Strangled: How Nonprofit Corporatization Suffocates Tangible Social Change
I’m grateful to Tasha for offering me another opportunity to share my thoughts on the nature of our shared sector. In my last post, I reflected my belief that the very existence of the nonprofit sector is an indictment of our society’s consistent and pervasive failures in providing equity and shared quality of life for all the world’s citizens. This is a vital thing we in the nonprofit industry must grasp and grapple with as we do our work. If we are true to our missions, visions, and values, we want to see our organizations become irrelevant because we will have finally addressed the very social ills we were created to respond to. (This is going to be a bit of a ride, so hold on…)
The Nature of Our Nonprofit Work
Instead, because of patriarchal white supremicist capitalism’s death grip upon our current society, we are pursuing strips of fancy paper which we exchange as our admission into this outrageous rat race we call “working for a living.” We must understand and contend with this reality; we are living and pursuing artificial life through conspicuous consumerism. It is killing us (literally), but we cannot stop it. We are living like the artwork “Can’t Help Myself” by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu and if we wish to survive as a species (I mean all of humanity), we must shrug off this yoke.
Yes, our nonprofit work matters. Sure, our organizations change lives. But we are currently doing those things because we need money to live. All of us in nonprofits want to help others, but we cannot help others while strangling ourselves. We need to follow the flight attendants’ instructions and “put on our own masks before assisting others.”
We would likely seek to help others even if money were no object, because we are human and humane; because we comprehend that our collective success outweighs our individual success; because that’s what we—as a species—are evolutionarily wired to do. Not to sit in traffic for 45 minutes emitting and inhaling toxic carcinogens to arrive at an artificially-lit, completely unnatural structure where we proceed to work on “emergencies” that are anything but, remain sedentary, and consume sugar and caffeine until the time comes to poison ourselves and our world again.
How Nonprofits are Corporatized
Nonprofit organizations often function in a corporate style in four key ways, their (1) governance structure and (2) financial management, as well as their (3) marketing and branding and (4) metrics and accountability:
1. Governance Structures: Nonprofit organizations typically have a board of directors, similar to a corporate board, responsible for governance and oversight. This includes setting strategic direction, ensuring financial transparency, and making key organizational decisions.
2. Financial Management: Nonprofits are often required to implement sophisticated financial management practices, including budgeting, financial reporting, and audits, akin to for-profit corporations.
3. Marketing and Branding: Nonprofits engage in professional marketing and branding efforts to promote their missions, attract donors, and compete for public attention. This includes social media campaigns, professional websites, and public relations strategies similar to those used by corporate entities.
4. Performance Metrics and Accountability: Nonprofits often use performance metrics and outcome measurements to assess the effectiveness of their programs and initiatives. This data-driven approach helps in demonstrating impact to stakeholders and securing funding, much like corporate performance evaluations and reporting.
These corporatized practices are often “best practice” for nonprofit organizations, but the question remains: best for whom? Can radical social change really be achieved via a 360-degree employee evaluation? Will our Statement of Activities report shift our society to more effectively meet people’s needs? When we make ourselves beholden to these corporate “norms,” we handicap our revolutionary potential.
Workplace Emergencies
“Oh, shoot, if I miss this deadline the boss is gonna kill me.” False. Murder remains illegal. Deadlines do not get people killed. Why do we communicate so violently at work in the first place? I dunno, let me shoot you an email before COB.
Why are we doing our jobs in nonprofit work? That’s a complicated answer. If I’m being honest, I work in nonprofits 25% because I genuinely want to help people, 60% because capitalism forces me to exchange my labor for pay, 10% because if I have to work for a living, I may as well be helping others, and 5% because I have moral turpitude. We ought to reflect upon the “how” of our work alongside its “why.” So let’s be honest, if your ratios look like mine, why are we figuratively killing ourselves with meetings and progress reports and one-on-ones and “quick chats” and deadlines, etc. in the cadence of our workdays?
For some reason we in nonprofits think we must be run like corporate entities to be legitimate. There is no rule saying we need to form ourselves into mini-for-profit businesses in order to do our work effectively. Yes, the State (writ large) requires certain documents in order to be registered as a 501-Anything. But it is that same State—and those same corporate entities—that have tilted our world so violently on its axis, and it is we who strive to counter this gravitational maladaptation.
