Category Archives: Women

Action, Advocacy, Impact, Innovation, Justice, Leadership, Responsibility, Social Sector, Women

Social Movements: Seeing Change Through to Fruition with Strategy and Partnerships

December 10, 2017 kiaharris Leave a comment

By Claire Lewis

Earlier this year, I participated in my first protest ever – The Women’s March. I cannot remember who organized it or who invited me to the Facebook event group; I just knew I wanted to make a difference. If raising awareness was the key objective, then we definitely accomplished that goal. According to USA Today, 2.6 individuals across 32 countries participated in this historical march. Celebrities from America Ferrerra to Madonna gave powerful speeches about the importance of women’s rights. News stations across the globe covered this momentous day.

How was such a feat accomplished? The answer is social media. Facebook protest events across various cities and states filled my newsfeed leading up to the day. I witnessed many friends mark they were “interested” or “going” to these events.

However, despite this outpouring of support, there is little to no reform. One of the issues with “social media” marches is the lack of strategy behind the effort. I, like many others, was unclear as to the main purpose or end-goal of the Women’s March. Was it a particular policy change? If so, was it related to sexual harassment, gender inequality in pay, freedom of choice, and/or all of the above?

In order to sustain long-term change in policy and legislation, strategy, goals, and hard work need to be put forth and adhered to. This Ted Talk goes into more detail on the lack of strategy behind online uprisings. As, Zeynep points out, the Civil Rights movement was incredibly successful because there was a well thought out strategy, what she refers to as “slow and sustained” and “painstaking long-term work.” The Civil Rights movement also had specific, tangible goals such as ending segregation and reversing “separate but equal.” Both individuals (ex. MLK) as well as the work of SMO’s led to major change. For example, the NAACP was instrumental in policy change. NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall, challenged segregation in the landmark case, Plessy V. Ferguson that later led to Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown Case resulted in large-scale protests such as the March on Washington.

These powerful protests are the reason for both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Clearly, both SMOs and individuals are important in a social movement. So the question is, in our current social media climate, how can we harness the power of these social media inspired protests and actually produce tangible results? To me, this is more important than whether an SMO or an individual creates a protest event on Facebook. I do not care who starts it, I just want to contribute and see change actually happen.

The first step is creation of a strategy. Many SMOs already have strategy and goals built into their programming. For example, the NAACP has various toolkits for social change initiatives. The trick is to connect SMOs to these grassroots movements so that everyone is on the same page.

Below are some ideas I brainstormed that could create movements that are more effective. I assume (and hope) that at least some of these ideas are already in place.

SMOs identifying and working with various grassroots protest planners to create strategies and goals together that can be communicated to the masses
SMOs training leaders to be part of these small grassroots movements and educate groups
SMOs attending various protests as guest speakers and/or handing out information
SMOs collaborating with influential social change leaders such as Michael Moore to ensure a goal is put in place and communicated. He does a great job, but a partnership with an SMO could be even more impactful
SMOs and/or individuals harnessing various media sources to make it clear what the public needs to do in order to achieve the goal (make it easy to do, easy to understand)
SMOs educating the public at various venues on what legislation is related to the current issue, what propositions to watch out for, etc.
SMOs partnering with small grassroots groups to create follow-up sessions after protests
SMOs and/or individuals partnering with schools and universities to provide education on various social issues and legislation to build a pipeline

Our current social media climate has so much potential for enacting real, tangible change. By harnessing the strategies that SMOs already construct and articulating clear goals, we have a chance at influencing policy change. SMOs and individuals can be much more powerful as a team, and I hope there will be more partnerships in the future. I am so proud of the Women’s March and awareness it spread, but I want to see women receive equal pay, a right to choose, and fair trials in the cases of rape and sexual assault. I want to see not just a short-term uprising, but long-term change. The partnership of SMOs and individuals can act as a catalyst to bring reform to fruition.

