October 26 Overview
This week marks one full year of the Bi-Weekly Wellbeing Brief! 🎉 When we began this series, burnout was already disrupting organizations and the people who power them. A year later, community needs continue to pile high, but we’re also seeing more innovation in the world of workplace wellbeing: investments in nonprofit infrastructure, the centering of worker voice, and more attention on the importance of leader wellbeing. This edition has significantly more innovations than burnout headlines—and that feels worth celebrating.
🪫 The B-word: What’s happening with Burnout?
As community needs grow, local nonprofits and community health organizations are increasingly stepping in to address gaps in essential services. Reporting in The Topeka Capital-Journal highlights the consequences of gaps in access to healthcare and food in Topeka, and the pressure on community organizations trying to respond. When organizations must stretch their capacity to meet needs that other systems leave unmet, the workload—and the strain on the people delivering services—can grow quickly.
Nonprofit Quarterly revisits the unionization dispute at the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition to examine what happens when an organization’s commitment to justice is tested inside its own workplace. Workers sought greater transparency around pay, equitable discipline policies, and representation in workplace decisions.
💭 Innovations & New Thinking
Pasadena-based nonprofit Hillsides / Hillsides Center of Excellence is expanding its Center of Excellence, drawing on its behavioral health and trauma-informed care experience to provide workplace wellbeing training, organizational consulting, and educational programs. Its offerings include communication, emotional intelligence, compassion, mindfulness, and stress management.
In Oklahoma, nonprofit A Chance To Change is offering free teacher support training and support groups with funding from the United Way of Central Oklahoma. The initiative responds to educator burnout and aims to help teachers remain in the profession.
Allegany Franciscan Ministries' Wellness Grants offer flexible funding for staff and volunteer wellbeing, including retreats, mental health days, wellness stipends, and workplace policies that support healthier cultures.
Durfee Foundation is continuing its Lark Awards, which launched in 2022 to support rest and renewal for staff at small, community-rooted organizations. In a recent reflection, Durfee shares how one-time wellness funding has helped organizations move beyond individual respite toward lasting changes in workplace culture and daily practices.
This week, we will be attending the Center for Nonprofit Management’s convening of nonprofit, philanthropic, and government leaders for Building Sector Power Across Los Angeles County. The gathering challenges the idea that nonprofits are primarily charitable organizations, instead recognizing them as a major part of the region's economic infrastructure. Recognizing nonprofits as essential infrastructure creates an opportunity to advocate for the investment and working conditions that help the sector and its people thrive.
📍 Insights From Do Good Leadership Collective: Listening must be followed by action
Centering worker voice and feedback through staff surveys, listening sessions, and wellbeing assessments is only the first step. When employees repeatedly share their experiences, concerns, and ideas without seeing transparent follow-up or tangible change, listening efforts can create survey fatigue and erode trust rather than build it.
Meaningful worker voice requires organizations to communicate what they heard, what they’re doing in response, and full transparency on what can and cannot be changed in the now. Not every suggestion can be implemented, but every contribution deserves thoughtful consideration and a clear response.
At Do Good Leadership Collective, we believe wellbeing work cannot be designed for people. Instead, it must be shaped with the people experiencing the workplace. That includes closing the feedback loop: sharing themes, identifying actions and accountability, and reporting back on progress. When workers can see how their voices influence decisions, uplifting their voices becomes a practice that builds trust and helps organizations create changes their people can actually feel. To learn more about how we help organizations uplift worker voice in meaningful ways, get in touch.
✅ Quick Takeaways
→ Community needs can't be met indefinitely through workforce overextension. Organizations need the resources and infrastructure to respond sustainably.
→ Worker voice is part of workplace wellbeing. Fair policies, transparency, and meaningful participation matter.
→ Wellbeing investments are growing more practical. From free mental health support to flexible wellness grants, organizations are finding ways to make care more accessible.
→ The most powerful investments create lasting change. One-time support can open the door, but healthier workplace systems help care continue.
→ The sector's narrative matters. Recognizing nonprofits as essential infrastructure strengthens the case for investment in their organizations and workforce.
Do Good Leadership Collective is a national People + Culture Partner that helps social impact professionals Do Good and Be Well.
