Preventing burnout is not just an ideal scenario
for someone in a nonprofit job it's a must have for the sustainability of the nonprofit
organization and for the sector. nonprofit and social impact leaders are notorious for
working intensely and overcoming huge challenges as they're trying to help as many people as they
can this naturally puts us at a greater risk of burnout but a sabbatical when feasible can help
provide the rest reflection and Rejuvenation that we need in order to continu
e this amazing work
that we're doing to change the World As Leaders. in this video I want to share a little bit more
about my own personal experience planning and executing a nonprofit sabbatical as well as share
some practical steps and tips for you to plan your own nonprofit sabbatical leave. Welcome or welcome
back to my channel I'm Amber Melanie Smith I'm a nonprofit founder and executive director who makes
these videos here on YouTube all about how to make an impact through nonprofits
social Enterprise
socially conscious business and more this is a little bit of a different video because I'm going
to share some of my personal story and something that's very important to me so I hope that you
will find this valuable to you as well as always if you are in the process of starting a nonprofit
or developing a sustainable fundraising plan be sure to check out my website FounderToFullTime.com
where I offer some online trainings and resources to help you out with that as well as
subscribe
to my newsletter which is linked below this video sharing tips strategies and sometimes funding
opportunities for organizations trying to change the world just like you and yours so to kick
us off let me just say that health and mental well-being has always been important to me but
it's been increasingly important to me as I've been doing this work as a nonprofit leader and
social entrepreneur one of my first videos here on YouTube actually was about stress and burnout
so if you
want to check that out and hopefully not cringe at my early days editing skills um be sure
to do that um the thumbnails here all right so some personal context I recently was approaching
about 10 years as full-time executive director at the nonprofit organization that I started
and I started to observe in myself some of the classic symptoms of burnout starting to creep up
to include poor sleep anxiety extra irritability um a lot of difficulty focusing really low energy
frequent fatigue I w
ould have headaches more frequently and just a general feeling of being
unwell more often than not and I was feeling really unsatisfied and sometimes even critical of
my achievements in this work all of these feelings were very disorienting for me because I like to
think of myself uh as a very motivated high energy person um who's very driven and and passionate
and always working hard at this work um but it became clear to me earlier this year that I would
really benefit from a nonprofit sa
bbatical so I talked over this need with my organization's
board of directors and team and we were able to coordinate and schedule an opportunity for me
to take 2 months off this past summer if you're not familiar with the concept of a nonprofit
sabbatical let's just quickly review what that is and what it entails so a nonprofit sabbatical
is an extended period of leave for people in the nonprofit sector and nonprofit work usually for um
you know nonprofit leaders or Executives working in t
heir organizations the idea here is that you
can hopefully disconnect from the work from your email Etc and really take an opportunity to rest
get enough sleep perhaps take care of your mind and your body um rejuvenate and explore other
Hobbies or interests that spark a passion in you something outside of work for those of you
who might be coming from a corporate or private sector perspective while watching this video
um I recognize that the concept of a sabbatical might not be as common pl
ace in the corporate
world so consider it as something that is in comparison to the academic world which also has
sabbatical but tailored to the nonprofit sector nonprofit leaders during a sabbatical uh can do
any number of things and they're all structured a different way depending on the needs of you the
leader taking the sabbatical and your board and your staff and your team um they could be a time
for you to do some professional development they could be a time for you to uh learn new s
kills
travel or just do nothing at all so why is a sabbatical or having sabbatical leave important
for nonprofit and social Enterprise and social impact leaders uh well I believe that having
a sabbatical is really critical for not just personal well-being and burnout prevention but
uh for the health of the whole sector um you can see in this slide here that I'll share that
the nonprofit sector in particular is at high risk of burnout which then leads to a high risk of
turnover higher than
other sectors we've got 30% who are reporting feeling burned out and another
20% of nonprofit leaders who are saying they're at close risk of burnout too and that is leading
to pretty high turnover rate in comparison with other sectors there are probably several reasons
for why burnout risk and turnover would be higher in the nonprofit world than in other sectors but
I think that the biggest one is that we are front and center in the world of helping people who are
in pain right so we are s
eeing local and National and Global challenges upfront in our face all the
time and we know it's our job at least part of our role uh to try to solve some of those problems
that's a lot of pressure um and on top of that the nonprofit sector is regularly under-resourced
