During the recent 22nd annual Non-profit Leadership Summit, Alida Miranda-Wolff, CEO and founder of Ethos, gave insights about how nonprofit leaders can treat burnout with belonging. The summit was hosted by Barnes Dennig in conjunction with the Leadership Council for Nonprofits, and the Association for Fundraising Professionals with numerous sponsors: the Better Business Bureau, Chase Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Anne M. Maxfield LLC, Bricker Graydon, Eagle Bank Charitable Foundation, First Financial Bank, PNC Bank, and The Yunker Group.
Miranda-Wolff’s keynote presentation addressed ready-to-use tools for organizations, understanding your relationship with power, how to use that power responsibly, and how to share that power. She also presented a real-life example of what can help to create conditions for everyone to thrive at work.
Understanding organizational bias
Some of the most pressing obstacles and biases that non-profit organizations face include:
Race and ethnicity bias
Structural bias
Pay inequality
Decreased individual contributions
Balancing a remote/in-office workspace
Employee shortages
Increasing loneliness among employees in the workplace
To start addressing some of these issues, Miranda-Wolff recommends making sure that organization leaders and individuals understand the definition of belonging and the different types of belonging, including: self, foundation, group, societal. Each concept has a unique definition and can carry a different meaning or importance to each individual. Realizing the differences between each and understanding how to interact with everyone’s sense of self is critical to building a culture of belonging.
The relationship between stress and burnout
Some of the components that can lead to burnout are:
Exhaustion, or constantly feeling drained of energy due to overextension
Depersonalization, or the feeling those you are meant to serve are more problems than those you are meant to help
Lack of personal accomplishment, or feeling your work accomplishes or contributes nothing
It is important for everyone to recognize some stress is good. Similar to how exercising muscles can build strength, stress can lead to motivation, growth, building, and feeling satisfied. However, too much stress can lead to feeling tired all the time, exhaustion, anxiety, panic, anger, and in the worst case, a breakdown. Treating burnout with belonging
Some recommendations to treat burnout with belonging include:
Understanding generational differences: Baby boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z are all represented in the workforce. Different generations have different needs and expectations from their work, including feedback style, social rewards, and public versus private recognition. Understanding these differences can help an organization improve employees’ sense of belonging.
Understanding generational commonality: Just as important as recognizing differences, an organization should understand and leverage similarities, such as: levels of financial security, creating a dignified job experience, establishing purpose and meaningful work, how each generation experiences learning, and the types of growth opportunities each generation looks for.
Create belonging through the 3 R’s
Relationships
Checking-in versus checking-on
Creating social space where employees can connect and relax as a group
Resources
Establishing maximum hours
Training employees on the code of conduct and opportunities
Reciprocity
Building a team environment that supports helping out everyone
Institute community organization services
Additional Resources
Download the slides and worksheet, watch the recording, and learn more about Alida Miranda-Wolff here.
Barnes Dennig’s latest Non-Profit Compensation & Benefits Benchmarking Report, which features information and insights from non-profits of all sizes across our region outlines the latest trends in benefits, what various positions pay, and how non-profits are attracting and retaining talent in a tough market.
Other resources include the Non-Profit Toolkit, packed with resources to help your organization thrive, a video overview of Form 990 – and how to use it to tell your story and attract donors and grantors.
Employee engagement and retention are top of mind these days as “The Great Resignation” rages on. Workers are becoming less willing to accept policies they don’t agree with, treatment they don’t deserve, and negative impacts on their mental health. They’re leaving organizations that don’t meet their needs and searching for ones that do – and with so many positions opening up, they’ve got plenty of options to choose from!
If you’re looking to avoid the fallout from “The Great Resignation” (or recover from it!), we’re here to help. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but these are some areas you should consider.
Rethink Compensation Engagement is not all about money, but it is important. It’s hard to stay positive and productive if you’re having trouble paying your bills. A compensation analysis can help you find out whether you’re offering competitive pay.
Change your policies Are your policies and practices working for your team? Take a look at things like flexible work schedules, PTO, benefits, parental resources, etc. Accommodating your team’s needs may be the support they need to stay onboard. Don’t make assumptions, though! Not everyone wants the same things. Ask your team what they want and offer options that will meet different workers’ needs where possible.
Invest in your people People stay longer at companies that give them opportunities for growth. Offering more development to your team may help you build loyalty. The good news is there are lots of different ways to do this. You can sign them up for a training series, send them to workshops and webinars, host training sessions in-house, set them up with a coach…the list goes on!
Hire the right fit One often-overlooked way to improve retention is to hire the right person off the bat. If you can identify someone who’s going to be a great fit, not only for the role, but also for your organization, you’ve got a better chance of them sticking around for a while.
Treat exiting employees right Unfortunately, sometimes you have to make the difficult decision to let employees go. When you do, offering them outplacement is a great choice, not only for your organization and the exiting employees, but also for the remaining employees’ morale. They’ll see you treating their departing coworkers respectfully and with compassion, leading to increased job satisfaction, productivity, and engagement.
Think about workload If your team’s getting burned out from overwork, it might be a good idea to outsource some of that workload to someone else. An outsourced consultant can take on a project for you or take care of some day-to-day tasks to free up time for your team.
If your team is not engaged and turnover is high, it’s time to think about making some changes. Not everyone wants the same things, so the important thing is talking to your team and finding out what they’re looking for in the workplace.
And if all this seems daunting, don’t worry – Purple Ink can help with any of the items listed above and more. Reach out to us to talk about what HR solutions might be right for your team.
Research reveals top concerns among nonprofits as they work on recovering from pandemic
by Leslie Wells, assistant director of communications, Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI
New research on COVID-19’s impact on the nonprofit sector finds that organization leaders who want to find a way forward must first look back at how they have weathered the pandemic thus far. While the past 15 months have been a challenge for every sector, associate professor/researcher Marlene Walk is optimistic about the future of nonprofits.
“It’s very interesting how nonprofits rose to the challenge while still serving those in need,” says Walk, who teaches at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental at IUPUI. “For many smaller nonprofits, this was a survival situation for both their clients and them as well.”
After analyzing data and examining trends, Walk has three pieces of advice for nonprofits as they navigate the return to work and the future of their organizations:
Ask employees for their opinions, including about remote work and whether it can/should continue.
Determine which organizational practices can be improved upon.
Evaluate which new technologies adopted during the pandemic should be institutionalized.
Walk and O’Neill student Abby Klippel recently worked with Mandi Stewart, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, and Kerry Kuenzi, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, to analyze 77 COVID-19 impact reports collected through the National Council of Nonprofits. These reports detail how nonprofits have operated since March 2020. The data analysis covers more than 23,000 nonprofit organizations across 43 states.
The team released its updated report on May 5, 2021, focusing on three areas of impact: financial indicators, human resources and employees, and the most common COVID-19 concerns.
Survey results: Common COVID-19 concerns
Organizations in 13 states answered questions about their most pressing issues. Among them, finances were the most common COVID-19-related worry for organizations in nine of those states.
Nonprofits in eight other states ranked “struggling with how to safely offer services during a global pandemic” as their top concern.
Lastly, nonprofits in six states were primarily worried about their own organization’s human resource considerations, including their employees’ job status, salaries, and overall well-being.
The human toll
That third area is Walk’s primary research focus — the employee side of the equation.
“That mirrors what we see in our research,” Walk says. “It will take years for that workforce to recover that number of lost workers.”
She says while large organizations will likely be fine, how smaller organizations handled the pandemic will have a big impact on their future.
“We’re really interested in the employee perspective,” Walk explains. “How do they perceive their organization’s changes? If a nonprofit laid off 20% of its workforce, how does that impact those who are still there?”
Their research found that many nonprofit workers saw their hours reduced, their pay cut, and, in some cases, their jobs put on hold or eliminated. Much like in other sectors, many also saw a shift to predominately remote work.
“These organizations need to look at what worked well from an employee perspective, not just a financial perspective,” Walk says. “Our fear is that employees may feel this pandemic was such a critical incident, and that their employer didn’t handle it well, that they will choose to leave.”
Another report Walk is working on, due out later this year, seems to also show the other side of the spectrum.
“Our initial research is showing that some employees have doubled down on their commitment to the nonprofit sector,” she says. “It really depends on how they were personally affected by COVID and how they think their organization handled it. Was their psychological contract, those unwritten expectations of their organization, violated? That has a big impact.”
Financial stressors
When it came to the financial impact of COVID-19, Walk admits the team wasn’t surprised by the findings. Many organizations reported individual donations and membership fees were down. In fact, 90% of responding organizations in Nevada saw individual donations plummet and 68% of nonprofits in Texas saw a decline in earned income.
Grant revenues were down as well. Nearly 35% of respondents in Texas reported a delay in grant processing, which can affect cash flow. About 16% of those in Connecticut saw a reduction in state grant funds.
But one of the hardest hit areas were arts-related nonprofits.
“It’s important to keep in mind that nonprofits are really diverse,” Walk says. “How an organization was impacted really depends on what types of nonprofits we’re looking at. The arts sector was hit very hard because they often have outward-facing events as a main source of revenue. Having concerts virtually is just not the same.”
In fact, 90% of West Virginia’s responding nonprofits reported cancelling events due to pandemic precautions, while the same was true of 25% of nonprofits in Alabama and Georgia. Reports like these indicate that the arts sector is the slowest sector to recover, with studies projecting it will take at least 18 months for it to bounce back.
Walk stresses that it’s important to focus on more than earned income, though. She uses social services as an example of organizations that were hit from both sides.
“Social service organizations had to adjust to drops in volunteers, increases in demand and expenses to provide for clients, and shifts in procedures due to distancing and cleaning requirements,” she explains.
Respondents in Missouri indicated an average expense increase of $302,417 per nonprofit during the study period, while Pennsylvania respondents indicated a total estimated $95.3 million in additional operating costs.
Looking ahead
Between the numbers, Walk sees signs of hope and further proof that the nonprofit sector is resilient and capable of adapting to change.
She points to the increase in collaboration, resource sharing and partnership development during the pandemic that helped nonprofits survive and serve their clients. Some smaller nonprofits even added health care to their employment packages, which would be a positive trend — if it sticks around.
“There will be collateral damage, unfortunately, but I tend to be more positive than negative,” Walk admits. “I think the sector as a whole will recover and continue its mission to serve.”
Local experts say transformative change demands a comprehensive strategy
by Shari Finnell, editor and writer, Not for Profit News
With the events of 2020 heightening awareness around the need for racial equity and social justice reform, nonprofit organizations have been at the forefront of efforts to institute transformative change.
Yet, no matter how much progress was made in 2020, achieving racial equity in the workplace will continue to be one of the most important issues organizations must tackle for at least the next decade, predicted Ben Hecht, the CEO of Living Cities, a collaborative of foundations and financial institutions, in a Harvard Business Review article.
The work toward racial equity must be comprehensive and deliberate, according to two local experts who are immersed in racial equity initiatives.
“It’s important for organizations to do an assessment of all their systems, including policies and procedures, how you recruit and hire, how you promote, and what ongoing training looks like,” said Tim Nation, executive director of the Peace Learning Center, which works with schools and organizations on educational initiatives around equity, social and emotional learning and restorative practices. “Not-for-profit organizations also need to assess how connected we are to the community. Do we act as saviors who know all the answers? Or are we really connected to the community in a way that we’re able to truly understand what their needs are?”
Nation also said it’s important to determine if the composition of the organization’s board and staff is representative of the communities they serve.
The Peace Learning Center, which has been at the forefront of racial equity initiatives since its inception in 1997, continues to assess itself against those measures. “We have, at the Peace Learning Center, established a racial equity committee that is assessing where we are on all of those different components — determining our strengths and weaknesses, and identifying areas that we can improve.”
Michael Twyman
Michael Twyman, principal/owner of InExcelsis, a consulting firm, said the work to achieve racial equity within the workplace can seem daunting but nonprofits and other organizations must commit to it as they would with any other major initiative.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s necessary work,” said Twyman, who also is an associate faculty member of the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “If we’re willing to do the work for other initiatives because we believe they’re important, we must put forward the resources to make racial equity happen.”
“We have resources at our disposal. How we deploy them or allocate them is a matter of choice,” Twyman added. “It can be something as simple as shifting the mindset. Most organizations will need professional assistance.”
Nation said anti-racism training is only the start in achieving substantive change. “When it comes to racial equity, the first step is awareness. You have to be aware of the issues and appreciate why it matters. A lot of training programs serve that purpose.”
All of Peace Learning Center’s staff members recently underwent training with Crossroads Against Racism in Chicago, which involved a rubric on how to become an anti-racist organization. “It identified where you’re at and what you need to work on,” said Nation, noting that the team followed up by reviewing all of its policies and recruitment practices.
Nation also said that people, particularly non-minority individuals, need to understand how deeply rooted racism is in American society. “It’s not as much as individual racism as it is institutional racism. An individual may not consider themselves as prejudiced, but the systems they work in, the history of racism in our country, which goes all the way back to slavery, have shaped the way institutions operate, including our government and organizations.
To illustrate the complexities of addressing racial inequities, Nation used an analogy involving fish. “If you go to a lake and see a dead fish, you say what’s wrong with the fish and you start trying to figure out how to fix the fish instead of addressing what’s wrong with the lake — the groundwater,” he said. “In the same way, we have a lot of initiatives to fix fish but we haven’t been getting down to the policies that created the problems.”
Educational systems, for instance, have devoted a lot of time trying to fix children instead of assessing the problems with the systems they must function in, Nation said.
The disparities between minority and white populations, including wealth gap and school suspensions, are examples of institutional racism at work, Nation said. Even with infant mortality rates, the richest black women have the same negative outcomes as poor white women, he pointed out.
“It’s racism,” Nation said. “All the evidence is there. Unfortunately, since it seems white people benefit from racism, some of them don’t want the system to change. There’s not a consciousness of how a changed system can benefit them.”
He also said that people often are confused about the definition of racial equity. “Equal is not always equitable,” Nation said. “When you have had 400 years of oppression for black people, it’s not difficult to understand why there is a wealth gap. It’s like a game of Monopoly. If you’re starting the game after all the properties have hotels on them, how in the heck are you supposed to catch up?”
Twyman, who has consulted organizations through diversity, equity and inclusion work, said that each organization must develop a customized approach to addressing those issues.
“If you’re serious about it, it really is a comprehensive approach to working and operating in a different way,” Twyman said. “It can’t be limited to ‘Sign me up for the workshop, check my name off the list and I’m good.’ We need to gain a deep understanding of the larger historical context that got us to the place where we are. There needs to be an acknowledgement of who we are as a nation. How it has brought us to where we are.”
Next, Twyman said, an organization needs to establish a mutually agreed upon definition of the terms racial equity and racial justice — the ultimate goal of what an organization will look like as it embraces those qualities. “How do you want to be operating differently?” he asked.
Lastly, an organization must work to define the journey, Twyman said. “How do those two things intersect — where your organization is now — the historical context, and the aspirational goal. What is the journey in between?” Twyman said. “How do you come together as part of a journey that takes you to a place where you’re no longer complicit and you’re advocating for racial justice? That can look different for every organization.”
The process can be challenging because it may require putting the organization under a microscope, Twyman said. “There has to be a sense of humility about accepting the possibility that we don’t know it all and that we unintentionally have been complicit in creating inequities, as well as helping to perpetuate them,” he said. “There also should be a willingness to hear the voices of people who have had the experience of being marginalized or oppressed … listening and accepting that at face value.”
The process could include a mix of ongoing professional development, training that focuses on changing organization culture, addressing the composition of the board and staff, and assessing policies, processes and procedures that unintentionally or intentionally serve to put people of color at a disadvantage, Twyman said.
Any assessment must be specific about issues around equity, sometimes in ways that may not immediately be obvious, Twyman said. For example, he said, a well meaning initiative to invest $5 million in a neighborhood to benefit minorities could have the opposite effect — gentrifying a neighborhood that, in the long run, doesn’t benefit them.
With nonprofits, businesses and other organizations putting in the work to achieve racial equity on a consistent basis, Twyman said, real change is possible.
“I am hopeful,” Twyman said.
“I think the promise of every new generation is that it will be a little smarter, a little wiser. Those who have joined and supported movements like Black Lives Matter are raising the questions around racial justice and demanding changes in a way that I haven’t seen in my lifetime. There’s urgency, clarity and energy,” he said. “Not to say that it didn’t happen previously. Now, it’s a broader and a more diverse movement that makes me very hopeful because I think that’s what it’s going to take.”
In the past, “We’ve all put this onus on people of color to fix this thing,” Twyman said. “As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, ‘ We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.’ White people also have to demand change and be committed to the work that goes along with it.”
