit world in California returned back from holiday break (if we actually got one - I got a few days here in there) - it was clear that so much was business as usual in the worse ways with a few new exciting wrenches.
The biggest wrench was Omicron and the way it quickly knocked down organizational capacity a few notches. If you’re in an org like the one I have the privilege and honor of leading - we were already at limited capacity because the great resignation impacted us too. Throw in Omicron and suddenly a staff of 13 had five people at a time in 14 day quarantines (because seriously fuck the CDC). The org where I’m at has a total of 6 physical locations (5 day labor site and then we have headquarters) and we had to close one for a whole two weeks and the other sites a day off here and there).
But in spite of a new raging wave (how’s that for a name for the ride we are all on) - foundations and funders still want reports to prove that we are doing what they are paying us the not so big bucks to do and the biggest funders - the State and City Governments with whom we have contracts with are really sticklers for a deadline - pandemic or not.
What is fascinating to me - running a nonprofit in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles - is how the dique (that’s allegedly in NYRican) progressive state and county and city government agencies are chock full of people who were like me - executive directors, program directors, organizers, lawyers at on the ground orgs (I’m not going to say grassroots because we are full on 501c3s) and there is a narrative that they “graduated” into positions within government structures.
Now there is nothing wrong in and of itself of this being your career path. But what is troubling as an immigrant workers’ rights organization, in coalition - formally or informally - with other orgs in the same sphere - is that once upon a time - we used to fight the government. We used to make demands of them. We used to protest them. We used to call in, write in, sit in and in my personal case - downright interrupt business as usual in order to make a point and move an agenda (ask me about the Christmas tree lighting at NYC hall I helped to shut down).
In the years right before before the pandemic there was a move for many orgs to start getting contracts from local and state governments to help implement wins collectively won. For example - what good is a rising minimum wage if there isn’t enforcement of wage theft and knowledge by undocumented workers that they have a right to a day’s pay for a day’s work (or in the case of day laborer and domestic workers - an hour’s pay for an hour’s work).
But when something is “won” and you want the government to be accountable and actually do what they said they would - how much can you really demand when the government is signing a check to the org every month that is helping pay staff and keep the internet running?
Now - my org had many more years experience in this area compared to others. Our biggest program is funded nearly 100 percent by the city and for years we have had to fight to keep getting funded while handing over precious data points.
But what happens when someone you used to know - used to work with - used to testify with at hearings, and confer with for campaigns and strategize at meetings now is in charge of those contractual deliverables?
I think for a tiny millisecond some people hoped that this was a good thing. They would understand our point of view- they would understand the workers point of view. They were on the front lines with us making fiery statements before the press and debriefing in hallways after meetings with officials.
But can you have two masters?
Can you be loyal to a mission or a vision while also being loyal to a boss who needs to keep being electable and having access to the big bucks that is required to keep being electable?
Over the course of the past few years the answer keeps being no. And not only has that made so many allegedly progressive governments and politicians weak as fuck in practice it has had a chilling trickle down effect on the organizational level.
No more do people want to issue statements or sit in at an office where their former coworker now has their name on a cubicle or office. The people who now have .gov after their email addresses would take this personally and not politically and stop talking to you and close the gates of access or even worse, close the stairway where you too can get a six figure salary and be in the right photo ops.
So now in the middle of the pandemic where we as a collective should be demanding more of the State, instead way too many are settling for less and it is weakening coalitions and worse - hurting the most vulnerable so many of us claim to be repping.
I’m going to drill down in future posts about how this plays out on health and other policy areas but look - the main point is that yes the non-profit industrial complex is a minefield in the U.S and in California and in Los Angeles. And yes there are always going to be contradictions. BUT - a question I always ask myself and have my staff ask is what is our relationship going to be with the state/State? And the answer can vary in a year and within a project and campaign. There is going to have to be a certain flexibility.
BUT
there also needs to be a certain level of honesty. What are you willing to give up? Are you willing to lose your position in your org or do you want to hold onto that at all costs? Why or why not? Is it because you really need the money? Is it because you too can be a governmental appointee? Is it because you like the attention? Is it because you too want to run for office? These are not questions that are value judgements in and of themselves. But the answers should be based on your values at least in my vision of the world I imperfectly try to model everyday.