How nonprofits “professionalize” your activism
Written by Uche Ezejiofor
With conversations of social justice issues taking over the daily lives of young people everywhere, and the disheartening reality of our material conditions becoming exposed, anyone with an interest in changing the oppressive structures we live under is bound to look toward a career in a local nonprofit organization.
Nonprofit organizations usually commit to addressing a societal issue or bettering its surrounding community. Nonprofits are tax-exempt, which means that these organizations are not required to pay federal income taxes based on their revenue or income. They often consist of a small intimate staff and offer great benefits (such as paid family leave and health insurance).
Nonprofit organizations are also known for recruiting employees and interns by partnering with professors within universities. This way, nonprofits are certain to acquire potential employees that are searching for entry level jobs and are passionate about the societal issues that a particular non-profit may focus on.
Take, for instance, my experience as an intern at a local nonprofit organization. I had always been extremely active in discussing the oppressive system of mass incarceration in my community. I also had a firm grasp on the necessary steps needed to rid our society of mass incarceration. These steps include defunding the police, abolishing prisons and investing in community programs that ensure everyone’s needs are met so there is no need for crime.
With this, I enrolled in a course at my university that explored ways that activists could get involved in community organizations via an off-campus volunteer internship. Luckily, I was paired with a local nonprofit that focuses on prisoner reentry as well as the criminal justice system.
However, my experience as an intern at this particular non-profit organization quickly taught me how ineffective and harmful the structure and goals of that organization (and many others like it) truly was.
The organization I interned with had an extremely small number of staff, yet literally hundreds of tasks needed to be completed constantly. Thus, I was expected to take on the same amount of work as salaried employees even though I was never paid.
I also quickly realized that the organization’s sociopolitical views and missions did not align with mine (and many other activists in the field of mass incarceration and prison industrial complex abolition). While this organization believed that certain crimes deserved to be punished by years of prison, we believe that prison is inherently unethical and harmful. Further, it became clear to me that when I and other activist interns shared our beliefs with the organization, we were met with chastisement from our leaders to “think realistically” and to remain “professional.”
Issues that impact the lives of millions of people (such as the prison industrial complex and mass incarceration) should not be addressed with an attitude of respectability and professionalism, but should instead be met with a passion for radical change. Overworked employees in a small office building often lack the passion, drive and scope needed to imagine holistic solutions to our societal issues.
Nonprofit organizations are not designed to holistically address the issues of our society, but individual activists and those who desire change can create the world we desire to live in. I quickly realized that the nonprofit world is not meant for activists but instead is meant for professionals that want to represent themselves as activists.
Instead of immediately opting for employment at a nonprofit organization, what if activists and revolutionaries could work intimately with their communities to address local social justice issues? What if the money used to donate to nonprofit organizations was, instead, used to distribute funds to individuals who are living in poverty today?
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