Creating and sustaining mentally healthy workplaces
at nonprofit organizations

Meeting the moment

Mission-driven work can be personally meaningful and deeply satisfying, being a part of addressing community challenges and needs directly. At the same time, nonprofit workers  can experience unique stressors related to issues like low compensation compared to workload, worries about long-term funding, and seeing first hand the impact of social drivers of health and wellbeing, like poverty, violence and racism. 

At this moment in time, many nonprofits are struggling with a rapidly changing landscape, both politically and financially. What were once significant but manageable stressors have now grown to create a pressure cooker environment. Sudden policy and priority changes at the federal level, along with drastic implications for funding, are testing the ability of nonprofits leaders to steer their ships through unsteady waters. 

Mind Share Partners recently held a webinar training, “Caring for Nonprofit Worker Mental Health in Uncertain Times.” In our polling of nearly 100 attendees from a wide range of nonprofit organizations, we asked what factors were affecting their mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. The top response was the political climate and impact, with the next highest response being the emotional labor required in their work. One participant was discussing the current political climate and stated, “At any given moment I experience a fight, fright, or flight response.”

As the nation's leading nonprofit focused on helping organizations create and sustain workplace cultures that are mentally healthy, with an emphasis on workers who experience the worst mental outcomes at work, we recognize this moment of extreme uncertainty as a significant risk to many organizations that serve as a lifeline in their communities.