Meet Melinda Gibson, Managing Director of The Capacity Shop!
“We can build, grow, and support folks in so many different ways. It is a time of innovation for us.”
The Capacity Shop (TCS) is positioning itself to offer frontline support to social justice nonprofits looking for new, more assertive strategies to bolster their missions. In the fall of 2025, TCS plans to launch a new resource hub that will answer leaders’ most challenging questions about organizational security, operations, funding, and more. These tools will help nonprofit organizations unlock the full potential of their advocacy and community building.
To help bring this resource hub to life, TCS also has a new leader. Melinda Gibson recently joined the organization as Managing Director, and she is already speaking to the possibilities that social justice organizations hold. Looking to transform TCS into a beacon that illuminates the landscape of nonprofit capacity building, she brings a wisdom that comes from decades of work building power with communities.
When asked to trace her career back to the first time she felt inspired to do social change work, Melinda shares a charming story about running a mock election in elementary school, circa 1988. By the time she reached her teenage years, she was genuinely taking stock of what she had to offer.
“When I was 14, a canvasser came to our door advocating for dolphin safe tuna. I didn’t have a bank account, so I didn’t have any money to donate. And I couldn’t vote,” she recalls.
“But the canvasser said, ‘Hey, do you want a job?’ And that was something I could do. So I started knocking on doors.”
That early canvassing experience ignited her purpose. “I think there is no better way to engage with the people around us and really understand the one-on-one relationships that it takes to build power. When I learned that I could talk to people about issues that I feel passionately about as a career, I never looked back.”
Melinda’s journey eventually took her to UC San Diego for college, where she was able to hone her ability to build consensus across a very tangible ideological divide. “I got involved in voting rights for students, as well as anti-war mobilization. San Diego is a military town, so there was zero tolerance for any kind of anti-war opinion. It was the first time I learned how to organize within an oppositional frame.”
It was clear that she had the passion and the strategy, but her post-grad days proved that she also had the boldness that a career in social change demands. After college, she headed to DC with no money and very few connections. Within months, she had talked herself into her first professional job.
“I decided I wanted to move to DC to work in health care reform. I didn’t have a job or a place to live, but I went to a progressive conference and canvassed myself into a job as a health care policy analyst and organizer at Campaign for America's Future.”
Though it was early in her career, the job cast her into the deep end of organizing and advocacy—requiring her to move adeptly behind the scenes to set up multi-entity organizations that would strengthen the national health care advocacy ecosystem. She gained invaluable knowledge about institutional levers of power that she could help pull to catalyze policy changes at the state and local levels. Melinda’s work at Campaign for America’s Future would eventually result in the creation of Health Care for America Now and the passing and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Reflecting on the lessons she took from that role, she says, “I learned how to functionally build a coalition and drive it—what it took to build the kind of narrative change and organizational infrastructure that we need. That experience has informed how I have gone through my life as an organizer and the way I approach strategy and organizational development.”
Melinda flexed those leadership skills in subsequent roles as her career flourished. As deputy director at The Center for Secure and Modern Elections, she worked with state and local partners to expand voting rights and, in 2020, helped election departments respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Similar to her work with Health Care for America Now, this role enabled her to direct more resources to movement allies and strengthen the collective infrastructure that organizations needed to be impactful.
And most recently, she worked as a state director at The Outreach Team, a field-oriented firm where she led a ballot initiative in Los Angeles County to address housing and homelessness that generated $1 billion for affordable and supportive housing.
As she shares the impact of that ballot initiative, the enthusiasm of a 14-year-old Melinda who listened raptly at her front door as she discovered canvassing shines through. “I was incredibly drawn to the idea of democratizing ballots in the largest county in America. 10.7 million people getting to build and enact a policy on an issue that is front of mind—no one had done this kind of program before.”
Melinda is now ready to bring all of this enthusiasm and experience to The Capacity Shop at a critical time. As TCS expands and adapts to meet the needs of social justice leaders, her expertise in building coalitions and strengthening organizations will be a valuable asset for the team. And true to her organizer’s heart, she frames the rocky landscape that nonprofits are navigating at the moment as an abundance of opportunities for both TCS and the ecosystem of organizations that it supports.
Sharing her vision, she says, “There is so much potential for TCS. We can build, grow, and support folks in so many different ways. It is a time of innovation for us as well as a time to strategically fine tune our capacity and offerings.”
That fine tuning involves building a team of experts in training and curriculum, as well as launching the new resource center, which will serve past participants of both NLA and TCS programs, in addition to executive directors, operations professionals, funders, and community partners who are new to TCS.
If you’re interested in working with The Capacity Shop, or just want to learn more, you can get in touch with Melinda by filling out the form on our contact page.