Justice at the Front, Dysfunction at the Core

If we truly want to build a better world, we must start by building better organizations. Miranda McClendon is paving the way to do just that.

“Nonprofits are broken.”

That was one of the first messages I received after launching philanthropy unfiltered. And honestly? They aren’t wrong.

Some call it “organized chaos,” but let’s call it what it really is: dysfunction camouflaged as good intentions. It’s poor leadership excused by passion. It’s toxic workplace cultures hidden behind DEI statements and campaign wins. For those of us on the inside, it’s often an anxiety-driven, soul-draining unraveling masked as “doing the work.”

I spent most of my 20s bouncing from nonprofit to nonprofit, believing that eventually, I’d land somewhere that wasn’t secretly burning from the inside. But every time, I encountered a different version of dysfunction, a different version of social justice work that required me to suffer in silence. The worst came when I joined what I thought would be my dream job at Color of Change.

Wrong.

Not even 30 days in, I knew I wouldn’t last long. The internal culture contradicted everything the organization claimed to stand for. And it’s not just me. They don’t have a 1.6-star rating on Glassdoor for no reason. One anonymous review I found from 2023 hit me hard because it mirrored my exact experience (condensed):

Color of Change laid off employees three times in 2023 without giving the union a chance to bargain. This complete lack of transparency and respect was deeply concerning. The organization had millions in reserve and still chose to cut staff while onboarding new employees and spending over $250,000 on consultants. It felt like a betrayal of the very values they claim to fight for.

The reviewer continued, citing evasive leadership, misleading financial statements, and a lack of accountability from then-president Rashad Robinson, who has since resigned, as confirmed in a recent Prism article.

Color of Change is just one example, but it’s a powerful one. Before working there, I nearly idolized them. To me, they were the nonprofit of nonprofits as the largest online racial justice organization in the U.S. If they can’t get it right, who can?

The nonprofit sector is filled with organizations like them that speak the language of liberation but replicate the very systems they claim to be dismantling. We are expected to work under power-hoarding leadership models, absorb the traumas of injustice, and keep quiet when the injustices come from within. And when we do speak up, we’re told we’re being too critical, disruptive, or not “aligned” with the mission.

Nonprofits are not immune to critique. People are afraid to call out the sectors that do social good, but I’m not. How are we supposed to fix systems if we’re too afraid to name the parts that are broken?

Beyond the Mission Statement: Building Systems That Work

Thankfully, people like Miranda McClendon, the founder of mojoSUPREME, are reshaping how we think about internal systems change. mojoSUPREME is a workflow and automation agency that helps nonprofits and mission-driven teams maximize their capacity and scale how they serve.

Drawing from Miranda’s background in environmental science and experience with startups, the agency specializes in transforming operational chaos into structured, sustainable workflows.

Through strategic planning, process development, and organizational design, mojoSUPREME ensures that organizations articulate and embody their missions. Their goal is simple: you, to the highest power. There will be no interruptions, roadblocks, or stunting your growth—just you and your team in flow, making the mission happen, without the burnout.

Miranda McClendon, Founder of mojoSUPREME

I spoke with Miranda to understand what it takes to fix broken systems, not just critique them. Her work stands out to me, sitting at the intersection of operations, equity, and design thinking. And I love the message behind her work: it’s not just about having the right mission; it’s about building the proper infrastructure to carry it.

“These places can have great missions,” she told me, “but if the inner workings still operate in toxic ways…the facade quickly melts. You can’t build something transformative on a foundation that’s crumbling from the inside.”

Miranda’s insights come from her personal experiences. She started her career in environmental science in Corona’s Corporate Social Responsibility Office, but when she realized their focus was more on volunteerism than environmental impact, she transitioned to a scrappy climate-focused startup. “But I felt like my eagerness to contribute to the mission was being taken advantage of,” she said. “The work was important, but the internal culture was exhausting. I realized it wasn’t about who I was working for. It was about how we were working. That’s when it hit me: this is a systems problem.”

And for Miranda, systems aren’t just about project management tools and org charts. They’re living structures that reflect our values (or expose our hypocrisy). “I always say success is an inside job,” she told me. “We focus so much on impact metrics and external outcomes, but how do people feel while doing the work? What about whether the internal systems are sustainable for the people holding them up?”

She shared another key insight that stuck with me: “If you aren’t being honest about what your organization can handle, you’ll keep overpromising, underdelivering, and blaming the staff instead of the structure.” We’ve all seen this cycle, where high turnover and burnout are dismissed as personal failures rather than red flags of broken systems (e.g., Color of Change).

Miranda shared that one of the most common dysfunctions she sees is leaders who hold too much control or fail to empower their teams. “They think they’re being hands-on, but they’re actually blocking progress,” she said. “And when systems break down, the instinct is to add new technology like Slack, Asana, or Airtable. But software won’t save you. If your culture is broken, your tools will reflect that.”

The Blueprint

Rather than relying on unsustainable, surface-level solutions, Miranda helps orgs rebuild from the ground up using a framework she developed: Align, Design, Make, Integrate. That means aligning on purpose and values, defining processes and responsibilities, making functional systems, and integrating those systems into daily practice.

And at every step, she centers humanity. “Everyone keeps saying the future is AI,” she said. “But the future is human. It’s about how we treat each other. How we design with care. How we build systems that honor people, not just performance.”

She also emphasized the importance of rest and intentional pace: “The nonprofit world moves fast and expects people to do everything yesterday. But urgency without clarity creates chaos. We need to normalize slowing down so we can actually build with intention.”

It’s Not Burnout, It’s Bad Systems

Our conversation left me with a lot to sit with, especially as I thought back to my own experience at Color of Change. Miranda’s words helped me understand that what I experienced wasn’t just burnout, personal failure, or bad luck. It was systemic. It was a design failure. Her framework—Align, Design, Make, Integrate—is more than a theory; it's a practical guide for how nonprofits can build systems that prevent dysfunction and support a healthy workplace culture.

I believe in the good work that nonprofits do for people, communities, and the world. But amid all that, they sometimes forget to look inward. We praise external impact, but we ignore operational integrity. And funders are to blame, too. Philanthropy often prioritizes productivity over people, measuring success in outputs alone, not the behind-the-scenes processes.

If funders want lasting change, they must fund infrastructure that enables it: operations and systems that run on a culture of care. Justice work is not only about what gets done. It’s also about how we do it and taking accountability when harm is caused in the process.

Making Justice Operational

If we genuinely want to build a better world, we must start by building better organizations. That means interrogating the systems we operate in, asking hard questions about power, culture, leadership, and labor, and creating space for honesty, discomfort, and transformation.

This is my call to nonprofit leaders and philanthropic institutions: Look inward. Be honest. Is your organization operating efficiently, equitably, and human-centered? Do your internal practices reflect your external commitments? Are your people thriving or barely surviving under the weight of “doing the work?”

We can’t build liberatory futures inside exploitative systems, and we can’t demand transformation from the world while refusing to transform ourselves.

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