Why My Nonprofit Has No Executive Director
Published in the Nonprofit Quarterly (June 2022)
“When I founded Pangea Legal Services in late 2012, I set out to model it after the Buenos Aires factory cooperatives I had witnessed while studying abroad in Argentina. In these coops, self-management, mutuality, respect, and dignity were the norm. In 2017, I finally proposed removing my executive director (ED) title. A transformative power shift followed. But my vision of shared power and ownership was not easily won. It ran counter to the conventional wisdom that only strict organizational hierarchies confer visibility, trust, and legitimacy. As a leader of color, I also had to unlearn a tendency to equate professional titles with respect and a sense of self-worth.
When I proposed my title change, I felt both nervous and excited. My colleagues voiced their opinions and questions. Should we rotate the person in the ED role regularly? Should we get rid of the title altogether? I thought that having no ED would further our collective governance goals and showcase to the world the transformative work we were doing internally. Of eight staff, two colleagues and I voiced our desire to remove the ED title.[…]”