so we're being asked to end homelessness but not getting enough resources to do that monumentous
task in order to you know achieve our objectives I may have just made up a word monumentous there
but I'm going with it folks it
is really really really bad if we lose talent and leadership in
the nonprofit and social impact sector this is the sector that is tackling the issues that other
sectors don't want to touch with a 10-ft pole like ending homelessness or food insecurity Etc um
perhaps cuz there's no money in that or you know I don't know why but that is the current
reality these people you all you change makers at the the front lines like we have to stay
healthy we have to stay grounded we have to stay um foc
used and and maintain our well-being in
addition to tackling these critical issues because no one else is going to do it so if planning a
couple months off so that you can sleep better at night for a short period of time or explore
Your Love of of painting um is the price that we need to pay to you know take care of ourselves
and not lose our minds while trying to change the world um then it's a small price to pay in case
you're not sold on the power of sabbatical yet or you need some addit
ional ammo to take to your
board or leadership or staff or depending on what role you're in right now um couple of the reasons
that sabbatical are awesome burnout prevention we already talked about um being able to take care
of your your physical and mental and emotional well-being and just focus on that for a period of
time is very very helpful for nonprofit leaders two uh renewed creativity and Innovation um have
you ever had the best idea you've ever had while in the shower or driving so
mewhere that is not
uh a weird thing that's a common thing a 2015 study in the Journal of Creative Behavior which
is sounds like an awesome Journal uh noted that 50% of our good ideas came while our minds were
at rest or not active so times when you are just showering or driving somewhere not thinking very
much about life hopefully um you know know walking in the woods walking around your neighborhood um
times when you are you know away from your email away from your computer that's when yo
u have
the most innovative ideas and we need those innovative ideas in order to tackle some of
these huge problems that we're talking about tackling as a a nonprofit sector but it's also
good for your team to take a sabbatical uh the first reason is succession planning and before you
freak out thinking that I'm saying um you have to quit if you take a sabbatical which is not what
I'm saying at all um when you're gone your team has to step up and learn how to deal with problems
and challeng
es that arise on their own without you rushing in to save the day without your guidance
Etc this gives them an incredible opportunity to explore and hone their own leadership skills so
that if a day ever comes where you do feel the desire or need to leave your organization you have
cultivated some leadership skills in your team so that you have more people who might be able to
confidently step up and fill your amazing shoes but also just observing you as a leader taking
care of yourself mak
ing sure you're resting Etc improves staff and team morale overall because it
shows them that you value those things and value their well-being as well my nonprofit sabbatical
leave was transformational for me and I will share with you a couple of things that I'm going to
be doing differently now that I've completed my sabbatical uh in my nonprofit work the first which
I hope is a given is I'm going to be prioritizing my health and and nutrition and wellbeing a
lot more than I was before my
sabbatical um when I was on sabbatical within just a couple
of weeks I felt completely different physically my headaches went away I was able to schedule more
time for exercise and being very intentional about my nutrition and I felt my energy levels just
increase within that short period of time and a lot of mental Clarity too secondly I'm going to
um schedule time very intentionally for my other hobbies and things that I love to do I'm going to
embrace my love of Art and music and since
I live and die by my Google Calendar I'm going to put
these things on my calendar and really protect that time here is a super cute painting I did of
my beloved dog whose little tail you can sometimes see wagging behind me in these YouTube videos
um her name is Kira um so just I'm going to do more of that third in terms of how I'm going to
engage with my team at my organization I'm going to lean into taking on a coach mentality versus a
manager mentality even though I am a manager um in a s
ense you know I think that it's important
because they've now had a great experience where they have learned what they're made of you
know they've stretched their own skills they've definitely stepped up in ways that um they might
not have had to before so I can just be a coach I can Empower and equip them I can check in with
them we can agree on what outcomes need to occur for a specific project or campaign or event but
then after that my job becomes equipping them to be successful what do
you need to do this do you
need some kind of training or information do you need some kind of resources that I can free up
for you how can I best support your leadership in this particular campaign project or event now
this sort of mentality is already something that I was experimenting with before my sabbatical as I
too try to grow as a leader but the sabbatical has reinforced for me that uh the world's not going
to burn down if I take on this mentality instead of a mentality of having to
be in the Weeds on
