NAACP
Description: This paper is going to concentrate on the governance issues that faced a major nonprofit: The NAACP. Essay written for my Nonprofit Management college course.
The NAACP, which stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is a civil rights organization. Founded in 1909, it is known as one of the most influential and strongest diverse groups to work for the rights of colored people. The motto ‘by the people for the people’ has never seemed more appropriate then it is for this organization. The organization’s birth came from the rise in violence against colored people and has since then stood its ground against opposing forces. For almost a century, the NAACP has worked “throughout its existence it has worked primarily through the American legal system to fulfill its goals of full suffrage and other civil rights, and an end to segregation and racial violence” (“Africana Online”). The national headquarters of NAACP is, “…classified as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization under U.S. tax code, while local branches and college chapters were classified as 501(c)(4) organizations” (“The NAACP”).
The sole mission of this nonprofit organization is to ensure that there is no racial discrimination and to guarantee that there are equal rights when it comes to political, educational, social, and economic issues. The way this mission is being accomplished is by “…seeking the enactment and enforcement of federal, state and local laws securing civil rights, and by informing the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination” (“NAACP”). Part of their mission is to ‘spread the word’ about themselves and their goals which include “…school desegregation, fair housing, employment and voter registration, top health and equal economic opportunity” (“NAACP”). On the official website of the NAACP it states its objective as follows:
“To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens; To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States; To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes; To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights; To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination; To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution” (“Our Mission”).
By obtaining allies of all races, the NAACP has been playing a significant role in instituting legal standards in order to improve the quality of life and social standing of all colored citizens in America.
The governance structure of this organization consists of 64-member Board of Directors. The breakdown of how these members are selected/elected is as follows: “…21 of whom were elected from the seven regions; 7 from the youth councils and college chapters; 23 elected at-large; 12 elected by the Board of Directors; and 1 elected by the Annual Convention” (“The NAACP”). The members who have been elected by the region or board cannot serve a total of four uninterrupted terms and the member had to withdraw a year before they could become eligible for election. However, any given member at any given time, without restrictions, could be able to run as an at-large candidate. But of course these types of elections were usually considered to be more difficult to win.
Annually, the board of directors’ elects the officers needed and appoint an Executive Committee made up of 17 members. The job of the Executive Committee is to, “…[oversee] matters of policy that arise between board meetings, and hire and evaluate the President/CEO” (“The NAACP”). It is a requirement for those members from the Executive Committee, except for the Chairman and Treasurer, to be apart of the Board of Directors. Part of being the Chairman meant that they had to “…appoint all committee members and was empowered to create or eliminate committees except for the standing committees, which were prescribed in the constitution” (“The NAACP”). During the late 1950’s people began to say that the Board was being too exclusive in their selections and were being out of sync with the membership. So then members began to rebel at an annual conference and managed to change the structure. The change in structure ordered an increase in the size of the Board as a way to ensure considerable regional representation.
NAACP is different than most other nonprofit organizations because it unlike most of the others has surpassed an impressively large amount of time. But something else that makes it different is the impact it has had in history in the United States. It is apart of all the victories for equality because of the high influence it had during the Civil Rights Movement. The importance of the NAACP throughout the years has not altered and in fact holds even more of an importance in today’s business world. However, the influence it once held has seen a decrease and so has the number of memberships most due to a sequence of internal scandals back during the end of the Civil Rights Movement.
The crisis began when Reverend Benjamin Chavis Jr. was chosen to become the new executive director after Benjamin Hook stepped down from his position. Since the moment that Chavis came in power dramatic changes began to occur within the organization causing both discomfort and distrust within its members. Some of the actions he did which caused controversy were seeking the alliance of Louis Farrkhan, who was the leader of the Nation of Islam. By taking this course of action many started to believe that the NAACP was starting to become a separatist association instead of being an integrationist organization. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Chavis selected the Bahamas for a board meeting location. After this decision, members started to question his judgment since the association was paying for these travel expenses. During that time the association was going through large amounts of debt and such an expensive trip would have further damaged the organization. After this incident, it was later found out that Chavis had “…secretly used the Association’s funds to reach a private settlement with a former assistant who had accused him of sexual harassment” (“The NAACP”). This was when the crisis fully exploded.
After that the organization members decided it was time to take action against the damages being caused by Chavis. Eventually Chairman Gibson voted Chavis out of office but of course by then the damages were too far gone to be simply erased at the dismissal of Chavis. During the time Chavis was in office, which was 16 months, he had done so many unnecessary expenses that the organization was in an even debt then before. Not only that but, “when the news of the sexual harassment suit became public, major donors like the Ford Foundation and General Motors refused to release funds to the organization” (“The NAACP”). Basically after his dismissal The NAACP was left to be in over $3 million dollars in debt. But another person was still brining the NAACP a bad rep and that was Gibson. Like Chavis, he was being questioned about his financial management since he was suspected of spending the associations’ resources on personal things.
When it was decided that Gibson was needed to go, Evers-Williams was the next candidate in line. Within hours of winning her victory to be Chairman by one vote she began to deal with the crisis of the NAACP. Evers made clear from the get go that she was to receive no money from this as she was only a volunteer – she wanted it to be clear that her living did not depend on her being the Chairman of the NAACP. This was a move that she didn’t have to do but wanted to do. In essence this really showed people that they had someone trustworthy handling the organization and laid to rest many fears about her being another Chavis or Gibson.
