Social Justice Leadership Models
Insights from an exploration across movement + philanthropic ecosystems
Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) partnered with the organizational development consulting firm Imagine Us on a research project that explored existing leadership models across the social justice movement and philanthropic ecosystems.
Key Finding: Structure Matters Less Than Culture
All leadership forms—sole executive, shared executive, and distributed leadership—can achieve high impact or cause harm. Success depends more on organizational culture than structure, including feedback practices, learning orientation, and addressing systemic oppression. No leadership form will fix organizational challenges or avoid the barriers faced by leaders from systematically oppressed communities.
Universal Success Factors Across All Models
No executive holds all functions alone. Whether sole or shared, executive functions (vision, fundraising, culture, operations, accountability) must be distributed intentionally across a leadership team.
Critical organizational challenges span all models. Challenges include:
Managing transitions and organizational change
Role clarity and decision-making processes
Building trust and addressing power dynamics
Developing leadership pipelines
Balancing internal process work with external impact
Sole Executive Leadership: When It Works Best
Success requires a strong second tier, typically with clear authority over internal operations, culture work, and staff supervision. This allows the executive to focus on external relationships, vision, and strategic decisions.
Key insight: Don't try to find a "unicorn" for the #2 role. Define scope clearly based on the executive's strengths and the organization's needs. High trust between the executive and second tier is essential.
Shared Executive Leadership: Critical Design Elements
Role balance is non-negotiable. Both leaders must hold roles felt and seen as equally valuable and powerful. Avoid internal/external splits, which often reinforce gender and racial hierarchies and undervalue internal work.
Successful partnerships require:
Shared vision for organizational impact
Clear role delineation and communication with some individual discretion areas
Regular relationship maintenance and conflict resolution processes
Joint accountability for key decisions, especially personnel
Common failure points: Mismatched visions, unclear roles, unaddressed power imbalances, and splitting along traditional internal/external lines.
Distributed Leadership: Emerging Lessons
Organizations using highly distributed models - where decision-making is consistently and methodically pushed to other levels in the organization - face unique challenges. More successful models emphasize clear decision-making authority with consultation rather than consensus.
Key requirements:
Strong organizational culture that supports distributed responsibility
Hiring people who actively want to participate in shared leadership
Clear processes for accountability and feedback
Significant ongoing time investment in internal relationship and process work
Note: A unionized workplace is a particular form of power-sharing that may limit some areas of distributing decision-making.
Implications and Recommendations
Governance must evolve with leadership structure changes. Different leadership models require different board relationships and support mechanisms.
Before choosing a leadership model, assess:
Organizational culture and staff capacity and desire for shared responsibility
Financial stability (transitions require resources and time)
Board readiness to adapt governance approaches
Timeline for implementation (successful transitions take significant planning)
Support new leadership with:
Extended transition periods and overlap with outgoing leaders
Individual and joint coaching/support
Clear expectations about the time required for internal relationship work
Board flexibility as the leadership team develops their approach
The Bottom Line
Start with culture, then choose structure. Focus on building feedback practices, addressing power dynamics, and creating learning-oriented environments. Any leadership structure can succeed with a strong culture and fail without it. Plan for significant time and resource investment in transitions, and be prepared to adapt governance approaches to match your chosen leadership model.
Written by Katie Unger, Amy Morris, and Kimberly Freeman Brown
Katie Unger is a senior consultant at Imagine Us, an organizational development consulting firm and community, and the architect of the leadership transition initiative research.
Amy Morris is the outgoing Interim President of Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG), a philanthropy supporting organization (PSO) whose members co-conspire to accelerate racial, gender, economic, disability, and climate justice.
Kimberly Freeman Brown is a partner at Imagine Us.