About NPEU

We’re Strengthening Our Nonprofits

We are the union for nonprofit professionals.

Joining with NPEU, the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, allows nonprofit professionals to enhance their nonprofit organizations by strengthening their voice in the workplace. In their respective nonprofit organizations, our members have established standards for fair and equal treatment of nonprofit professionals by negotiating contracts that improved pay, benefits, and working conditions.

We understand nonprofit workplaces.

We understand that nonprofits are uniquely mission-driven and have specific financial concerns. We know from experience that by joining together nonprofit professionals can enhance the work of their organization by negotiating a contract that best fits the needs of employees, management, and the organization’s mission.

We want to make our nonprofits better.

We strongly support the missions of our nonprofits and want our organizations to thrive. By coming together, we are able to ensure we have the necessary resources for our organizations to be successful. Our negotiated contracts put in place a process for workplace collaboration which creates better, productive nonprofit organizations.

Join Us

Where We Work

Our Structure

Our union is run by and for us—the NPEU members. We are governed by an Executive Board made up of our volunteer members, which we elect. The Executive Board, in turn, runs and manages our union's operations and budget. NPEU members also directly elect officers who, with the help of NPEU staff, ensure day-to-day operations run smoothly. The officers work with the rest of Executive Board to carry out the will of the members.
Beyond our Executive Board, we have various committees filled with elected and volunteer members to tackle different projects and issues.

NPEU Leadership and Staff

President

Amy Chin-Lai, Action Squared

Secretary-Treasurer

Sarah Rawlins, CEPR

Vice President for Representation

Nami Maehr, Brookings

Vice President for Organizing

Justin Schweitzer, At-Large

Vice President for Communications

Valeria Mejía-Guevara, Action Squared

International Vice President

Katie Barrows, DPE

Executive Board

The Executive Board is NPEU’s primary governing body. It consists of (1) the NPEU officers — President, Secretary-Treasurer, Vice President for Representation, Vice President for Organizing, and Vice President for Communications — who are volunteer members directly elected by the entire membership and (2) one volunteer representative from each unit, selected by that unit. A full list of unit representatives to the Executive Board can be found in the Members section of this site.

National Field Director

Emiliana Sparaco

Field Representative

Kareem Elrefai

Data & Communications Organizer

Heather Cushman

Finance & Operations Director

Ethan Miller

NPEU + IFPTE

The Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), IFPTE Local 70 is an affiliated local union of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), AFL-CIO and CLC.

About IFPTE

IFPTE is a nonprofit, employee-based organization, made up of autonomous local affiliates in the U.S. and Canada. IFPTE advocates on behalf of more than 80,000 women and men in professional and technical occupations. Those occupations are primarily professional, including all engineering disciplines, a wide variety of scientific and research professions, lawyers and administrative judges, economists, environmental officers, and urban planners, among others, all within the private, public, and federal sectors. As such, they are lovingly known as the geeks of the labor movement.

Here are examples of a few other affiliates of IFPTE:

NASA AMES - AFEU, IFPTE Local 30
Boeing Company - SPEEA, IFPTE Local 2001
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) - GAO Employees Organization, IFPTE Local 1921
U.S. Executive Office for Immigration Review - Immigration Judges - NAIJ, IFPTE Judicial Council 2
U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) - CREA, IFPTE Local 75
Public Employees within the San Francisco Bay Area - IFPTE Local 21
U.S. Social Security Administration - Administrative Law Judges - AALJ, IFPTE Judicial Council 1

NPEU - IFPTE Local 70

NPEU, IFPTE Local 70 was formed in 1998 after a group of nonprofit employees at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) contacted IFPTE about creating a union.

IFPTE has been a great resource over the years, providing us with best practices, legal and organizing support, and guidance on a variety of issues. They also provide us access to a network of other organized professionals in related fields and occupations.

Former IFPTE President Paul Shearon voicing support for federal workers during the 2019 government shutdown.

About NPEU

We’re Strengthening Our Nonprofits

We are the union for nonprofit professionals.

We understand nonprofit workplaces.

We want to make our nonprofits better.

Where We Work

Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)

The Center for American Progress (CAP)

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

DC Jobs with Justice (DCJwJ)Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE)

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI)

Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN)

Innovation Law Lab (ILL)

International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF)

The Revolving Door Project (RDP)

Scholars Strategy Network (SSN)

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)

Washington Center for Equitable Growth (WCEG)

The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC)