For some young people working in nonprofits, their organizations and leaders seem out of touch. Top officials, they believe, are too consumed by their legacy and the hunt for grants. They feel radical change is needed now — in how philanthropy dispenses money, how organizations fight crises, and how staff is managed — but they don’t yet have the power or resources to make it happen. They have big ideas, but they’re still being treated like kids.
This, in raw form, is a perspective shared by three young nonprofit leaders who spoke to
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For some young people working in nonprofits, their organizations and leaders seem out of touch. Top officials, they believe, are too consumed by their legacy and the hunt for grants. They feel radical change is needed now — in how philanthropy dispenses money, how organizations fight crises, and how staff is managed — but they don’t yet have the power or resources to make it happen. They have big ideas, but they’re still being treated like kids.
This, in raw form, is a perspective shared by three young nonprofit leaders who spoke to The Commons, a Chronicleproject exploring divides in the country — including a generational divide playing out in organizations across the country. As younger millennials and members of Gen Z, the three leaders have witnessed the effects of multiple crises — the Great Recession, climate change, a pandemic — from an early age. They are eager to do good, but they work in ways that are unfamiliar, even off-putting, to older generations.
Studies show Gen Z is idealistic and largely progressive. At the same time, young nonprofit workers typically favor work-life balance, good pay, and benefits. They’re also often comfortable pushing their bosses to ensure nonprofit programs better serve people in need.
As more young people pursue philanthropy and nonprofit careers, the fields’ leaders often struggle to understand how their younger colleagues work and what they want from their jobs. Workforce shortages make answering these questions even more urgent.
The three young leaders who spoke with the Chronicle are all under 30.
Sim Bilal, 22, co-director of Youth Climate Strike Los Angeles, was drawn to environmental work at a young age because adults around him weren’t doing enough to address pollution in South Los Angeles, where he lives. When he was 5, his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, which he attributes to oil extraction contamination in Los Angeles. She died at the age of 50. “It was a tragedy to lose her so young,” he says, “and then recognizing there was this external force and entity that was causing this and that would never be held accountable and that would continue to do harm to my community and the people that I care about.”
Esme Hyatt, 18, is a co-coordinator at the climate justice organization Extinction Rebellion Youth Los Angeles. Hyatt learned about climate change when she was 12. She joined Extinction Rebellion in 2020 to alleviate some of her climate anxiety. “Working with a group of individuals toward a common goal made [addressing climate change] feel a lot more achievable,” she explains.
Anthony Sartori, 28, is a younger millennial and founder of Evolving Minds, which addresses workplace mental health issues. He was drawn to mental health work because he believes many people, especially in nonprofits and philanthropy, don’t feel a sense of belonging in their workplace.
To help guide the conversation, the Chronicle tapped Manu Meel, 24, CEO of BridgeUSA, an organization working to bridge divides and promote dialogue on college campuses.
Below is an excerpt from our conversation, which was edited for brevity and clarity. You can listen to the full conversation here.
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Meel: What makes young people particularly well-suited for careers in the nonprofit world?
Sartori: Many young people are suffering. We’re in this epidemic of a youth mental health crisis, and there are so many global crises taking place. What is so compelling is that, yes, there is suffering, but there’s a desire to alleviate that suffering. And there’s a desire to want to do something, to make the world a better place, to do good in the world, and to give back.
Bilal: Our generation has felt an immense amount of failure from the people elected to protect us. How many of us have woken up to headlines and had to see children gunned down in their classrooms?
We’re uniquely positioned to defend our basic lives and our basic rights as human beings. It’s clear we’re not seen as humans by a lot of the adults in power. To be confronted with that reality at such a young age, but to realize that no one is coming to save you, that really does click a switch in your head. You realize that you have to do all this stuff by yourself.
I see a lot of headlines about how Generation Z is the hardest generation to work with. I think if we’ve been attacked systematically for our entire lives and told we’re worthless compared to bullets, compared to oil, compared to everything else, of course, we’re going to cause problems in the workplace. We know our worth. If that’s a problem for folks, they need to get in touch with why they feel so challenged by people standing up for themselves and demanding basic human rights.
Hyatt: A lot of the issues that Gen Z face have reached a boiling point. Enough is enough. So we feel pressure to go into careers or work with nonprofits and advocacy because we know that can make a difference, even if we’re not in positions of power.
Nandita Raghuram: What are some roadblocks you’ve encountered as a young leader in the nonprofit and advocacy space?
Hyatt: Burnout is something that I’ve faced, and I know a lot of people in the youth movement in general have, as well. It’s like you’re working, you’re working, you’re working, and sometimes you’re not seeing results.
It’s hard to combat that feeling. But it’s something that, as an organization, we’re trying to really make sure that everyone checks in before actions, that we understand why we’re doing this work, that we debrief every action we do, our feelings about the action, and that we allow people to take breaks when they need it.
Raghuram: Burnout affects folks of all ages. How can the field address it?
Hyatt: Providing mental health resources is important, because so many people can benefit. But also, listen to our issues. Personally, when I become burned out, I realize that I’ve been working so hard, but I’ve also been looking at the state of the world and realizing that maybe my voice isn’t making that much of a difference.
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Honestly, if we could just get to a place where everyone’s really supporting the youth climate movement and listening to our demands and putting them into place, I think that would combat burnout. We would feel like people have our back.
Sartori: I can talk a little bit about the burnout that stems from trying to change an organization internally. I joined a board of another nonprofit about two and a half years ago. It was a legacy nonprofit, founded by all white people and funded by majority white wealth. For many years — a decade or more — it was just trying to get to a place of centering equity and really breathing and living its values of inclusivity. And it really struggled.
I joined to support their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts internally and faced an enormous amount of resistance, within the organization and the DEI committee, to try and change the culture of the organization. Ultimately, we failed in our efforts.
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One of the biggest roadblocks that has caused the most burnout over the past four years is a lack of transparency and authenticity. I know that both Gen Z and millennials really strive to achieve those values as well, and live and breathe that. So, to face that, to try and make change as a young person in an organization and to not really move the bar forward, it can often feel demoralizing.
Raghuram: What do you think the field should do to alleviate that or make things more transparent?
Sartori: One, I think we all need to collectively acknowledge that we are not okay. We are beyond a burnout crisis. We are in an existential, sectorwide questioning of our identity that has not stopped.
Beyond that, we need to invest in people. The philanthropic sector has really struggled for decades to invest in the people, in the health and well-being of organizations, and the culture.
Bilal: People are so concerned with chasing grants and chasing the dollar that they sacrifice the needs of their community in order to maintain this legacy. Why do you need a nonprofit to exist for 80 years? If you’ve existed that long, you’re not addressing the problem that you set out to solve.
A lot of established green organizations compete with community-led, smaller nonprofits. They have big grant-writing staffs and a huge number of grant officers. Who knows what they do with the money? We’re not seeing it in our communities. We’re not seeing the effects play out across the most impacted groups.
The entire field of philanthropy and nonprofits needs to assess what it has really done in the last 30 or 40 years. What have we really accomplished? Who have we really hurt, and who have we really harmed? And how can we center the needs of these affected communities?
We have all these groups trying to chase and compete for funding, but the parameters of the funding or deliverables don’t match what we actually need in our communities. A lot of groups that I know don’t want to apply for funding or don’t want to apply for grants, because (a) They know that they’re not going to get it because they can’t compete, or (b) It’s just not relevant to what we’re actually experiencing and doing on the ground. All of that leads to burnout.
Meel: How can folks in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector better understand Gen Z?
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Bilal: If the nonprofit sector is serious about making space for a new generation of leaders to come in and actually lead, then let them lead. Listen to your employees. I don’t care if they’re interns. We really need to challenge these hierarchies that haven’t worked for us.
Let the younger generation challenge all of these structures, because that’s what we do. For generations, every single revolution has been led by young people. So let us revolutionize the nonprofit structure. Let us revolutionize philanthropy.
Raghuram: How can older nonprofit leaders who want to invest in the next generation help you in your journey?
Sartori: We desperately need to see nonprofit workers and workers in philanthropy as whole people.
Hyatt: Throughout my life, people who are older than me have told me that my generation will somehow solve the climate crisis.
But we can flip that way of thinking: Adults have a place in solving this issue. It involves taking a supporting role and helping us out, whether that’s showing up to our actions or supporting our groups financially.
I’ve seen adults, especially in the climate movement, who show up. They do their own actions. They support our groups. But they’re not telling us, “You’re going to solve this issue that we’re responsible for.” Because that’s a lot of pressure.
Bilal: We’re building an intergenerational movement to tackle the climate crisis, which is the largest existential crisis that our generation — and any generation after us — will face. There is a responsibility that I feel has been passed onto us in a lot of ways. People often say, “Oh, we were so inspired by you, yada yada.”
But what I really want is: Yes, to listen to us, but also act on what we say. Don’t just say “I hear you.” I know you hear me, but can you actually do something? Can you help? Because we’re literally dying. Listen to what we’re saying, but also take action because we need to move now. We don’t have a lot of time.
Nandita Raghuram is the deputy opinion editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Prior to that, she worked at NBC, CNN, and Mashable. Her work has appeared in Vice, the Village Voice,Teen Vogue, and more