An Ethnographic look at Organizational Culture within the Children\u27s Defense Fund

This research addresses organizational culture within the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C. and regional offices throughout the United States. The purpose of this research is to ethnographically understand how the Children’s Defense Fund functions as a nonprofit organization, how the national organization works with the regional offices and vice versa, and how the myths and symbols of the organization align with the culture that is created. I visited two locations of the Children’s Defense Fund and conducted interviews with nine participants. I used literature to give an anthropological view of organizational culture. I also used theories that focus on culture which provided the lens to analyze the data I collected. This nonprofit focuses on advocating for children’s rights in many spheres such as education, poverty, health, welfare, youth justice, and gun violence