November 9 Overview
This week’s news cycle may have felt quieter as attention turned toward the midterm elections and the political shifts unfolding across the United States. Even still, there are meaningful developments worth sitting with: growing recognition that nonprofit burnout is rooted in systemic conditions, renewed calls for funders to invest in the people behind the mission, and a hopeful opportunity for the sector to strengthen its voice and influence in the months ahead.
🪫 The B-word: What’s happening with Burnout?
In “The Systemic Roots That Sprout Burnout,” Independent Sector draws on research and conversations with nearly 300 sector stakeholders to examine the structural conditions contributing to nonprofit workforce burnout. Low compensation, excessive workloads, funding instability, restrictive grants, racism, sexism, and limited autonomy are among the interconnected challenges. The takeaway: we cannot address burnout by focusing only on individual coping strategies when the conditions producing it remain unchanged.
In an article, Candid makes the case that program funding without investment in leadership and organizational capacity can leave nonprofits stretched thin. When grants expand services without covering the management, infrastructure, and support required to deliver them, leaders absorb the difference. Flexible funding, leadership development, succession planning, and operational support are part of what makes effective service delivery possible.
💭 Innovations & New Thinking
An article from Northwest Indiana Business Magazine challenges the narrow perception of nonprofits as simply charitable service providers. In Northwest Indiana, nonprofits employ approximately 33,000 people, representing 11% of paid employment in the region, and generate $1.5 billion in payroll. The article makes a compelling case for recognizing nonprofits as employers, workforce developers, economic anchors, and essential contributors to thriving communities.
Humanity United's interactive resource Care & Wellbeing Practices for Philanthropy is designed to help funders explore how they can support wellbeing alongside their nonprofit partners. Its relationship-first approach offers a useful reminder that supporting organizational wellbeing includes building trust, understanding partner needs, and making room for care within funding relationships and practices.
📍 Insights From Do Good Leadership Collective: Post-election reflections (and hopes!)
In our work, it feels like many of the nonprofits we support are taking a deep exhale after the midterm elections. Our hope is that Congress will help restore federal funding, create a more stable relationship between government and nonprofits, and provide greater room for conversations about issues that suppress the nonprofit workforce.
Of course, election outcomes don't automatically translate into better funding, stronger policies, or healthier workplaces. Those changes require sustained advocacy, accountability, intentional investment and more. However, this moment creates an opening for the sector to articulate its value through the jobs it creates, the relationships it builds, the civic participation it supports, and the local economies it strengthens.
At Do Good Leadership Collective, we believe this broader recognition must include the people who make that infrastructure possible. If nonprofits are essential to our communities, then the workforce sustaining them deserves to be treated as essential, too. This is an opportunity to move beyond asking nonprofits to do more with less and toward building the resources, relationships, and working conditions that allow them to thrive. To learn more about how we support and advocate for nonprofit workforces, get in touch.
✅ Quick Takeaways
→ Treat burnout at its roots. Workloads, compensation, funding structures, and organizational capacity all matter.
→ Fund the full cost of impact. Leadership, operations, and workforce wellbeing are essential investments.
→ Tell a bigger story about nonprofits. The sector is an economic, civic, and community-building force.
→ Use this political moment to build momentum. Hope is valuable, but sustained advocacy and investment will determine what actually changes.
Do Good Leadership Collective is a national People + Culture Partner that helps social impact professionals Do Good and Be Well.
