Elite Capture

How movements for change are muted by funders

To change nonprofits for the better, we need to dig into the structural ways that nonprofits are set up to be inequitable or compromised in how they operate. One such structural challenge is elite capture. Elite capture is a force that can blunt or even derail our social change impact significantly.

In his 2022 book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else), Olúfémi Táíwò defines elite capture:

Elite capture happens when the advantaged few steer resources and institutions that could serve the many toward their own interests and aims. The term is used…to describe the way socially advantaged people tend to gain control over benefits meant for everyone.

Táíwò cites many examples of elite capture among national and international institutions. But elite capture happens at the local level as well and can influence the agenda of nonprofit organizations. Further, elite capture is not always an intentional and nefarious process—some elite capture is perpetrated unwittingly by people placed in power who believe their worldview is universal. These leaders make decisions that make sense for people of privilege but not for the wider public. In this way, nonprofits intended to serve those most in need may in practice best serve the most privileged among their target population. Táíwò describes it this way:

In the absence of the right kind of checks or constraints, the subgroup of people with power over and access to the resources used to describe, define, and create political realities—in other words, the elites—will capture the group’s values, forcing people to coordinate on a narrower social project that disproportionately represents elite interests.

The applicability of elite capture to nonprofits and social change movements was brought home to me by the work of political scientist Megan Ming Francis, a University of Washington professor. She has published work about the history of the NAACP and argues convincingly that its agenda was captured by a major funder in the late 1920s. This funder, the Garland Fund, steered the organization away from anti-lynching and anti-mob violence work toward a focus on education desegregation, a cause that was more moderate and palatable to whites. When speaking of funders and nonprofits, Francis uses the term movement capture, defined as “the process by which private funders leverage their financial resources to apply pressure and influence the decision-making process of civil rights organizations.”

I’ve witnessed elite capture in other areas of nonprofit work, and not only by funders. For many years, the LGTBQIA+ political agenda was set primarily by white gay men and reflected their interests, rejecting integration of intersectional issues raised by women, BIPOC queer people, and trans people. Disability rights and services are often steered by non-disabled parents who are advocating on behalf of their children but do not have direct lived experience with the challenges associated with navigating a severe disability. Both child adoption and pet adoption standards have been set by middle class people and disadvantage working class people who are seeking to adopt. For example, pet adoption agencies commonly prefer to adopt out animals to homeowners and people with fenced yards, which excludes most people of modest means.

Nonprofit leaders should be aware of the power dynamics of elite capture and avoid shifting their community-centered agenda to make elites more comfortable. This is not easy. It requires significant bravery to retain the agenda of marginalized constituents. Funders (including the federal government) hold the purse strings and we know that nonprofits cannot operate without funds.

Nonprofits exist to serve the broader public and are at their best when they are inclusive. Listening carefully to client voices and ensuring that people with lived experience are present for strategic discussions can help, and constant vigilance is required.

Photo: Two old-fashioned wooden puppets, one wearing a historical French army uniform, the other in a brown coat looking a little like Davy Crockett. Image by Ben Kerckx for Pixabay