Elisa Ortiz is the kind of young woman you meet for the first time and get blown away by her incredible energy and commitment to being her best self in the nonprofit sector. She is currently the Coordinator of Outreach and Special Initiatives at the National Council of Nonprofit Associations (NCNA) and a strong voice for social change. In her spare time, Elisa is actively involved with her local Young Democrats, works part-time at a bookstore, and is also the hostess with the mostest for monthly meetings of our Beyond the Glass Ceiling women’s career empowerment group. Yep, she’s a pretty awesome next generation leader and she graciously gave this interview to moi. After you check it out, be sure to mosey on over to her fabulous blog!
RT: How did you make your way into the nonprofit sector?
EO: I was very active in social justice issues in college and knew that when I left college, I wanted to continue that work. At the time, I didn’t realize the nonprofit sector did this type of work – I just looked for a job where I could work on my passion for women’s rights and reproductive justice. After some time, I finally realized what it meant to work in the nonprofit sector and have dedicated myself to it ever since.
RT: What is your current position and day-to-day work?
EO: I work as the Coordinator of Outreach and Special Initiatives at the National Council of Nonprofit Associations (NCNA). Most of my work focuses on the Nonprofit Congress, one of NCNA’s major initiatives. My work largely consists of strategizing and executing outreach efforts around the Nonprofit Congress, coordinating various working groups, planning for our major national conference, writing and editing documents, web content, e-newsletters, funding requests, etc., managing some of our email campaigns, working with NCNA’s members on outreach, and a lot more.
RT: What is your educational background and area of expertise?
EO: I have a bachelor’s in Political Science and Public Administration, but my real education has been from various social justice organizing jobs. My expertise is in outreach, organizing, advocacy, nonpartisan election and policy activities, strategic planning and writing. What does that mean? Well, I have pounded the pavement, met all kinds of people, knocked on countless doors, gathered an innumerable amount of petition signatures, and spoken at tons of different events. Basically, I can figure out how and why to get people active on an issue and then go out and do it.
RT: Do you want to be an Executive Director when you grow up? Why or why not?
EO: Yes, with a big caveat. I think the current nonprofit model of an ED: one person who embodies the face, voice, brain, and heart of an organization and therefore works way too many hours and is constantly stressed out, is very misguided. I know where my strengths lie and where they don’t. If I was to take on a major leadership role with a nonprofit, it would be with the understanding that I WOULD NOT do all those things. I’m willing to share leadership or job responsibilities with others and also happy to not force every decision through me. If I can find or shape an ED (or similar) role to fit that, I will definitely do it.
RT: Do you think Generations X and Y are stepping up to lead in the nonprofit sector, or are we just waiting for the world to change? How could we get more involved?
EO: I definitely think Generations X and Y are stepping up to lead—in fact, they ARE leading. They may not yet be acknowledged as leaders in the traditional sense (i.e. with a director level position), but they are certainly doing the work. Of course, many younger leaders are limited in their ability to actually get those traditional leadership positions by a stale hierarchical structure or by current leaders who are reluctant to let go of any control. However, I think we younger leaders have to take some responsibility for not getting this recognition either. Many of us (myself included) have just taken it. We haven’t asked for or demanded more responsibility or pay and maybe more importantly, haven’t moved on from the places that restrict us. I really think the only way the sector is going to change is when ALL of us, Gen X and Y and Baby Boomers included, decide to stop taking it. Once we start either leaving organizations that don’t respect us and going to those that do en masse or changing our organizations to encourage leadership, the restrictive ones will be forced to either change themselves or die.
RT: What would you like to see changed in the nonprofit sector? How can we take action to implement that change?
EO: Put very simply, I would like to see us start working together, better. Is that the kindergarten motto or what? Play nicely with others. The amount of power we could have if we just started working together blows my mind. Including volunteers, we have 14 million people working in this sector—that’s almost as many people as there are in unions nationwide. Think about the kind of social and political power unions have. We could be like that too!
How can we make it happen? By taking a big deep breath and getting over ourselves to begin with. Do I think my work is important? Yes. Do I think its more important that anyone else’s in the sector? Of course not. And yet that is the way a lot of people act. They refuse to let others know the kind of work they are doing or include them in the planning efforts. They bicker over funding and resources. They miss the forest for the trees.
Thankfully, there are some organizations (including NCNA) that are doing this kind of work and encouraging people to think outside of their subsector, community or state and focus on the bigger picture. We’re getting closer everyday and that really excites me.
