Truth is, the nonprofit model is anti-democratic, top-down and
ideally suited to what Adolph Reed calls the broker type of leader, the
unaccountable spokesperson purporting to be the mouthpiece of some
united mass constituency with no real power over its alleged leader.
Energetic and charismatic leaders of nonprofit organizations often
sustain impressive mobilizations, at least over a short time, but they
inevitably fall short on educating their members out of dependence on
self-selected or funder-selected leaders (if they define members at all)
and on expanding the base of their leadership. Nonprofit formations can
make impressive use of Facebook and social media too, but these are
mobilizing tools allowing you to communicate with other activists, those
who already agree with you, not organizing tools one can use to
identify potential leaders and win over audiences who don't already
agree.
Dependence on the nonprofit model is all that Democratic party
honchos desire from the left. They just need an election day
mobilization. But if the vision of our movement extends to taking power,
we have to train a broad base of people to wield power over their own
organizations, and to contend for power over their lives, their
economies, their communities with those who have that power now.
-- Bruce Dixon, "2016's New Years Revolution… Time To Lose Some Old Habits, Gain Some New Ones" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).