Advocacy, Leadership, Women

Nonprofit Labor Force

September 5, 2016 Marco Tavanti 3 Comments

Too many people still don’t know or underestimate the labor and economic force of the nonprofit sector. The reality is that nonprofits provides 11.4 million jobs, accounting for 10.3% of the United States total workforce in 2012 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). Between 2000 and 2010 the nonprofit employment grew at about 18%, a faster rate than the overall U.S. economy (The Independent Sector – The Urban Institute, 2012). The nonprofit workforce is the third largest of all U.S. industries behind retail trade and manufacturing (Center for Civil Society Study, 2012).

The University of San Francisco’s MNA Program is located A few minutes away from Rosie the Riveter Museum, a National landmark commemorating the power of women in the workforce during WWII (Rosie Visitor Center). The museum, with the weekly presence of the few still living ‘Rosies’ is a powerful reminder of what is possible during difficult times and with the determination of workers (mostly women) serving the country for a better future for all. The missions of our nonprofit organizations with its ambitious objectives mobilize many women and men to make the world a better place through health, education, advocacy, and many other necessary human services (Top NP Missions).

As we celebrate Labor Day in the Unites States (AKA May Day in the rest of the world), we recall the importance of integrating hard work with justice and dignity in the workplace. This is why nonprofits generally do not just strive to work efficiently and effectively for their services but also advocate for adequate policies and recognition of human rights, labour rights, environmental rights and other specific rights like disability, children, indigenous, etc. Integrating production with justice has been at the root of labor struggle and continues to be a priority in the nonprofit sector along social movements and unions seeking worker’s justice and dignity. This integration is inherently true in our social missions and it is gradually much better integrated in our own nonprofit workplaces (Overtime Regulations 2016).

The nonprofit sector, also known as the voluntary sector, is also rapidly professionalizing and requiring appropriate normative, comparative standards and specialized educational programs (see NACC). Of course the main drive for nonprofit workforce remains its dedication to the cause and ‘transformational leadership.’ But the value-based and mission-driven characteristics of ‘transformational leadership’ cannot be sustainable unless based on a relation of justice, dignity and fairness. In other words, the transformational spirit and dedication of the nonprofit workforce is and must be based on clear standards of transactional (contractual) leadership that aims at promoting fairness by avoiding exploitation while stimulating creativity and social innovation (Tavanti, 2008).

Leadership, Philanthropy, Women

Nonprofit Women Leadership

June 8, 2016 Marco Tavanti Leave a comment

One societal gender bias characterizes women as ‘we-take-care’ and men as ‘we-take-charge.’ A recent study by The American Association of University Women (AAUW) explains this Barriers and Bias about advancing women in leadership across sectors. At the time of this posting, the United States is celebrating the breaking of another glass ceiling in public leadership with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s nomination as the Democratic Presidential Nominee (June 7, 2016). The nonprofit sector offers some of the most frequent and innovative examples for women leadership. Numerous women leaders in innovative nonprofits and social enterprises have been able to show the world how to effectively combine competence with compassion.

Millennial women and other generations want to lead and prefer work environments where they can make a difference and better balance work with life. Women in the nonprofit sector are more likely to express leadership and ‘take charge’ partly because they know they can make a difference in society. The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2014 “Untapped Potential of Women in Nonprofits” found that women – who make up 75 percent of the nonprofit workforce – hold leadership positions (57%) or aspire to have a leadership position (72%). Although leaders of large nonprofits (budgets of more than $25 million) are only 20% women, they are still better than businesses where only 20 CEOs are women in Fortune 500 companies.

The MNA Program aims at promoting competencies and capacity building for women leadership in the nonprofit sector. This is not a gender exclusive agenda. Rather, it is a call for organizational transformation where innovative and inclusive leadership practices can effectively reconcile tasks with people orientation, executive leadership with societal intelligence, and financial prosperity with mission and service. The University of San Francisco is also invested in the promotion and recognition of women in leadership and philanthropy as recognized in the WILP initiative.

Learn more about nonprofit women leadership: