The specific ethos of social and activist work makes burnout invisible or seen as an inevitable element of such work. What contributes to burnout is the specificity of work in the third sector. It consists of such dimensions as too much work, lack of staff, the feeling that the results are unsatisfactory compared to the actions undertaken, and high bureaucracy related to the demands of the donors. All this leads to overwork, stress, and fatigue of the third sector employees, leaders, and volunteers, which, combined with insufficient prevention and intervention in relation to burnout, creates a high risk of developing the syndrome. In 2020 we conducted field research [v]as part of our Erasums+ project Burnout Aid together with Common Zone, another member of NGO Academy Community, and Culture Shock Foundation. Based on the feedback, between one-half and two-thirds of non-profit organizations have or are facing burnout in their teams. 

The reason I initially decided to research burnout in non-profit sector is my observation that highly educated professionals leave the sector due to lack of career advancement opportunities, insecurity linked to project-based dynamic of the NGOs, poor management, lack of human resource management and in some cases even the reputation of the NGO sector as something one does as a hobby. In my research on burnout for the Master Thesis[vi], those factors have also shown to be important contributing factors to burnout. Better addressing these challenges in the organizations can, in my opinion, improve working conditions in the non-profit sector. Further, it can help prevent brain drain of the experts that due to burnout or other above-described elements (which indirectly contribute to burnout) leave the sector once they reach a higher professional level. 

At City of Women Association, we are dealing with the topic of organizational burnout and well-being since 2019. We understand it as intertwined in our mission, which includes advocating for and providing better working conditions for women and gender non-conforming cultural workers. We have developed several tools and organized workshop and conferences. We have launched a pilot helpdesk for burnout prevention of burnout in nonprofit organizationin December 2023. We will offer tailor-made interventions to eight nonprofit organizations between now and march, based on preliminary interviews with leaders and team members.

Based on our initial talks, the first and most important step that a leader must make is to allow and create a space to talk about the topic. We discovered that despite the scarcity of resources typical for nonprofit sector, people mainly leave because of toxic organisational culture, bad management or lack of autonomy, trust, and recognition. These can be mended without new money streams. Based on the research, discussions in the workshops and, at the end of the day my own experiences, simple gestures such as looking up from the computer and greeting our colleagues, accessibility of information needed to get work done, honesty in critical situations, clear rules about communication channels and schedules, a break area that is actually being used, drinks after work, saying please and thank you, checking in at team meetings, buying some fruit for the office with company budget and acknowledgment of one’s strengths can act as strong preventive actions against burnout. It might seem banal, but I was surprised at both, how often these miss in organizational daily lives and how easy it is, on the other side, to assume we do all these things while we are too self-involved to observe our own mistakes.

Instead of a conclusion, I offer you the tool that can help you pinpoint which areas are most critical in your organization and workshop scenarios which are proving to be extremely useful in opening a discussion in the team and lead it in constructive way. Remember, small steps can be a beginning of a journey to the organizational well-being.