The attacks on communities of color, particularly immigrants, is very real. If you are like me, you are an optimist, as so many social impact leaders are. So when we see the news our first inclination might be to ask, is this real? Can this be happening and unfolding as it seems? Can it really be this bad? And while the news will always sensationalize everything, and even in a digital world where we feel connected to each other hundreds of miles away, there will always be parts of the truth we are missing. But make no mistake, this is very real. Families are being separated, children are losing their parents, people are losing their loved ones. People are being arrested and detained without due process, without fairness or justice. Federal authorities readily admit that in communities where they interpret behavior to be anything less than 100% compliant, they will inflict violence and mass panic as their standard operating procedure.
Federal authorities are cutting back vital resources to feed and care for the most vulnerable community members, while also categorically eliminating immigrants and children of immigrants from eligibility. From housing to Head Start, these federal authorities want to disappear immigrants and first generation Americans from community life. And now, federal authorities are caging what resources are left behind a razor wire fence of compliance demands; and these demands simply do not take into account what is good for communities here at home. Even if the federal government wanted to take local needs into account while reshaping our federal budget, they have certainly not taken the time necessary to do that with any real care.
For many of our local government leaders this has meant a choice between compliance or loss. But this is a false dichotomy, there are far more options in between, we know this because as nonprofit organizations we are experts in problem solving. We have always lived in a world where we are fighting to take care of as many people as possible under systems that were made to say “no” and to filter out whomever the powerful deem undeserving at any given time. Individual community members, not businesses or government (often not even philanthropy) have been the backbone of our work. It is the individuals who donate, volunteer and steward the work. We are from the community and with the community, every step of the way.
Since 2020 a lot has changed, our local, state and federal governments were hit with a crisis they were never going to be able to navigate without us. For many organizations it was the first time (not always for lack of trying) they received any funding from a government body. Many organizations scaled up and expanded their services explicitly to save lives during the COVID crisis. There is no doubt that death and harm would have been much worse had nonprofits not stepped up and jumped in to do in hours or days the things our governments had failed to do over decades. That is who we are, that is what we do. And today is no different.
There are plenty of fear driven narratives that would tell us that things are very different now. We should close up shop, layoff staff quietly, consolidate programs down to pre-pandemic levels and stop asking for money or policy changes. We should sit down and do what we are told. We should make a list of the words the powerful dislike and muzzle ourselves. That isn’t who we are and it is not who we are ever going to be. Nonprofit Social Impact work is not about compliance to the powerful. It’s about justice, opportunity, community building, care and ultimately it’s about love. Take the time to recenter the history of your organization, you should not be surprised to learn that your organization has seen strife. Pushing to protect, care and support communities who were being demonized or left out has never been an act of compliance. In the words of James Baldwin, “love has never been a popular movement.” It is not easy to accept that once great partners are walking away or worse sprinting into compliance with rules that will not serve us. It’s time to reconnect with our roots, re-build from the foundations of our missions and histories. We must find strength in our resilience, refuse to apologize for demanding better of society and start problem solving. Be open and honest with all of your staff, volunteers and donors. Tell them exactly how it is, and exactly what you are going to need to do. Hiding these realities or trying to solve them with just “senior leadership” in your organization robs you and your community of the opportunity to do what we have always done – step up, get creative and make it work.
Mercedes Elizalde
NAO Board Member and Public Policy Committee Chair
Director of Advocacy, Latino Network