Organizational Structure

The Neurodiversity Change Foundation (NCF) offers multiple ways to engage with and contribute to our work, reflecting our commitment to inclusive participation, clear roles, and ethical collaboration.

Individuals may be involved with NCF as Members, Advisors, Associates, or Board Directors, each with distinct responsibilities, expectations, and levels of decision-making authority. These roles are designed to value lived experience, professional expertise, and community leadership, while ensuring transparency, accountability, and alignment with NCF’s mission to advance systemic change for neurodivergent people.

Founder

NCF represents founder leadership, an operating and governance model in which the organization’s originator retains primary responsibility for vision, strategy and execution, particularly during the startup, innovation and field-building phases. It is designed to preserve coherence, speed and accountability when an organization is building something new that does not exist yet. The model sparks innovation, disruption, system change and comprehensive conceptual coherence - and is a deliberate and widely used approach in early stage non-profits.

Members
Members are individuals who align with NCF’s mission and values and support. Members may contribute lived experience, sector knowledge, or advocacy support, and be engaged through any of the below methods. Members play an important role in strengthening NCF’s collective voice and accountability to the community and register through the website.

Advisors
Advisors provide subject-matter expertise, strategic insight, and guidance on specific programs, research, or sector initiatives. They contribute professional knowledge without governance or fiduciary responsibilities, and are allied with the goals of NCF in their work. They are interested in pushing NCF forward in the places where they already operate.

Associates
Associates are collaborators who actively collaborate on NCF values, initiatives, strategies and more in practice. They contribute to NCF programs, research, and/or communications and community-building. This may be facilitators, researchers, creatives, students, or professionals working alongside NCF under clear shared principles. The main purpose in the relationship is mutual benefit.

Board of Directors
Board members are responsible for protecting the organization’s mission, enabling the founder’s work, engaging in fundraising, contributing networks, governance and serving as strategic advisors, not operational managers, to enable impact, removing barriers to action and contributing to supporting the success of the founder’s established vision.