Bi-Weekly Wellbeing Brief: 6/15/2026
June 15 Overview
Across countries, subsectors, and identities, leaders are increasingly describing burnout not as an occasional consequence of difficult seasons, but as the expected backdrop of social impact work. The work of reported wellbeing innovations have slowed this season, although there are still efforts of people gathering, organizing, educating, and imagining healthier ways forward.
🪫 The B-word: What’s happening with Burnout?
A recent workplace report from HRD found that burnout is increasingly becoming a baseline experience rather than an episodic one. Employees report entering their workdays already depleted, suggesting that exhaustion has become normalized rather than treated as a warning sign.
Recent nonprofit reporting from NonProfit PRO highlights the concept of “burnout code switching”--when professionals from historically marginalized communities often expend significant emotional energy adjusting language, behavior, appearance, and communication styles to navigate workplace norms. What many have framed as professionalism can, over time, become a costly survival strategy.
In Canada, tensions are emerging. Staff at Oxfam Canada began strike action citing concerns that included fair wages, domestic violence protections, and access to gender-affirming care. Their actions remind us that wellbeing conversations are often inseparable from conversations about equity, safety, and dignity.
New commentary from the The Nonprofit Alliance of Bermuda similarly points to mounting pressures on nonprofit organizations navigating increased demand with constrained resources, while leaders strive to maintain both mission effectiveness and workforce sustainability.
A recent piece from Nonprofit Quarterly warns of the "quiet collapse" of the nonprofit sector. The authors argue that the erosion of nonprofit capacity through burnout, underinvestment, and workforce attrition represents a threat not only to organizations themselves, but to the communities and democratic systems that depend upon them.
💭 Innovations & New Thinking
Our recent LinkedIn Live: Who Burns Out and Why? offers leaders an opportunity to engage directly with our findings on identity, invisible labor, and equity in burnout. The conversation emphasized that effective solutions require us to ask not only how people are doing, but also what conditions are shaping their experiences.
Rochester, NY recently hosted a Workplace Wellness Conference, in partnership with Eleversity, focused on burnout prevention, resilience, and organizational health. The conference brought together leaders committed to reducing the risk of burnout while improving retention. Rochester nonprofits are also collaborating around workplace mental health initiatives, recognizing that sector-wide challenges require shared solutions rather than isolated efforts.
Recent guidance from Forbes Coaches Council offers nonprofit leaders practical strategies for fundraising without burning out, including clarifying priorities, setting realistic expectations, strengthening donor relationships, and resisting the pressure to operate from constant urgency.
📍 Local to San Diego
The City of San Diego proposed a $10.35M plan to restore arts funding in the face of the nearly $12M cuts proposed in the budget. We have been tracking these updates and the implications they could have for San Diego’s nonprofits and its workforce.
✅ Quick Takeaways
Burnout is increasingly being described as a baseline experience, rather than an occasional occupational hazard
Research reinforces that identity and organizational power dynamics shape burnout risk
Code-switching represents a significant and often overlooked contributor to burnout among professionals from marginalized communities
Workforce actions, including strikes, highlight how wellbeing is deeply connected to fair wages, safety, and equitable benefits
Regions are increasingly creating conferences, collaborative initiatives, and practical tools to help nonprofit organizations redesign work
Do Good Leadership Collective is a San Diego-based consultancy that helps social impact professionals Do Good and Be Well.
