How To Prevent Burnout: 5 Strategies for Your Nonprofit

It’s no secret that, while incredibly rewarding, nonprofit work can take a toll on professionals in the sector. Between securing new donors, managing volunteers, running programs, and planning fundraising events, nonprofit work can feel overwhelming. This is especially true for case workers and other nonprofit professionals who guide beneficiaries and clients through traumatic situations.

Burnout leads to staff turnover, which can greatly cost nonprofits. For example, healthcare organizations alone lose a staggering $4.6 billion annually due to turnover and work-hour reductions.

However, the good news is that you can mitigate and prevent burnout by instituting changes on organization-wide and personal scales. In this guide, we’ll review how your nonprofit can combat burnout so you have a passionate and loyal team by your side to achieve your mission.

1. Implement a Work From Home Policy

If you’ve handled nonprofit recruitment before, you understand just how important benefits are for keeping employees engaged and motivated. One of the most popular benefits is a flexible work-from-home schedule, as 65% of workers want to work completely remotely, whereas 32% want a hybrid schedule.

Allowing your employees to work from home can combat burnout by:

Reducing daily commute stress. Whether they are paying for a bus ticket every day or sitting in traffic in their cars, commuting to and from work can be time-consuming, making it an additional stressor in your employees’ lives. With remote work, your employees will have more time for activities that energize them outside of work hours.

Providing a comfortable environment to work in. Every employee operates differently and has unique working preferences. Allowing them to customize their workspace can boost their productivity and reduce fatigue.

Encouraging self-paced work. Remote work complements the “flex” hours structure (in which employees can reallocate hours when they’re busy as long as they meet deadlines). Self-paced, flexible work structures empower employees to create a schedule that keeps them productive.

If your nonprofit values in-person collaboration but still wants the benefits of remote work, consider adopting a hybrid policy, where team members spend some days in office and some working remotely. This allows your employees to experience the best of both work formats, contributing to their satisfaction and engagement with your organization.

2. Hire Smart

Gauging nonprofit-specific skills is undoubtedly one of your recruiting priorities, but you can expand your talent acquisition strategy to prevent burnout proactively. Here are some indicators of potential hires’ ability to fend off burnout and persevere through challenges:

Persistence in past roles. Understanding how candidates approached stressful or difficult situations in the past can provide insights into their strengths and how they’ll tackle issues that lead to burnout.

Time management skills. Keeping track of deadlines and completing work on time is crucial for remaining an effective contributor to your team.

Personal support system and hobbies. If your candidate has activities and a support system outside of work, they have more resources and activities to energize them when work gets challenging.

Enthusiasm for your mission. Innate enthusiasm for your cause can motivate employees to persist through difficult times.

It’s easier to judge some of these characteristics than others, but between an interview, short answer prompts, and skill assessments, you get a general idea of where a candidate stands on all these fronts. Plus, discussing aspects of their lives that aren’t directly work-related can relax candidates throughout the high-stakes recruitment process.

3. Provide Self-Care Resources

As its name suggests, self-care varies for each person based on what recharges and inspires them. Nonprofits can take the initiative to offer self-care resources to their employees to combat burnout, but since every employee is different, it can be challenging to establish standard offerings. Here are some ideas for universally beneficial self-care resources that your employees will likely enjoy:

Access to mental health services. Providing health insurance with adequate coverage for mental health treatment empowers your employees to seek professional support if they need it.

Physical wellness programs. Research shows that exercising regularly and eating healthy foods can lift your mood. Provide discounted gym memberships or gift cards to grocery stores so employees can support their health without breaking the bank.

Stress relief items. Whether it’s a stress ball, succulent, pair of fuzzy socks, or scented candles, providing low-cost items that help employees unwind can greatly impact their mood and work ethic. You could even ask sponsors if they have any resources they could donate to mitigate costs. For example, a local massage business may be willing to offer you discounted services.

If you want to offer more personalized self-care resources, there’s no group better to ask than your staff itself. Ask them for suggestions on what you should offer, how you can acquire it, and which providers are ideal.

4. Organize Fun Events

Your staff sees each other more often than they see some of their family members, so it’s natural for you to build strong relationships with them. Strengthening these bonds is crucial for cultivating internal support systems and making all employees feel comfortable. That’s where planning events becomes useful.

Planning enjoyable staff events (both during and outside of work) helps employees feel fulfilled and makes them more likely to stick with your nonprofit in the long term. Plus, it allows them to blow off steam and get to know their coworkers on a personal level.

Here are some event ideas to inspire you:

As Part of Work

New hire luncheon. Starting a new job can be overwhelming, both for new hires and for staff training them. Integrate new hires into your workplace culture by catering lunch on their first day. This establishes a welcoming atmosphere, which is crucial for setting new hires up for success.

“Bring your Pet to Work” day. For many people, there’s nothing that brings a smile to the face faster than a cute animal! Bringing furry friends to work is a great way to make everyone happy. Just be sure you ask everyone for permission and be transparent about what types of pets will be attending in case certain employees have allergies.

Early flex-out activity days. Designate one day per month where employees who finished their tasks can end work early to join a group activity, such as an ice cream social or a pickleball game. That way, your employees don’t have to move around their schedules to connect with coworkers.

Outside of Work

Team spa day. Spa days are synonymous with luxury and relaxation. Treat your employees to a trip to your local spa where they can get a hot rock treatment, an aromatherapy session, or a face mask. Since this idea tends to be pricier, it works especially well as a prize for hitting quarterly or yearly fundraising goals.

Cultural day out. Whether you attend an orchestral concert, enjoy a theater production, or peruse the galleries of an art museum, treat your employees to all of the cultural activities your city has to offer.

Laid-back game night. This classic event can appeal to all of your staff’s preferences. For instance, you might focus on playing board games or taking turns with a video game. Whatever you decide, your staff will love the opportunity to get to know each other and engage in friendly competition.

Your organization’s busy decision-makers might not have the bandwidth to plan these events regularly. However, you can empower all staff members to plan events with a set budget. This allows staff to plan events people want to attend while keeping planning responsibilities dispersed.

5. Encourage Taking Time Off

Just because you offer paid time off (PTO) doesn’t mean team members will jump at the chance to use it. Your employees (especially new hires) might feel pressured to keep working to make a good first impression. That’s why it’s important to actively encourage taking time off. Here are some tips for getting employees to use their PTO allowance:

- Offer different PTO buckets. Your employees hesitate to use paid time off when they feel sick. Solve this dilemma by offering multiple categories of PTO that employees can draw from. For instance, many companies offer sick time and PTO as separate categories.
- Openly promote taking time off. Your employees can’t read your mind (especially new employees), so be transparent with them. Double the Donation suggests highlighting the nonprofit’s approval of using PTO outwardly during training so employees don’t feel pressured to hold onto their time off.

Allow new employees to have a negative PTO balance. For nonprofits where PTO is accrued in regular increments over time, it takes more time for new employees to have days banked. Allow employees to go into the negative for the first year of employment so they get the same amount of time off as seasoned employees.

Remember to adjust your paid time off strategies as needed depending on competitor and market trends. For instance, you might implement a floating holiday policy where employees can take personally significant days off, such as birthdays or cultural celebrations, without affecting their PTO balance.

Unfortunately, there are some contributors to burnout that we can’t foresee or prevent, like a recession. That’s why your nonprofit must be flexible to combat burnout effectively. Be prepared to provide one-on-one support when unexpected events affect your employees. Also, collect feedback from your employees regularly so you can continue serving them as well as possible and establish a working environment they’re happy to be in.

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