I think that the accursed start-up culture may have actually had a relatively positive effect on charities (here in uk, as far as i can see anyway).
There are lots of big, rich, lumbering charities with very stable but heavily hierarchical cultures and structures, which make them fundable, but not great at delivering the right services (the bind is that you can only do what is fundable, and funders want to fund what is measurable, not necessarily what is needed), so small nimble charities, sometimes with more collective and open structures, have been popping up and meeting needs that the big ones can't get to e.g
https://refugeesathome.org which i founded, and which has been on the front pages the last week offering 100s of beds for refugees
there have been a series of mini-scandals about bullying and nastiness in some of the big orgs recently, tip of the iceberg in my experience
Why are reports of bullying, harassment and discrimination repeatedly occurring in organisations whose purpose is progressive change?
The National Lottery Community Fund is undergoing an external investigation into its leadership and organisational culture after allegations of bullying.
The Chartered Institute of Fundraising has faced allegations of failure to act on complaints about sexual harassment, followed by a much-criticised investigation.
Earlier this year an independent inquiry reported on bullying and harassment at the NCVO, the umbrella body for the UK’s volunteer organisations.
Last year the Charity Commission investigated Save the Children’s poor handling of sexual harassment allegations. The list goes on.
A few years ago I left my job as an NGO campaigns director to seek answers to why so many organisations, despite good intentions, replicate the same problems they purport to fix.
I interviewed campaigners and psychologists, and researched psychoanalytic and decolonial thought, applying them to my own experiences as a campaigner.
The news agenda reports each incident of harassment and discrimination as one separate scandal after another.
But oppressive and abusive dynamics, burnout-creating work patterns and saviour culture are connected. They are all manifestations of a way of relating to other people that is rooted in dominance and constructed hierarchies.
Internal problems of bullying, racism, sexism and burnout share roots with the justice and rights issues that charities seek to fight. Photo: Hana Wolf
www.thirdsector.co.uk