Remember being on a teeter-totter as a kid? The challenge was balancing it evenly in the air. You’d constantly adjust, adding or removing kids from each side, trying to find that perfect balance. Sometimes it worked. Often, you’d slam down hard, jarring yourself when you hit the ground. I know I fell off a few times.
Running a nonprofit in 2025 feels remarkably similar to trying to find that balance, and sometimes hitting the ground.
The Burnout Crisis We Can’t Ignore
A recent Canadian study revealed something we’ve all been feeling: nonprofit staff are experiencing unprecedented levels of burnout.* It showed that 35% were feeling burnout, and many were facing other hardships like food insecurity. I even heard on a recent podcast that nonprofits are seeing widespread “stress leave”—people taking short-term disability or extended time off simply because the workload and pressure have become unsustainable.
Some of this burnout also stems from the challenge that nonprofits face in paying competitive salaries to their staff, as the funding for these salaries often comes primarily from fundraising efforts.
The irony? This burnout is costing nonprofits more money in the long run.
But here’s the catch-22: How do we pay people a living wage (which is more than $15 an hour) while simultaneously raising the funds needed to do that? Especially with the rampage nonprofit funding is experiencing these days?
A Controversial Solution: Work Less
I’m going to suggest something that might raise eyebrows: work less, and let your donors know you’re prioritizing staff wellbeing alongside your mission.
What does this actually look like in practice?
It means that everyone—from your volunteers to your Executive Director—doesn’t have to work seven days a week or pull 10-hour days. The people you serve will still be there tomorrow. There are likely other nonprofits in your area providing similar services. And here’s the honest truth we need to accept: we can’t help everybody all of the time.
We simply don’t have the capacity as human beings. You can’t stay awake for 24 hours. You can’t magically grow money. You can’t personally reach every person who needs help, even with a small team. We don’t have unlimited physical and mental capacity.
Get Strategic: Niche Down and Prioritize
The solution starts with getting specific:
- Who are you serving?
- Why are you serving them?
- How are you serving them?
Once you’re clear on these questions, prioritize your people. Don’t hire a fundraiser, grant writer, or development director and expect them to single-handedly raise $100,000, $150,000, or $500,000 in a year—especially not in today’s political and funding climate.
The Reality of Today’s Fundraising Landscape
Let’s be honest about what we’re facing. With recent executive orders affecting DEI-based funding, a changing economy affected by tariffs and inflation, and significant layoffs across government sectors (affecting large communities nationwide), fundraising has become more challenging.
Notice I said challenging, not impossible. There’s a difference.
People are being more careful about how they spend their money. So show them that you’re equally thoughtful about how you spend yours. Tell them: “We prioritize our community, and we prioritize our people—because our people make the work happen.”
The Cost of Not Prioritizing Your Team
Without your people, or with high turnover, high stress, high burnout, high absenteeism, or low volunteerism, you cannot effectively serve your community. What happens instead? Other people take on extra work and extra hours, probably with no change in pay. And then you’re stuck in that self-perpetuating cycle—the catch-22.
Breaking the Cycle
We need a realistic understanding of the world around us. I’m not advocating for pessimism, nor am I suggesting we be overly optimistic like Pollyanna. I’m asking for a realistic view of:
- Your community’s socioeconomic issues
- Your city, county, state, or national economy (whichever is most applicable)
- Your organization’s actual capacity
Then adjust accordingly. Announce that you will co-prioritize the well-being of your staff, volunteers, and board, along with the community you serve. People will appreciate this because we all want to be valued. We all want to come first sometimes.
You often hear it in the business world: your biggest asset is your team. They’re the ones who make things happen, create results, and show up day after day. If you treat them poorly, it won’t work.
In nonprofits, this is admittedly more challenging because we have to raise our own funds. Unless you have an angel donor, fundraising is part of the equation. But that doesn’t change the fundamental truth.
Making It Work
Look at your capacity. Understand what’s happening around you. Prioritize your people. If you can afford to pay people more, do so. However, even if budgets are tight, try to include fair compensation in your grants. Communicate with your team to find ways to alleviate the effects of burnout.
Here’s something that needs to be said louder: It is absolutely okay for nonprofit professionals to be paid as well as people in for-profit industries.
We need commitment from nonprofit founders, leaders, donors, and funders to embrace this principle.
Start a Different Circle
When you’re stuck in a catch-22, step out. Do something different. See if you end up in another kind of circle—one where you can support your people in new ways, who then help your community, who donors then recognize and want to support, which enables you to better support your people, who then better support your community.
Start a different circle.
The teeter-totter will never be perfectly balanced, but maybe it doesn’t need to be. Perhaps the goal isn’t perfect balance—it’s sustainable motion that doesn’t leave anyone slammed on the ground.
What are you doing to fight team burnout?
*The Changemaker Wellbeing Index (May 2025)
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