I just finished reading The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit by Beth Kanter and Aliza Sherman and it was excellent. Whether you are a leader of a nonprofit or a nonprofit employee trying to maximize your impact (the sub-title of the book is “Strategies for Impact Without Burnout”), this book has something for you.
Overall, The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit is a relatively quick read. Each chapter opens with a delightful cartoon by Rob Cottingham, created specifically for this book. My favorite shows a man in a hospital bed with a doctor and a loved one standing over him. The caption reads, “He’s saying “Grant…deadline…on Thursday.”
The book is broken into two parts. The first part focuses on the individual – why people burn out, what is self-care and why is it important, and how you can change your habits and the way you work to prevent burnout. The second part is geared toward nonprofit leaders and focuses on transforming your organization into one that promotes well-being and a “happy, healthy” culture.
Anyone who has worked in nonprofit knows that sacrificing one’s health in service of a cause is a quite common. Sometimes this comes from within an individual – if your clients are suffering, why should you be comfortable? And sometimes this comes from the top: “Leaders who give up their personal lives for the cause often evaluate staff members’ value or commitment to the organization by how much they, too, deny themselves work-life separation and boundaries.” (p. 7)
But the reality is that working long hours does not automatically translate to being more productive.
According to Kanter and Sherman, the best way to prevent burnout is to make “a conscious commitment to, and form an intentional practice of, self-care.” This includes taking a good look at your sleep, nutrition, and exercise habits and determine how they contribute (positively or negatively) to your stress levels. There are several worksheets to help you develop a self-care plan that will help you adopt better practices going forward.
Throughout the book you will find many practical suggestions for how to make positive changes in the workplace, from setting clear boundaries, taking movement or stretching breaks throughout the day, prioritizing your work tasks and breaking them into manageable blocks, bringing play and creativity into the office, and not overusing technology.
When it comes to organizational change, positive habits need to be modeled from the top. True change will not happen unless leaders view self-care as mission critical. “When you work at an organization where positive behavior is viewed as the norm, where it is encouraged, rewarded, and expected, it influences your behavior and seeps into your daily routine.” (p. 125)
Once you have leadership buy-in, the next step is to find your in-house champions. Establish an employee engagement committee who will serve as your advisors to help recommend new programs and activities and evaluate their effectiveness. Determine your budget, if any. Many of the changes suggested in this book can be implemented with little or no additional cost.
Creating a happy, healthy culture at your organization will not only improve productivity and staff retention, it will make your organization a great place to work, where people are inspired and engaged and supportive of each other. That type of energy is contagious – and will fuel greater impact for your entire nonprofit.
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