What do you get when you cross a worker cooperative with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit? A worker self-directed nonprofit! As the movement for economic and workplace democracy continues to grow, it is vitally important that nonprofit organizations also internalize and practice workplace democracy.
Unleashing Worker Empowerment: The Thriving World of Worker Self-Directed Nonprofits
So what’s a worker self-directed nonprofit? We are defining this as a nonprofit organization in which all workers have the power to influence the programs in which they work, the conditions of their workplace, their own career paths, and the direction of the organization as a whole. The Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) is an example of a thriving worker self-directed non-profit. Both their own experience practicing worker self-direction and an emerging body of research show that distributing leadership throughout an organization can create:
- More efficiency in achieving its mission of fostering just and resilient economies.
- More accountable to its community and internal stakeholders.
- More adaptable and resilient in the face of change.
- A vibrant and empowering place to work.
Why are Worker Self Directed Non-Profits important?
A provocative book titled “The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex”, edited by the INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence collective explains that “the nonprofit system has tamed a generation of activists. They’ve traded in grand visions of social change for salaries and stationery; given up recruiting people to the cause in favor of writing grant proposals and wooing foundations; and ceded control of their movements to business executives in boardrooms”.
The nonprofit sector employs over 11 million people. And given the urgency and unpredictability of converging global crises, we’ll need highly adaptable, resilient, and empowering organizations to catalyze the changes we need to see. It’s time for nonprofits – already committed to the public good – to embody the society they are working toward in their own governance structures and organizational cultures.
How do worker self directed non-profits work?
There are many types and ways people can create or convert to a worker self directed non-profit. The key is that it is directed by the people that work at the organization so each org will look different.
As the primary “sensors” of an organization, frontline workers are often best positioned to guide the direction of an organization while remaining highly accountable to the communities they are working in and for. And when an organization is working to upend the unjust concentration of wealth and power in society, as we are, it doesn’t make much sense to recreate those dynamics in our own organization.
Policies
Democratically creating policies is a key aspect of worker self directed non-profit (See Sustainable Economies Law Centers Policy Wiki). Certain policies and practices that work synergistically to create both the culture and the structure necessary for a healthy workplace democracy. Removing any of these policies would likely weaken the overall health and resilience of the organization, much as the loss of any species in an ecosystem can have ripple effects throughout the whole community of life in that system. Many of these policies are subtly or overtly subversive of traditional organizational hierarchies – for example, having semi-autonomous decision-making circles and dynamic roles within the organization makes it very difficult to justify paying certain people more or maintaining management hierarchies.
Want to join this conversation? We’re excited to learn from others working in worker self-directed nonprofits and begin creating more resources to support existing nonprofits. The Nonprofit Democracy Network is a great resource that offers tools for collective self-governance. The Sustainable Economies Law Center also offers a dynamic Google Folder housing an ever-expanding amount of handouts, slides, model documents, and more.
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