Kathleen Kelly Janus, an accomplished author and academic in the field of philanthropy, was riding high when California Gov. Gavin Newsom named her to a key new position working with nonprofits in the state. Nonprofit advocates had long wanted prominent representation in federal and state government, and Janus’s appointment was greeted with excitement.
But Jan Masaoka, longtime leader of the California Association of Nonprofits, was quick to put a damper on the party. “We’re all hopeful, but there aren’t a lot of expectations because people don’t know her yet,” Masaoka said at the time.
Two years later, Janus, who says she recently left the governor’s office to spend more time with her three children, expresses no hard feelings about her rude welcome to the job from perhaps the most important advocate for nonprofits in the state and someone she’d have to work with frequently. “Jan’s a force of nature,” Janus says. “That’s important in the nonprofit sector, where nonprofits are often left behind and people get paid less to work harder.”
That kind of response is typical of those who have crossed paths with Masaoka, both allies and foes, who almost invariably invoke her fearlessness and her ability to make a point clearly and directly, often with biting humor. Masaoka has since warmed to Janus, calling her “a smart, earnest person who worked very hard raising private money for various Newsom initiatives.”
Masaoka, who has run the California Association of Nonprofits for a decade, is a different breed of advocate than most of the people who run large, diverse charity associations. While her peers often steer clear of controversy to avoid angering donors, nonprofits, or both, Masaoka isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers.
In particular, she is an outspoken advocate for laws and regulations that would impose more stringent payout requirements on foundations and other kinds of grant makers, and she supports requiring more disclosure of the identities of people who give money to charities to prevent fraud. The members of most nonprofit associations are split on those issues and so they avoid taking a stand, but Masaoka isn’t afraid to take flak from disgruntled members of her organization.
Masaoka was also a key driver in spreading the “Vote With Your Mission” movement, which encourages nonprofits to spend time and resources getting their employees, community members, and volunteers to vote. While charities are prohibited from endorsing specific candidates, the idea behind the movement is that these get-out-the-vote efforts will help elect candidates who stand up for the people nonprofits serve.
Masaoka helped develop the messaging for that campaign, including pins that say, “I work for a nonprofit and I vote.”
Admirers say she’s also been a leader in getting nonprofits nationwide to understand the importance of a federal program that forgives student loans for people who commit to working for nonprofits and other public-service organizations and has helped defend the law from attempts to undo it.
Those who know Masaoka cite other accomplishments as well, including creating a high-quality online magazine for nonprofits, highlighting systemic inequities, raising awareness of the impact of nonprofits, and pushing donors to give more.
Janus says that Masaoka also has a data-driven approach to her work that has helped nonprofits secure more funding and has created a deeper appreciation for the role that nonprofits play in creating jobs and boosting the growth of the state of California, “thus garnering more respect for a sector that has long gone underappreciated.”
Blunt Talk
But it is perhaps Masaoka’s bluntness that really stands out in a field that many practitioners privately admit is too timid in advocating for its own interests. Even allies can find themselves taking a direct hit from Masaoka. For example, she is quick to criticize national charity associations like Independent Sector for avoiding taking stands on hot-button issues out of fear that of upsetting a few of their members. “Timid is their middle name, if not their first name,” says Masaoka.
Asked for a response, Independent Sector CEO Dan Cardinali replied in a statement, “Jan practices a rare willingness to say what she really believes — and in clear and unequivocal terms. Feedback about our work, even if sharply worded, is not only welcome, but it’s necessary and healthy.”
Masaoka says she’s also concerned that some nonprofit associations aren’t taking seriously the way that some nonprofits and foundations are being “weaponized,” using untaxed donations in ways that have little or nothing to do with charity. As examples, she cited “research” into political candidates and campaigns that are thinly veiled partisan attacks, research into assets that is intended to influence stock prices, and contributions directed to hate groups.
That kind of outspokenness is sure to generate detractors.
Elizabeth McGuigan, director of policy for the Philanthropy Roundtable, which represents mostly conservative donors, says Masaoka is wrong on key issues like requiring higher annual payouts from foundations and donor-advised funds and expanding disclosure requirements for donors.
“There hasn’t been a groundswell of support growing for those proposals,” says McGuigan. Masaoka supports changing tax laws in ways that would force more payout from foundations and donor-advised funds, and those changes would reduce incentives for people to give, says McGuigan.
“We all know if you tax something, you get less of it,” says McGuigan. “I do think that support for these changes is misguided.”
McGuigan, who acknowledges that Masaoka is “a formidable presence,” also takes issue with her support for legislation in California that would force nonprofits to provide donor information to state regulators. Such disclosure could lead to public leaks of donor information, either intentionally or unintentionally, says McGuigan.
