Week 9

In working at the Immigrant Freedom Network this summer, I have seen what challenges small non-profits must face. It is hard to find enough funding for staff, so people end up being paid very little for the time they put in. At this point, MIFN only has 2 staff members and they do not work full-time, which makes it hard to get things done, especially when your opponents have a lot more resources and man-power. It is also sometimes difficult to get things done, because there is not a set procedure for everything and there are no repercussions if you do not follow your own rules. This can make it hard to get things done efficiently. It also seems to me that a lot of what community organizers and non-profits do is call upon their connections to get support for whatever they are doing, and this is hard to do when you are a small organization. It is also hard to get people to listen to you until you make a name for yourself and this is hard to do without the support of others. So that can become a vicious cycle. Big organizations, like Lutheran Social Services, do not seem to have these same challenges. This makes me wonder if one can work for social justice more effectively by working with a small organization that is trying to do something different and new, or by working within a big organization that already has power in the public sphere and has specific services that they consistently work to provide.