Fernandez said she will always think of herself as an organizer—and she admits she had concerns about taking on a leadership role. “The truth is, I never went into organizing to be an executive director. That wasn’t part of the vision or the master plan,” she said. Thanks to targeted and tailored coaching and other leadership support, however, Fernandez said she and her team have the confidence and the skills to write a new chapter in the organization’s work.   

In California and across the country, worker rights groups like Working Partnerships USA are busy running campaigns, advocating for change, and mobilizing workers and communities to speak up for fairness and justice. At the same time, many groups wrestle with a larger question: how to build a bench of organizers and leaders like Fernandez who can strengthen their organizations and sustain the movement for the challenges ahead. 

Toward a “More Sustainable Model” 

In 2019, The James Irvine Foundation’s Fair Work initiative funded The LeadersTrust, a nonprofit intermediary, to help build and strengthen worker rights organizations and invest in their current and future leaders. More information about that partnership can be found here.  

The LeadersTrust offers responsive, long-term collaborations, using trust and close relationships, to strengthen an organization’s skills, resources, and systems – together known as an organization’s “capacity”– so the organization becomes more sustainable, can adapt to change, and accelerate its impact. 

To date, 63 Irvine Foundation grantees have received grants to fund their organization’s day-to-day operations and development, support and thought-partnership from a capacity coach, and other resources to develop and grow their leadership ranks.  

Bonnie Mazza, program director of The LeadersTrust’s Fair Work Leadership Fund, says its goal is to provide groups and their leaders with “the time, space and support to invest in themselves and their ability to create change.” Like many other nonprofits, worker rights groups face significant challenges after the 2024 election, in addition to pressures and demands over the last few years—supporting their communities through the COVID-19 pandemic, an affordable housing crisis, growing disparities in wealth and incomes, a flood of misinformation, and more. 

“Leaders and staff of these groups haven’t shied away from these crises,” Mazza said. “In fact, they have made an incredible commitment to their members, often at great personal cost.”  She said the Fair Work Leadership Fund is aimed at creating a “more sustainable model” for helping leaders and organizations manage change, reduce burnout, and support more organizers to advance in their leadership and career journeys.   

The Power of Flexible Leadership Support 

Fernandez said she and her team especially valued the LeadersTrust program’s organizational capacity coaching to strengthen Working Partnerships USA’s skills, resources, and systems.  

“One thing I didn’t have much experience in, coming from an organizing background, was managing the finances of the organization, so I worked with a capacity coach who really built up my skills and confidence on that side of things,” she said.

“I didn’t want to use these resources just to invest in my own leadership. I wanted to make sure we had support for our director team to develop their skills and their confidence as well,” Fernandez said.

The capacity coach, a cornerstone of LeadersTrust’s flexible leadership support model, is an organizational development expert who shares a lived experience with the leader and develops a tailored approach to meet each organization’s unique needs and priorities. 

Support from the LeadersTrust also allowed Fernandez to work closely with the outgoing executive director, Derecka Mehrens, to ensure a successful transition. The LeadersTrust coaching also helped Fernandez and her leadership team with planning and visioning for the organization. 

That vision includes organizing “for a future that serves everyone in Santa Clara County—regardless of skin color, gender, religion, occupation, or zip code,” as the election results bring significant threats and challenges to workers. Fernandez issued a statement after the election: “We will continue to strengthen our movement through statewide coalitions like We Are California, ensuring that our united power can defend against attacks on our communities and the values we practice.”  

Another Irvine Foundation grant partner in the Fair Work Leadership Fund was the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), which has a 30-year history of advocacy and organizing focused on improving the lives of working families in Los Angeles and Long Beach.  

The organization selected Víctor Sánchez to take the place of LAANE’s longtime executive director, Roxana Tynan, after she decided to step down in early 2024.  A seven-year veteran of the organization, Sánchez had previously managed numerous organizing campaigns for LAANE on climate, health care, and other issues.  

LAANE’s work also takes on new urgency in light of the 2024 election. In a statement, Sánchez says the election results are “a devastating blow to our pursuit of dignity and respect in the workplace, for a climate resilient future, and for an economy that works for everyone.” And he reaffirms that LAANE’s “fight for working families continues with even greater resolve than before.” 

Like Fernandez at Working Partnerships USA, Sánchez believes that organizing can be a powerful route to building leadership skills and confidence. “People grounded in those organizing experiences make the best leaders for our movement,” Sánchez said. “The problem, however, is that the worker rights movement, like other movements for social justice, currently does not have the support it needs to think more expansively about recruiting and developing more organizers and movement leaders.” 

“I am worried we are not collectively putting in the time and energy to build pathways for people to see themselves as part of our movement,” said Fernandez. 

Based on their experience with the Fair Work Leadership Fund, Sánchez and Fernandez suggested that philanthropy can and should pay closer attention to supporting groups and movements to make organizer recruitment and leadership development core components of a broader power-building strategy.  

“Groups like us need flexible, multiyear support to really think past the day-to-day and invest in ourselves and our leaders,” Fernandez said. She said the combination of financial resources and tailored capacity coaching and flexible leadership support can be a “game changer” in the ongoing fight for dignity and justice for workers in California and beyond.   

Masthead photo credit: LAANE