every project and the fourth thing I'm going to do is really seek out fun I unfortunately used
to have this mentality that fun meant I wasn't being productive enough if I was having too much
fun something must be wrong I must not be getting enough work done but I actually now have come
to see that it's the opposite the more fun the more joy you can experience while in this work
the more productive you're going to be and the more you're going to attract people who want to
do
the work with you and experience joy in making an impact as well all right so how do you plan for
nonprofit sabbatical leave what do you do to get it approved and coordinated Etc let's talk through
some of those steps so if you're thinking about a nonprofit sabbatical leave there are two things
that you really need to consider and then elements under these two things the first is scheduling so
this means your own schedule and of course your organization's schedule and I'll talk more abo
ut
that shortly here the second one is your board and staff's structure and capacity so what can
they reasonably take on if you're not there Etc let's tackle scheduling first so the first thing
is your personal schedule when if you look at the calendar year could you reasonably Take 6 to 12
weeks off or whatever the period of time is that you're considering with your team um is there
a travel spot that you have been just dying to try out that is more optimal at a certain time
of year versu
s another time of year uh is there some kind of other activity or family event that
you're trying to align your sabbatical AR so just considering the year ahead and what might be the
most ideal time to take a sabbatical for yourself once you've chosen a couple potential options
for uh what could fit your personal schedule I recommend just penciling these into your
calendar whether use an online calendar like me or some kind of written calendar just having
it lightly penciled in you can alwa
ys change it will allow you to sort of see all the puzzle
pieces fitting together and make adjustments as needed as things start to get fleshed out now
from the organization's schedule perspective you want to take a look at your organization's year
ahead whether that's a typical year or what you already know is coming down the line for the
next 12 months and you want to consider what major events program Milestones fundraising
activities uh all of the big things that are coming down the lin
e for the next year and you
need to take a look at this list of major things and really ask yourself which of these must you be
in attendance for must and then ask yourself is it possible with comparing to the personal timeline
you've penciled in is it possible to avoid the major events or um overlapping with some of these
if you if you absolutely must be an attendance at those all right so that's just some high Lev
thinking about scheduling now let's talk about how you actually get this co
ordinated that relates
more to your board and your staff's structure and capacity the thing is is a sabbatical especially
if it's a paid sabbatical um will need your board of directors approval usually through a vote okay
so they're going to need to be thinking about the budget can they afford to not have you around
for a couple of months and or can they afford to pay you if it's a paid sabbatical for those
couple of months that you're not working the first thing that I recommend doing if y
ou are going to
propose a sabbatical to your board of directors um and it's something that they're not familiar with
or haven't considered before is to find success stories find research case studies Etc from other
organizations ideally even organizations with a similar mission to yours or of a similar size as
your organization in terms of budget and staff having these success stories will start to get
your board of directors familiar with the idea that it is possible and these other organi
zations
did it and not just survived but thrived the goal here is to make it feel possible and realistic
for the board and less scary if it's something that is that they aren't familiar with already
so the second thing that I would recommend is you um show them examples of sample language
for a sabbatical policy for you to include in your policy documents um it's ideal for it to
be a written policy that is included in let's say something like an executive director contract
or um you know i
deally you could even have such such a sabbatical for all of the nonprofit staff
and leaders that are in your organization saying like every X number of years you get a sabbatical
lasting this long here's what you can expect Etc so having that sample language available from
other organizations will also give them that Foundation to build on so assuming you can get
your board of directors Buy in and approval for sabbatical what do you do next the next thing you
want to tackle is planning for
your sabbatical so what I did was I created a sabbatical work plan
and planning checklist for my team I took a look at what activities we had coming down the line
as I said before um and the first thing that I considered was were there any activities that
could be held off on or paused while I'm gone to relieve a little bit of the pressure from on my
team uh to have to take care of everything if you can Whittle it down to the basic operations
that your team has to maintain while you're out
that will help them feel a little bit less
stressed out about the notion of you being out for a couple of months now once you've taken away
the things that can go on pause while you're out those critical activities remain and you need to
