Due to the small population size of Santa Cruz and around even smaller Black population (2% of residents), an unlikely outcome of reformist work in the form of advocacy occurs. The NAACP participates in strong community coalitions, working with many other racial justice organizations in town following a similar mission statement. Most of the folks we worked with, whom my supervisor considered her "allies," saw each other around town, knew intimate details of each other's lives, and looked after each other in terms of the daily struggles of being Black in Santa Cruz. For them, social justice organizing included where to find a good barber and which businesses in town had Black employees. While the primary work we were doing involved lobbying the government for policy change, I argue that the formation of these coalitions was ultimately more transformative for the inner work needed to follow through on the NAACP's mission statement.

One of the NAACP's main functions I helped support while on field study was advocacy work. The NAACP lobbies the local government for policy change when community members bring an unfair practice or policy to light. This system follows a status quo approach, and there was a clear order of operations for how we went about handling cases and what our "asks" would be. This was a term used a lot at our organization, as we would establish "asks" that would be our goals we hoped to obtain from the particular governmental sect we were lobbying for that project. This follows a traditional script, which ultimately repeated itself in different forms as individual cases appeared. Reform typically aims to change one aspect of the system and operates under the assumption that the system is fixable. This was seen throughout my field study, and there was general consensus that similar cases kept popping up with the organizers that had been there the longest. It seems there needs to be an additional step so that these cases don't keep occurring, but this was not something we worked on while I was with the NAACP. 

Ultimately, INCITE!'s ideas of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) are seen through the NAACP's work. The limited capacity of reform as a means for following through on the NAACP's mission statement to end race-based discrimination are seen. There is this staunch dichotomy between the powerful community relationships built in coalitions and the limits of how folks choose to conduct their work. Through examples of projects we have worked on, it is clear the NPIC effects the non-profit's ability to focus on changing the status quo, and instead stresses successes and individual victories. As the collective INCITE! claims, the NPIC encourages individuals to view social justice organizing as a career, which places it deeply into capitalism. This makes it difficult to truly challenge discrimination in the system when one is working within it. We frequently utilized collaborations with other organizations to share resources and staff, which was incredibly beneficial on so many levels, but also shows the severe lack of funding and staffing behind the non-profit system. This lack of resources leads to folks being stretched thin, and focusing on mitigating issues rather than finding transformative solutions.