We need to ask ourselves a very serious question, and answer it with brutal honesty: do we want to change the world for the better, or do we want to nestle in the benign comfort of our rapidly-crumbling status quo? Take a second and reflect. Stop reading!
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Have you thought about it? Right, so you understand that in order to build a better world, we’re going to have to relinquish our grasp on certain “comforts.” For example, that comfortable weekly meeting that sits at 3:30 PM every Friday just to “chat about the week…” Drop that shit immediately! That’s not what we’re here for! Cheese and Crackers!
Conspicuous Consumption for Everyone
Of course, many people relish—almost worship—their comforts: their lovely home, their sporty car, their DoorDash and their car insurance; we love it all! That’s why we work, isn’t it? Because we really love the stuff we can buy with the money left over after paying rent, that stuff that brings us perpetual joy forever and of which we never tire nor complain. (/s)
The worst irony of nonprofit life is that we, too, long for the bourgeois comforts of late stage capitalism. How many of us long to lounge by our private pools or have our drivers bring our Bentleys around from the garage, only to have those hopes dashed by another company-wide celebratory pizza party? Why should we—who dedicate our working lives to figurative martyrdom—be denied access to these modern luxuries? Even worse, the condescension we receive from others about how our work is “so rewarding” despite the flatlining salaries becomes just another arrow in our backs.
So why do we make ourselves beholden to these routines? As an aside, I’m also a College English professor, so I theoretically understand the need for some semblance of rules in order to communicate, etc. But the rules we are making up to follow in our working lives are not only stupid, they’re deadly. I bring up my teaching to share a quick aside. An old friend frequently asked for guidance with her written communication, and she sought my help to revise correspondence often. One day, while arguing about something else, as friends do, she called me a “grammar Nazi” and stated that English grammar is a vestige of white supremacy. She wasn’t wrong, but it cut me deeply, and we’ve since lost touch.
White Supremacy Lurking in the Daylight
Much of our current world is a vestige of white supremacy. Why do we eat “three square meals a day?” Because controlling our tasks and activities is a vestige of white supremacy. The Protestant Work Ethic has us working a thousand times harder than our pre-civilized ancestors. We even work 350% longer than Medieval feudal peasants. Corporate entities and their practices are a straightforward manifestation of patriarchal white supremicist capitalism. Why, then, are our organizations—that are striving to eliminate the negative effects of patriarchal white supremacy in others’ lives— enfeebling ourselves with our enemies’ very manifestations?
Am I advocating for the complete abandonment of all corporate and hierarchical structures? Yes, but not right away; that’s the end goal. At this point, I think we need to be critically examining the corporate customs and rituals we are clinging to so desperately, and potentially discarding those that don’t really serve our organizations’ missions, visions, and values. When we as nonprofit organizations strive to legitimize ourselves by mimicking the entities that actively create and perpetuate the negative social conditions that require our intervention in the first place, we depedestrate ourselves (remove our feet) before we can even start the race.
So, Now What?
Fundamentally, the choice sits with us. We can emancipate ourselves from mental slavery or we can ensnare ourselves and impede our own advancement. At this point, it has to be that black and white. Meaningful change—true, sustainable, long-lasting, permanent change—will not take place within the current structures, the very structures that run upon the continued societal exploitation, economic bifurcation, and ecological extraction our organizations exist—at least in theory—to address and eradicate.
I urge my fellow nonprofit executives to earnestly begin to deconstruct and decolonize our leadership practices and our hierarchical praxes so our efforts can become the tectonic shift our industry, our society, our civilization, and our species needs so desperately.
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With a diverse background spanning Higher Education, nonprofit management, peer support, and advocacy, Matthew Ratz currently holds the position of Executive Director at Passion for Learning, Inc. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to bridging opportunity gaps for low-income students in STEM and College readiness. Beyond his leadership in education and nonprofit management, Matthew is a prolific author with several nonfiction and children’s books to his name. His poetry has been featured in various anthologies, and he has delivered a TEDx talk available for viewing on YouTube and TED.com. He is also an ordained Rabbi. As a highly sought-after writer, speaker, and performer, Matthew channels his extensive experience and unwavering commitment to inclusivity and equity to make a positive impact on the world.