go through that list and figure out what are the steps or activities that must occur before you
can pass the Baton for that activity off to a designated team member so how can you equip and
empower the people who are going to be taking on some of these res
ponsibilities while you're out
it can be little things like making sure that your team has the passwords to various accounts that
they need in order to manage the bank account you know volunteer management software accounting
software whatever they might not already have access to if you if you were the one that had the
password making sure that they have access another thing I did was scheduling meetings before my
sabbatical to talk through what they were going to be responsible for and re
ally made sure they felt
like they could ask questions or Express concerns or let me know that they needed something in order
to achieve the activity while I was out and then third aligning on outcomes I mentioned this before
but I really um aspire to be and encourage others to Aspire to be an outcomes focused leader
which means that you and your team agree on what the ultimate outcomes of a specific project
or event or campaign might be but then after that your leadership is in charge of f
iguring out how
to achieve those outcomes and using their brains to get creative on achieving those outcomes but
in order for that to be a success you have to align on and agree on what those outcomes should
be before your sabbatical so sitting down and writing out a document of your objectives and
key results or you know the specific outcomes which could look something like um your goal is
to recruit 30 new volunteers for this campaign while I'm out or um you know schedule meetings
with f
ive potential potential sponsors while I'm out something like that and you negotiate on the
number or the outcome and get agreement and buy in from your team members that they feel really
excited about their ability to meet that outcome while you're out as well another thing that should
be part of your sabbatical leave preparations is making sure your points of contact are clear it
might be helpful to write out an organizational chart or list of who is responsible for what while
you're out
if you have a multiple people on your team this is especially helpful to avoid questions
like who has the final say on this question or on my time off request or if I'm having a problem
who do I go to if it's about this specific thing who's in charge so writing that out so if this
happens here's your point of contact something like that and secondly a part of this is really
getting clear on What emergencies within the organization justify some someone reaching
out to you while you are on sa
bbatical um ideally you're not checking your email you're
completely disconnecting from your nonprofits work while you're on sabbatical leave and so
you can write out what are the situations in which you would be okay if someone had to contact
you by phone or email major emergencies like um I don't know there was this is a really horrible
example like a fire at our office you know like something something big some kind of emergency
that you really would want to know about and not be surpris
ed by coming back another thing to
consider on your preparations checklist is do you have as an organization the financial ability
to um compensate your team the leaders who are stepping up a little bit more while you're out who
are taking on a little bit of responsibility some kind of honorarium this is uh you know a common
practice in nonprofit sabbatical and makes a lot of sense for folks who are are taking on extra
parts of someone else's role while you're out final thought is a return
plan consider when you
come back from your sabbatical coming back to an overflowing inbox and people on your team wanting
to talk to you Etc it can feel very overwhelming so I recommend that before you even go on your
sabbatical scheduling blocked off time for the days or weeks right after you return where
you're just catching up on everything time to check up on and Whittle down your email inbox
and schedule time with your leadership to just get updates on the major highlights of things
t
hat happened um but taking it slow making sure that you have given yourself time to catch up
so that you don't feel completely overwhelmed the moment you get back from your sabbatical all
right stay strong nonprofit leaders and change makers the world really needs you and the world
needs you to be well rested I'd love to hear if you've done a sabbatical share more about your
experiences if you're considering it what are some of your questions or concerns or what would
you do during your sab
batical where would you go what hobbies would you explore I'd love to
learn more about you as human beings as I mentioned before be sure to check out my website
FounderToFullTime.com if you're someone who's in the process of actually starting a nonprofit or
developing a sustainable fundraising plan those aspects of the work I have some online training
and resources at that website for you also check out my newsletter which is linked below um
I will send out resources tips and sometimes fund
ing opportunities to folks subscribed to my
newsletter so you don't want to miss that be sure to opt in there uh and final thought I have
a group called change the world or bust we've got lots of people in there from all around the
world making an impact and sharing their stories with each other so I hope you can join us there
too that's all I have for you today I hope that this has been um Illuminating and encouraging for
you um but I hope to see you next time, thanks
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