People have good reasons for wanting to keep their giving secret, she says. For example, some donors want the focus to be on the nonprofits doing the work, not on their gifts, says McGuigan. Also, giving to legitimate causes that some find objectionable could create a public backlash.
“We live in a time of cancel culture,” says McGuigan.
Saying What Others Won’t
Masaoka says she speaks bluntly so that donors get a clearer picture of what grantees are really thinking. She says that grantees are often afraid to speak out themselves because they would risk losing funding. She gives voice to the perspective that many of them whisper among themselves when their donors aren’t listening.
“One of the niches we have for ourselves is taking stands where other nonprofits can’t,” she says.
And Masaoka knows that stances that are controversial now may seem far less so years later, as public opinion evolves. For example, the California Association of Nonprofits in 2016 invited Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, to speak at the association’s convention. Six members of the association quit in protest, saying the decision to have Garza speak was “too political,” says Masaoka.
“At that time, it seemed very bold and daring for us to do that,” says Masaoka. “I don’t think it would be the same situation today.”
Blue Avocado
Even Masaoka’s LinkedIn profile, typically a place where people offer only the rosiest highlights of their career, is refreshingly honest. She founded Blue Avocado in 2007, an online publication about volunteering and nonprofit management. She writes in her LinkedIn profile that she ran it until December of 2015, when she was forced in a legal dispute to surrender the publication, including its web address and mailing list. ”
Masaoka created Blue Avocado while working at CompassPoint, a nonprofit leadership-development practice. The publication was thriving, but Masaoka says it got tangled up in her efforts to create a credit union for nonprofits. When the credit-union push failed, the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance, which was a financial partner in the project took control of Blue Avocado, says Masaoka. The publication is now broader in scope, with a heavy focus nonprofit management and finances.
Masaoka is immensely proud of the publication she created, although she’s not pleased with the direction it’s taken lately. “It was irreverent and practical,” she says. “Today it is as boring as what you might expect an insurance company to write.”
Pamela Davis, CEO of the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance, offers a different version of events, saying that her organization hired Masaoka to create Blue Avocado and then hired a different editor several years later to replace Masaoka after the publication ceased producing new content.
Despite their disagreement, Davis continues to offer high praise for Masaoka, and says the two agree on many nonprofit policy issues. “Jan is a great writer and editor, and we love the work she did with Blue Avocado,” Davis says. “She’s fabulous.”
Small but Potent
With just six staff members and an annual budget of a little more than $1 million, the California Association of Nonprofits has had an outsize influence on philanthropy under Masaoka’s leadership. The group has nearly 10,000 nonprofit members serving 56 of California’s 58 counties, she says.
“She stands out because it’s such a small pool of people willing to speak up,” says Jon Pratt, former executive director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, who has known Masaoka for two decades. “She’s witty, determined, and critical of the status quo.”
Currently, the California Association of Nonprofits is battling PayPal and other payment platforms, demanding more transparency for transactions involving charitable giving.
“We are in favor of these platforms, but they need to be regulated,” says Masaoka.
The California Association of Nonprofits helped push state lawmakers to enact a state law that will require payment platforms to disclose their fees before a user clicks the “donate” button, among other provisions. The law will take effect next year. The association continues to pursue additional measures, including a requirement that these payment platforms notify donors when their money is actually transferred to the receiving nonprofit.
She calls these kinds of advances “high-impact, low-profile” work that gets little attention.
Admiration and Fear
Latonya Slack, a leadership coach and a member of the board of the California Association of Nonprofits who has known Masaoka for three decades, says Masaoka should be an inspiration to nonprofit leaders who want to speak out but fear doing so.
Nonprofits don’t have as much to worry about from speaking out as they might think, says Slack. It’s rare that a foundation or another donor stops funding a nonprofit based on some public comments about payout rates, equity concerns, or other issues, although Slack acknowledged that it does happen sometimes.
“Jan has always been someone who has not allowed that potential backlash to keep her from speaking the truth,” says Slack. “You don’t hear very many people criticizing philanthropy, at least not openly. Jan’s not afraid to speak up and talk and to push philanthropy and nonprofits in the direction they need to go.”
Like others who were asked about Masaoka’s style, Slack was quick to cite Masaoka’s ability to bring biting wit to her arguments about why and how philanthropy needs to change.
“She gets down to the point,” says Slack, adding with a laugh, “she runs some of the best board meetings I’ve attended.”
(Note: Jan Masaoka is a member of the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Advisory Board for Lilly Endowment grants that support our partnership with the Associated Press and the Conversation.)
