Bi-Weekly Wellbeing Brief: 3/9/2026
March 9 Overview:
Our inboxes have been unusually full these last two weeks–not just with news of crises and challenges, but with updates centered specifically on nonprofit wellbeing. This feels like a small but meaningful bright spot, right alongside the days growing longer and hints of spring beginning to emerge. Across philanthropy, research institutions, and advocacy organizations, the message is becoming clearer: sustaining nonprofit workers is essential to sustaining community impact.
🪫 The B-word: What’s happening with Burnout?
A recent statewide survey from the Florida Nonprofit Alliance found that many nonprofits are experiencing significant financial strain alongside workforce burnout and fundraising challenges. Leaders report that these pressures are compounding: as funding becomes more uncertain, staff burnout and turnover intensify.
Similarly, research from the Urban Institute shows nonprofit leaders expressing deep concern about finances, staffing, and their ability to maintain programming. Workforce stress is increasingly linked to these broader operational uncertainties.
As we’ve reported in previous editions, burnout is showing up acutely in specific sub-sectors and among particular identities. Conservationists working in environmental protection are reporting high levels of emotional strain, grief, and exhaustion as they confront climate loss and biodiversity decline. Early-career nonprofit professionals are another group experiencing unique pressures, often entering the sector with strong mission commitment but encountering overwhelming expectations and limited support.
Beyond the nonprofit sector, broader workplace data continues to reveal the scale of the issue. Research cited in Inc. Magazine suggests that roughly three-quarters of employees report experiencing workplace stress, with burnout symptoms affecting productivity, wellbeing, and retention.
💭 Innovations & New Thinking
One of the more encouraging developments this month comes from the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), which released an extensive 70-page research report and practical implementation guide on nonprofit worker wellbeing. The research explores how job design, funding structures, compensation, leadership practices, and organizational culture all influence staff wellbeing. The report emphasizes that supporting nonprofit workers is fundamental to organizational effectiveness and long-term community impact. NFF is also convening sector leaders through the upcoming event Thriving Nonprofits, Thriving Communities: Investing in a Healthy Workforce. Do Good Leadership Collective and our partners will be in attendance as part of the broader conversation about translating research into practice.
The NFF research is already gaining traction across the sector, including coverage in The NonProfit Times, which highlights practical steps organizations can take to elevate staff wellness — from building psychological safety to creating space for recovery.
Meanwhile, new thinking continues to emerge around the intersection of wellbeing and technology. A recent Nonprofit Quarterly piece argues that wellbeing should be understood as organizational infrastructure, not a perk. Just as organizations invest in finance systems or data tools, they must invest in the systems that support human sustainability.
📍 Local to San Diego
We are once again elevating that the highly anticipated 2025 State of Nonprofits and Philanthropy Annual Report from The Nonprofit Institute at the University of San Diego was released in February. What caught our attention was the shift in how stress and burnout were reported: high workloads, funding instability, and compensation concerns remain consistent stressors. However, in addition to reporting concerns about staff burnout (44%), leaders who took the survey also reported concerns about their own stress and burnout (40%).
RISE San Diego is relaunching their RISE Resilience & Renewal program–a whole-body leadership program designed for nonprofit leaders who seek to reconnect with purpose, cultivate wellness, and lead in alignment with their values.
✅ Quick Takeaways
Burnout continues to rise across the nonprofit workforce, driven by funding uncertainty, workload pressure, and emotional labor.
New research from the Nonprofit Finance Fund is helping the sector better understand how job design, leadership, and funding models influence wellbeing.
Wellbeing is increasingly being framed as organizational infrastructure, not an optional benefit.
As spring approaches, the growing attention to nonprofit worker wellbeing offers a hopeful sign that the sector is beginning to address the conditions that sustain social impact work.
Do Good Leadership Collective is a San Diego-based consultancy that helps social impact professionals Do Good and Be Well.
