February 3, 2026
Last Friday, “ICE Out” protests swept across the United States. From coast to coast, workers walked off the job, students left classrooms, and communities stood together to demand an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s escalating violence. These coordinated actions represent more than outrage—they show how capable the people are of mobilizing a nationwide response.
Yet as nonprofits continue to face a fundamental tension around responding to rapidly escalating crises while sustaining long-term resistance. The events in Minneapolis crystallize this challenge—alongside other developments, such as the arrest of former CNN host Don Lemon or the FBI’s raid of the Fulton County election hub—and raise constitutional questions about the lawful use of force and whether basic accountability mechanisms are being systematically bypassed. For nonprofits on the ground, these are operational realities that demand both immediate response and strategic organizational capacity.
The question of organization design becomes crucial here. Justice-centered nonprofits face unique structural challenges that conventional management frameworks often fail to address. Rethinking organization design priorities will allow us to build organizations capable of sustaining resistance across diverse, often virtual, teams, and bolster our civil society under attack.
All of this serves as the political backdrop of our times for this first week of Black History Month. These questions of organizational resilience take on added significance, drawing on the long history of Black organizing that offers profound lessons in building institutions designed for sustained struggle.
In solidarity,
Coty Poynter
Senior Editor
Newsletters
