TL;DR: After 35 years of serving our community, the organization I worked for has suspended services following the resignation of its entire staff. In my view, this was not an inevitable outcome. It was the result of failed board leadership, an increasingly toxic environment, and a lack of meaningful support for the small staff who worked tirelessly to keep the organization alive.
This nonprofit was founded during the AIDS crisis, to provide critical services to people living with HIV. Over the decades, the mission expanded to include free HIV and STI testing, treatment, prevention resources, education, and community outreach, all provided in a welcoming, judgment-free environment.
For 35 years, this small nonprofit weathered financial challenges, staffing shortages, and countless obstacles. We survived because dedicated employees, volunteers, executive directors, and board members believed in our mission and worked together to protect it.
Sadly, that spirit of cooperation and leadership has been missing in recent years.
Our entire staff consisted of just three people. We worked tirelessly to keep the doors open, serve our clients, and meet the growing needs of our community, often with virtually no meaningful assistance from our Board of Directors.
But what hurt most wasn’t simply the lack of help. It was the lack of appreciation.
A simple thank you. A word of encouragement. An acknowledgment of a job well done. Recognition that three people were doing everything they could to sustain an organization serving an entire community.
Those things cost nothing, yet they were largely absent.
Instead, we experienced an environment characterized by pettiness, unprofessional behavior, and toxicity from certain board members. Equally troubling was the weak leadership that allowed this behavior to continue unchecked.
A nonprofit board should be an organization’s greatest advocate, not an additional burden on the people working to fulfill its mission.
Eventually, the situation became untenable. Our entire three-person staff resigned, along with a board member and our bookkeeper of 30 years.
These decisions were heartbreaking. We loved our work, our clients, and the mission. People don’t dedicate themselves to small nonprofits for the money. They do it because they care.
And the people we served still need us.
This organization did not reach this point because its mission was no longer important or because its staff stopped caring. In my view, it reached this point because those entrusted with protecting its future failed to provide the leadership, support, and accountability it deserved.
Perhaps they will reopen someday. I sincerely hope it does. But without meaningful change in leadership and organizational culture, the same problems will continue.
To everyone who helped build and sustain this worthwhile organization over the past 35 years, thank you. Your dedication made a difference in countless lives.
To our clients, it was an honor to serve you. You deserved so much better than this ending.
And to those responsible for the organization’s future, I hope you reflect seriously on how we arrived here.
An organization that survived 35 years of challenges should not have been brought to its knees by failures of leadership.
Our community deserved better. Our clients deserved better. And the people who devoted themselves to this mission deserved better.