We might come to the sector for a variety of reasons. Because we want community, need a job to get money, and/or a longing to live with a sense of purpose or meaning that mainstream culture does not provide.
Those very impulses can make us easy to exploit inside of cult-like dynamics.
Guess what? I was in a cult. Well, actually, I was probably in several. Let me explain.
What are the characteristics of a cult?
Here are a few of them. For a full list, go here
- Authoritarianism: Rigid mindset, unquestioning obedience to authority, deep suspicion of outsiders, dogmatism, closed belief system- barriers to alternative perspectives.
- No Criticism Allowed: How DARE you criticize the nonprofit sector! Don’t you know how hard everyone is working?
- Purity requirements: You have to SUFFER for the privilege of working here. Sure our healthcare sucks or is nonexistent, but at least you get to work for the CAUSE!
- Exploited Labor: Social Work, Nonprofits, Teaching, Healthcare. Professional school and years of training blur the line between a job and an identity. Your passion can be exploited.
Did you notice something about these four characteristics?
Namely, how much they could apply to a family system as well?
That’s right. A lot of the dynamics of a cult can also be inside a family.
So, in a way, if you grew up with some of these factors in your home environment, you might be more likely to find a cult dynamic familiar and be drawn towards it.
These dynamics can also apply to the military, as well as other work environments. Not to mention Americorps.
When I was growing up, these were absolutely key pieces of the family dynamic.
My Cult Story
After going to college and getting out into the world, I fell into another cult. It was a Chi Kung cult. The leader was someone who was above reproach, and anytime you questioned anything he was doing, you were told, “That’s just your ego talking.”
I was vulnerable when I first moved to a city far away from my home. I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t have a place to go. The cult took me in, and I lived with the head of the cult and his chief acolyte.
I did marketing for them for free as I tried to find another job. We had class 2 nights a week and then a “mystery school” that met 1 more night of the week, sometimes with weekend workshops that went on as well. Basically the cult was my entire life.
So, I stayed in that for a couple of years, til I got a job and got out of it.
That is a little glib, I did hem and haw for a long time about leaving, and then on top of that spent years afterwards unraveling how I could have gotten so caught up in something that was obviously a cult.
Was I stupid? Actually, no.
Studies have shown that it doesn’t matter how book smart you are, all that is needed for you to believe in conspiracy theories is for you to feel isolated and powerless.
I thought was getting information I wasn’t going to get anywhere else.
I was happy to have a built in community in a place that felt scary, where I didn’t know anyone.
I thought we were all special, learning how to work with energy, it was like magic!
There’s nothing wrong with seeking magic. And there’s nothing wrong with being in a group of folks who all love to do meditation and martial arts.
Where it crosses the line is where all of your money, time and energy is tied up in a group where dissent is not allowed, your labor is exploited, the leader is above reproach, and your suffering is seen as part of the experience.
So, now let’s talk about the nonprofit industry.
The Rhetoric of the Nonprofit Industry
People are told NOT to criticize nonprofits! We’re under attack!
We’re told that their low wage is permissible because “you get to do what you love!”
Your suffering and exploitation is how the whole machine continues.
This is the rhetoric to justify endless sacrifice without real rewards.
The mission gets weaponized.
This is a tool of control.
The industry is designed to demand more than you can give. Work/Life balance? Forget it! Our compassion is exploited until we burn out. We leave one cult and go to another.
We get sucked into another system that demands endless labor for the cause. These positions are traditionally held by women. Have you noticed that so many of our nonprofit staff, leadership and volunteers are women?
What about you?
The self is sacrificed at the altar of the collective.
Your worth is ONLY in service to the mission.
You disappear. Source: The Knitting Cult Lady
You see it sometimes in people who have been in the industry for a long time. They work and work and work until they burn out.
I used to believe desperately in the nonprofit I worked for. I worked in the DV movement and then later at a social justice nonprofit. I absolutely got exploited by my belief in the cause, and there was wage theft and more.
Why should we have to let this cause be our entire world? Why is that necessary?
When you leave, do people wake up?
The answer is, if their job depends on them NOT understanding why you would leave, no. They just try not to think about it. It’s easy to get distracted when you’re doing 2-3 people’s jobs (as a lot of us are!)
So, when you leave your nonprofit, people just sort of smooth it over and don’t ask themselves why you left.
You CLEARLY were not “dedicated” enough to the mission. Or you must have been someone who wasn’t a “good fit” for the organization.
Want to know a secret though?
According to David Graeber’s book, Bullshit Jobs, capitalism depends on our voluntary labor. How much our unpaid labor is feeding into the economy is truly part and parcel of capitalism. Capitalism is built on colonialism, genocide and slavery. So of course the system will exploit you however it can.
If tomorrow we decided to no longer take care of elders, children, or do the work of the sector (that the government foisted off onto us), the system would collapse pretty quickly.
Myths that we believe
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It’s ok if we don’t make a lot of money. We are doing the most with the least!
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It’s ok if I never get a raise and we make way below the wage that we need to save and live. I’m not doing this for the money!
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It’s ok if we make less. I’m too afraid to unionize. It’s scary out there trying to find a new job.
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The mission is all. We do it for the mission. Belonging! Purpose! Meaning!
(Don’t ask when the mission is going to end. Don’t ask why we have this problem in the first place.)
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It’s ok if people in my organization can’t afford to retire, from the executive director to the lowliest volunteer. We can’t take any more money from the mission! Our board won’t allow it! Our donors won’t allow it!
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I have to self sacrifice for this mission. It’s ok if I’m exploited.
What would it mean to stop believing these things? Who would you be, without this cult that you’ve been a part of for so long? How can you escape this cult?
You can get my new book and workbooks, Healing from the Nonprofit Sector, here from Amazon, or here from me
