Burnout is defined by the World Health Organization as an “occupational phenomenon” characterized by prolonged feelings of stress, anxiety, depletion or exhaustion, lack of motivation, and—notably—“reduced professional efficacy.” It is a fact of US and global workplaces that manifests far beyond the nonprofit sector.
Yet, the connection between nonprofit work and burnout is both deep and widespread.
As NPQ reported earlier this year, 95 percent of nonprofit leaders surveyed by the Center for Effective Philanthropy for its State of Nonprofits 2024 report cited burnout—whether of staff or leadership—as a “top concern,” and half of nonprofit leaders expressed concern about burning out themselves.
Recently, we sat down to talk about burnout in the sector with writer, speaker, and consultant Beth Kanter, about ways organizations can embody the title of her
2016 book, The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit.
Key Takeaways:
- Burnout is an organizational issue, not just a personal one.
- Addressing burnout means addressing workplace culture.
- Kanter offers a model for addressing workplace wellbeing.
- Leadership modeling is key, and leaders need to solicit anonymous feedback.
- Burnout is preventable, but change is challenging.
- A workplace’s culture is its brand.
[Burnout] is an organizational responsibility.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Isaiah Thompson: You wrote The Happy Healthy Nonprofit almost 10 years ago. How has the perception of burnout as an issue, and especially as a systemic problem within the nonprofit sector, changed since then?
Beth Kanter: No one was talking about burnout back then, and nobody wanted to talk about it. It was kind of taboo. People started to talk about it after the 2016 election, especially within the types of causes that I work with. And then, of course, the pandemic accelerated the problem that was already here.
Before the pandemic, it used to be that people would say burnout was an individual problem—“go get therapy,” or whatever. But [in 2019] the World Health Organization classified it as an occupational issue—that it’s an organizational responsibility.
IT: Obviously, burnout is an issue across all kinds of sectors. But how does burnout manifest in the nonprofit space?
BK: I hear a lot from people that come to me for coaching who were burnt out. It’s often because their managers don’t necessarily have good supervisory skills, so there’s not very good communication or checking in. There’s a lot of miscommunication, mismatched expectations, and that leads to burnout as well. Or unfair treatment at work. This could be anything from microaggressions to just personalities clashing to harassment.
And then, of course, there’s not encouraging work-life balance. Not having people take their time off, or there’s lip service to it. Managers say “Yes, we want you to have work-life balance,” but there’s no let-up on the workload or the deadlines or the manager assigning something on a Friday that’s due on Monday or an email exchange that happened throughout the weekend or after hours.
And I think a lot of this has been exacerbated by financial issues—turnover of staff, the fact that we don’t pay people enough or give them enough benefits. At some social service agencies that require a master’s degree, they’re being paid less than a Walmart worker. And they might as well go work at Walmart because they’re going to get better benefits there and work fewer hours.
As a leader, you want to get upward anonymous feedback.
So we have low pay, and yet this commitment to our work because it’s purpose-driven, it’s values-driven as opposed to profit-driven. And there’s a lack of resources. Most nonprofits don’t have enough staff to accomplish everything they need to do, especially those that are addressing big, hairy problems: anything from climate change to homelessness to racial justice. Those are big problems, and we just don’t have the resources to solve them. So, you’re always fighting, you’re always fighting.
And we’re too nice in this sector. We’re conflict-averse. We don’t want to address these things.
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IT: What are some ways that leaders can proactively either prevent or mitigate burnout in their organizations?
BK: It’s hard to change a culture, especially if you’re a new leader coming in. You know, it takes time to do that. And it’s hard because you have to have a lot of patience. You have to listen. You have to get people to change their behavior; you have to right the ship. And that takes time.
I [use] the Nonprofit Workplace Burnout Assessment. It’s a simple assessment people can take to help identify whether they are experiencing the symptoms, which can manifest as physical symptoms—getting sick or not being able to sleep or concentrate—or emotional symptoms, and then it’s work performance as well. And these [surveys] are done anonymously. So, you can get a sense of “What is it in our workflows that is connected to higher rates of burnout?” then you can start to do something about it in your organizations.
But I also think it’s about—and this is hard, people don’t like this advice so much—as a leader, you want to get upward anonymous feedback directly to you. Leaders need to model wellbeing—as opposed to overwork and stress suffocation. So, they need feedback on that.
I think also that performance evaluations need to [consider] wellbeing. There need to be cultural norms that that aren’t just words, but the actual behavior. So it’s leadership modeling this behavior, it’s leadership assessing it. It’s building it into your performance metrics and building it into your culture.
IT: I can imagine that a lot of nonprofits feel they don’t have the resources to address some of these issues. They can’t afford to pay better or offer better benefits; maybe they know their employees are overworked but feel they can’t afford to change that.
BK: There are some things you don’t need a lot of money for.
One thing I do with organizations is go through a process I call the Five F’s of Wellbeing: functioning, feelings, friendship, forward, and fulfillment.
The “functioning” piece is things that don’t necessarily cost a lot of money. Is your organization just back-to-back with meetings, without any time for people to get their work done? That leads to burnout. So let’s do an audit of all the meetings we’re doing. Are they really necessary?
Are you, the CEO, sending out emails on midnight on a Saturday asking for something bright and early Monday morning with a tagline that says, “My work schedule may differ from yours”? Learn to use the “Send Later” button, because what you’re doing is setting up a cultural norm of working all the time. And if employees see that, they’re going to feel obligated to respond. Does that cost money? Not necessarily.
Your culture is your brand.
“Feelings” is about feeling appreciated. Certainly, you can acknowledge people in staff meetings, you can say thank you—that goes a long way.
“Friendship,” is people getting along. Some leaders may not think this is work, but it’s developing relationships and getting to know people as opposed to just flinging things on them. And I think because we’re hybrid and virtual, we’re not properly onboarding enough and getting to know people.
“Forward” is about people wanting professional growth. It doesn’t have to be taking classes; it could be stretch assignments, finding something that you want to try and then experimenting with it.
With “Fulfillment,” we’re generally good at feeling connected to the mission, but maybe stepping back sometimes when we’re in that busy-ness to talk about why we are working for this organization and its mission, why that’s important to us.
IT: I’m guessing that all of these strategies are easier said than done when it comes to implementation and making changes stick?
BK: I think change is hard. But don’t get me wrong, there are some really bright spots and organizations that pay attention to this—it’s in their culture and those become the places where people want to work. Because in some ways your culture is your brand. Let’s regenerate work. Let’s make it joyful.