First-person accounts describe nonprofit leadership achievements followed by abrupt removal while on medical leave, including immediate health insurance cancellation without warning or transition. The experience is framed as a barrier revealing a pattern of discarding experienced Black women leaders once they become inconvenient. The harm is linked to threats posed by Black women’s presence to people who equate job titles with personal worth. Reported research indicates widespread negative health impacts, leadership attacks, and ongoing sector confusion about why the leadership pipeline is shrinking. Job searching is portrayed as ineffective despite advanced education, extensive results, and advice that downplays experience to avoid intimidating employers.
"I was a nonprofit senior leader. I built programs that served 200,000 people a year. I secured the largest public sector contract in my former organization's history. I inherited a partner network in disarray and restructured it into a high-functioning ecosystem that became a model for the region. Then I was pushed out-while on medical leave. My health insurance was canceled within two days. No warning. No transition. Just silence where support should have been."
"That was the barrier. But what I found on the other side of it is what I need to tell you. I did not find bitterness, though I earned the right to it. I found clarity. I found that the nonprofit sector-the one that puts equity on its letterhead and justice in its strategic plan-has a quiet, persistent habit of discarding its most experienced Black women leaders the moment we become inconvenient."
"Not because our work is lacking. Because our presence is threatening to people who confuse their title with their worth. I found that I was not alone. The research confirms what Black women in this sector have known in our bodies for years. Ninety percent of Black women nonprofit leaders report that their work has negatively impacted their health and wellbeing. Seventy percent say Black women in leadership have been under attack."
"And still, the sector wonders why its leadership pipeline is drying up. I found that the job market would not save me. Two years of applications. A master's degree. Fifteen years of documented results. And an employment professional who advised me-with a straight face-to downplay my experience so I would not intimidate potential employers."
Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.
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