In 2024, 95% of nonprofit leaders surveyed by the Center for Effective Philanthropy had some concern about burnout, and 76% said staff burnout affects their ability to achieve their mission. Half were more worried about their own burnout than a year before. The good news: research now points clearly at the conditions that cause burnout, and those conditions can change. CEP, State of Nonprofits 2024
Naming it (World Health Organization, 2019)
The WHO defines burnout as a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It shows up as exhaustion, growing distance or cynicism toward the job, and a falling sense of effectiveness. The definition places the cause in how work is managed, which puts the remedy within an organization's reach. WHO
Six places to look (Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter)
Maslach, whose research defined burnout for decades of study, and Leiter trace it to mismatches between people and their jobs in six areas: workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values. A strong match on mission covers one of the six, which leaves five more for a nonprofit to tend. Their book The Burnout Challenge asks leaders to fix the mismatches rather than teach staff to cope with them. CNBC interview with Maslach
Rest as resistance (Tricia Hersey and The Nap Ministry)
Tricia Hersey, an artist, theologian and community organizer, founded The Nap Ministry to make space for collective rest. Her 2022 book Rest Is Resistance draws on Black liberation theology, womanism and somatics to treat rest as a right and a practice of healing rather than a reward for finishing the work. For mission-driven organizations whose work never finishes, that framing gives permission to build rest into the calendar. Hachette Book Group
Shorter weeks, same pay (2025)
A large international study of the four-day week followed 2,896 employees at 141 organizations in six countries. Staff worked about 80% of their usual hours for full pay. Compared with a control group, they reported less burnout, higher job satisfaction and better mental and physical health, and the gains held at 12 months. Better sleep and less fatigue explained much of the change. The study, by Wen Fan, Juliet Schor and colleagues, appeared in Nature Human Behaviour. PsyPost summary
Try it with your team
At your next staff meeting, put Maslach's six areas on the wall and ask everyone to mark the one that drains them most. The pattern tells you where to start. If workload wins, bring the result to your board and funders as a case for general operating support or a shorter-week pilot.
