🗞️ When the Vote-for-Democracy Nonprofit Fired Its Own Democracy Advocates

Civic Influencers, Inc., a Delaware-based 501(c)(3) founded in 2021 to mobilize young voters on college campuses, became the subject of a federal labor proceeding after a series of internal disputes culminated in a wave of terminations throughout 2024.

The trouble began in April 2024, when Audrey Ferguson, the organization's Co-Chief of Organizing, sent a letter to the Board of Directors on behalf of herself and colleagues criticizing CEO Maxim Thorne. The letter, co-signed by three other organizers, described a workplace culture marked by poor communication and what staff characterized as Thorne's "toxic" and "authoritarian" management. The board acknowledged the concerns and forwarded the letter to a human resources contractor for investigation.

Later that month, the organization held an all-staff retreat at the Pocantico Center on the Rockefeller Foundation's Kykuit estate in New York's Hudson Valley. On the first evening, employees raised similar concerns during a team bonding session. According to the judge, Thorne responded defensively, rejecting or minimizing the criticisms. The following day he and most senior managers departed the retreat early. Programming was cut off mid-session, alcohol service was eliminated for the remainder of the stay, and the final day of scheduled sessions was canceled by email. On the following Monday, Thorne sent a 4:30 a.m. email canceling the organization's standing weekly all-staff meetings and warning employees that holding unsanctioned gatherings was impermissible.

After the retreat, employees began discussing union representation. On June 12, 2024, eight staff members submitted signed authorization cards to the Board of Directors requesting voluntary recognition of the United Professional Organizers. Nine days later, on June 21, the company terminated four employees: Katrina Cousins, Kathleen Hutton, Emily Yost, and Kameryn Point, and rescinded the promotion of a fifth, Elise Orlick, who was demoted back to her prior role. The company cited financial difficulties and a strategic shift toward digital organizing as justification. Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Rosas found those explanations to be pretextual.

While Civic Influencers claimed financial pressure forced the reductions, it simultaneously continued recruiting and filling positions throughout the summer and fall of 2024, hiring contractors to perform the same functions previously handled by the terminated employees. Three remaining staff members, Ferguson, Anna Cubbage, and Cornell Duckworth, who had testified on behalf of the union at a subsequent NLRB representation hearing, were locked out of their work accounts on December 31, 2024, immediately after submitting a required year-end report. In a later position statement, the company acknowledged that the decision to let them go had been made as early as mid-August, roughly three weeks after their Board testimony.

Key Points

• Seven employees were terminated and one promotion rescinded, together constituting eight adverse employment actions found to violate the National Labor Relations Act
• The company's "lowers morale" handbook rule was found unlawfully overbroad under the framework established in Stericycle, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 113 (2023), which requires handbook rules to be evaluated from the perspective of an economically dependent employee contemplating protected activity
• The judge applied the Wright-Line burden-shifting framework, finding the General Counsel established a prima facie case of discriminatory motivation that the company failed to rebut
• The company's shifting justifications for the firings, including financial hardship, performance deficiencies, probationary status, and strategic reorganization, were each found unsupported by the evidence or contradicted by the company's own subsequent conduct
• The judge imposed a Gissel bargaining order, bypassing the standard election process, because the severity and number of violations made a fair election unlikely
• Civic Influencers filed for corporate dissolution in Delaware in January 2026, a development the judge noted but found did not extinguish the legal obligations imposed by the order
• Remedies ordered include full reinstatement, back pay with compounded daily interest, adverse tax consequence compensation, and expungement of termination records
  Primary Source Author: Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Rosas, National Labor Relations Board, Division of Judges

Primary Source: Civic Influencers, Inc. and United Professional Organizers, JD-34-26 (May 29, 2026)

Primary Source Link: www.nlrb.gov/case/05-CA-345478

Supplemental References

• Stericycle, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 113 (2023), Handbook Rule Standard Overview, Crowell & Moring
• NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575 (1969) — Justia Supreme Court
• Wright-Line Framework and Gissel Bargaining Orders, NLRB Edge
• NLRB Gissel Bargaining Orders and Hallmark Violations, Williams Mullen
• Employer Handbook Rules After Stericycle, Littler Mendelson