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Addressing burnout in the nonprofit workforce
One of the biggest challenges that nonprofits face is staff burnout. In a Council of Nonprofits survey, 50.2% of respondents said that stress and burnout were factors in retaining and recruiting staff. It is difficult to commit to working for an organization when a person feels overworked and burdened by the overwhelming amount of work they face every day. This feeling of burnout will have an absolute effect on the nonprofit when they have staff members who regularly quit. This causes a major problem with retention that could have devastating effects on the organization. This could include delays of services for clients forcing them to seek help from other nonprofits or poor program quality. This could lead nonprofit professionals asking, What strategies can nonprofits utilize to decrease burnout and retain staff? There are five strategies that can be utilized in order to avoid burnout and raise staff retention rates. They are identify, compensation, professional development, gratitude, and work life balance.
Identify
In order to address the issue their has to be a way to identify it and see the extent to which it exists. This can be achieved through a couple of different methods. Anonymous staff surveys will allow people to express their opinions without the fear of reprisal. Non-judgmental observations allow the executive management to see what is happening through the lens of helping and not through corrective action. Personal temperature checks with staff will give them the opportunity to voice their concerns before it gets to the level of burnout.
Compensation
The organization must do research into competitive market rates for staff compensation. Could it be costly to do so? Yes, but in the long run it can save the nonprofit money. The cost to recruit, interview, onboard, train, and retain a new employee can be more costly then simply paying a more market rate wage.
Professional development
Nonprofits are usually run on tight budgets as they executive management needs to use resources wisely. Professional development is a cost-effective way of giving a staff member extra benefits. Giving the staff member opportunities to learn new skills, roles or provide experience is an invaluable way help them build their resumes. This could help for future advancement at the nonprofit or other organizations.
Gratitude
Making a staff member feel like they are valued through gratitude is a strategy that can be utilized at all levels of an organization. Telling the staff thank you or we couldn’t do this without you ties the staff member to the impact they make to the organozation and makes them feel appreciated. Simple gestures like bringing a treat for the team is a small gesture that makes them feel valued as well. Social media can be used to put into writing the way the organization values it's staff. Creating a post expressing gratitude for a staff’s contribution gives them the opportunity to be celebrated by the entire network of the organization and leaves them with a sense of pride.
Work/life balance
Creating a positive work life balance culture in the organization is important to prevent burnout. Feeling like you can never take time off or working outside of scheduled hours is a quick way to burn out a staff member. Encouraging all staff to not check their email after work and staying home when they are sick are simple ways to prevent burnout. Executive management should also be flexible to life getting in the way of work. Childcare issues, sick loved ones, financial issue happen to everyone and will have effect on a person’s ability to work. Management needs to be cognoscente of that and be flexible when they can to accommodate life’s challenges.
There are both simple strategies and somewhat complex strategies that can reduce burnout for people who work in nonprofits. It is essential to use these strategies in order to increase staff retention rates. This will in turn create better program quality and services in order to make a nonprofit more successful and achieve it’s mission.
Jaclyn Koelsch is a 2025 graduate of the Masters of Nonprofit Leadership and Management at Arizona State University. She iscurrently the Executive Director of Youth Services at the YMCA of Greater Whittier. She has spent the past 13 years designing and implementing high-quality expanded learning programs that support academic achievement, social-emotional growth, and leadership development while maintaining a safe space for children of all ages.
Image by Lillian Finley
Make sure your organization is keeping up with the market for salaries and benefits
Every two years, we collect data on salaries, wages, and a range of benefits from nonprofit organizations in Maricopa and Pima counties, and starting this year, Pinal county. This data will be compiled into the Compensation and Benefits Report, which provides employee compensation data, as well as detailed findings on executives, employee retirement, insurance, paid time off and other benefits. The insights help nonprofits make informed decisions by providing information on salaries and benefits across 50+ position titles, organized by budget size and organization type (human services, education, arts, etc.). We also collect data on remote work, flexible schedules, retention and referral bonuses, and more.