While at first not everyone agreed with Evers being the Chairman, everyone did agree to want to save the NAACP – which was what made everyone work together. Everything that Evers did she did as a team, making sure that everyone was informed of every decision being made. She wanted everyone to unite:
“The organization needed to cultivate a sense of community because the Board was so divided. How sad that so many people perceived that there was only one person that could save the organization. I did not possess all of the required talents, so like any good manager you surround yourself with the best talent possible. But the infighting had to be stopped. We had to get people to talk to each other and see that the NAACP itself was what was at risk. We had to look at the Board in terms of using strengths that had not been utilized by the former Chairman because he considered certain people not on his side. We had to raise the expectations of the membership without going overboard to a point where we couldn’t deliver. And operating policies had to be changed” (“The NAACP”).
This new sense of drive and direction was exactly what the organization needed to be able to stand up right again.
One of the first things that Evers did when stepping into office is to create a Crisis Management Team. The crisis management team “…was active in the day-to-day operations of the Association until a permanent Executive Director could be found” (“The NAACP”). By creating this crisis management team, The NAACP started to look more serious about fixing its many financial problems. By not having the right people, meaning people without any type of finance skills, in charge in the financial departments for so many years that NAACP would have been way over their head without the Crisis Management Team. Part of the things needed to be done, as said by the Crisis Management Team, was to cut back on the staff members. This particularly was not easy for Evers to go along with but it had to be done. The next thing Evers decided to do was to change the operating procedures:
“Previously, all travel expenses for Board members to attend quarterly Board meetings had been paid by the Association. A per diem had also been provided. Evers-Williams spearheaded an effort to eliminate this practice; Board members now paid for all of their Board-related expenses. She also discontinued practices such as issuing cash advances and accepting incomplete documentation of expenses, and officers’ expenses were to be monitored by a special Board committee” (“The NAACP”).
After all the financial situations were in order it was time for the search to begin in order to find a new Executive Director. The search process led recruiters to Representative Kweisi Mfume. Mfume was known for being a US Congressman since the year 1986 but in addition to that he was also known as the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus since the year 1993. He was the best of the best and Evers wanted him in the position no matter what it took. In order from him to join the organization he required that the title be changed to President/CEO instead of Executive Director. Also that he should report to no one but the Executive Committee, which caused board members to be skeptically since they had all become accustomed to speaking to each other freely. But despite concerns, in February 1996 Mfume was elected President/CEO of the NAACP.
Mfume took office and began by cutting staff members and within months it was one-eighth as large as it had been years back. Another thing that Mfume started to work on as soon as he was elected was fund raising. Within the first couple of months, he was able to raise over a million dollars and by October 1996 he announced that NAACP was no longer in debt. He continued to work with the association in terms of brining it around and pinpoint a focus for it. Mfume then created a five point agenda:
“1. Civil rights and civil liberties formed the foundational principle that would not change; 2. Voter empowerment was tied to voter registration. It consisted of voter registration, voter education, and voter turnout; 3. Educational excellence was added to the traditional Association agenda of educational opportunity; 4. Economic development aimed at making people less dependent on government and more in charge of their destinies; 5. Young people were targeted for priority attention” (“The NAACP”).
This agenda was simple and clean cut for all of the members to understand. Mfume wanted everyone to know he was a fast mover and had many plans for the association. While many members did not want to change the ‘traditional’ way of doing things, but eventually many walls came down and Mfume was able to emerge his plans.
If I were elected Chairman of the Board of the organization there wouldn’t be anything I would necessary change but there are things I would choose to force on. In today’s world there is still a lot of hate crimes going on, and unfortunately most of them are in schools. As the organization’s chairman I would want to refocus and concentrate on informing the young. Raising awareness and teaching young children about the history this country has gone through in terms of discrimination. Another thing I would want the organization to shift more focus to is raising awareness of the fact that hate crimes are all around us. If people realize that they can make a difference in something happening right before their eyes then maybe the U.S. can start to see a decline in the number of hate crimes.
In all honesty I do believe that this organization has a long-term future. Statistics show that, “…with a 2005 membership of about 500,000 in 2,200 adult branches and 1,700 youth and college chapters, the association remains the largest and most influential civil-rights organization in the United States” (“National Association…”). The things I would do to move the organization forward with today’s issues is to assess where the colored person stands today. Obviously in today’s world the thought it that everyone is equal, but that of course is only kept true in the public eye. Behind closed doors there is still discrimination going around – people today, sadly, know how to conceal it more. I believe this organization will always have a future so long as they were different races in the world, which of course will always be so this organization and others like it will always be needed.
Works Citied
- Africana Online. <http://www.africanaonline.com/orga_naacp.ht
- “NAACP Mission Statement.” CA NAACP. 24 Oct. 2007 <http://californianaacp.org/>.
- “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.” The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 2007. <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0834933.html>.
- “Our Mission.” NAACP. <http://www.naacp.org/>.
- “The NAACP.” Harvard Business School.