Soapbox Engage Blog

You know better than anyone that working at a nonprofit is demanding. On top of needing to wear many hats, you must also power through periods of high workload and stress, such as the year-end fundraising rush. Without proper support, your employees may experience health issues and even burnout. This, in turn, leads to dissatisfaction, higher absenteeism, and low engagement.

Your mission’s growth doesn’t depend solely on donors and volunteers. Employees are a critical piece of the puzzle. Prioritize employee wellness to ensure your organization continues its positive growth and generates the desired results.

Not sure where to start? Let’s explore four tips you can implement today to center employee wellness at your nonprofit.

1. Offer employees flexibility where possible.

Although work makes up a substantial portion of our waking hours, not many individuals live to work. Your employees have other important commitments to their families, friends, health, and hobbies. To meet their needs and boost wellness, incorporate flexibility into your workplace through the following strategies:

• Variable start times. Instead of requiring employees to start working at 9 AM, allow them to choose a reasonable time that works best for them. For instance, your guidelines might be that they can start work anytime between 7 and 10 AM as long as they work eight hours.


• Time reallocation. Employees may have commitments they can’t avoid scheduling during work hours, such as doctor’s appointments. Instead of mandating that they take this time off, allow the employee to make up for the time lost later in the day or on another day altogether.


• Nonstandard work weeks. Some individuals thrive with the flexibility of a nonstandard work week. If your nonprofit can accommodate it, allow employees to work only four days a week, 10 hours each. Or, allow some employees to work from Tuesday to Saturday rather than Monday to Friday.


• Hybrid or remote work. Many nonprofit employees have responsibilities they can carry out off-site—for example, your marketing coordinator might not need to work from your facilities. In these cases, allow employees to work from home to save them from commuting. For other employees, offer a hybrid schedule where they come into the office for a set number of days and can work from home for the remainder of the week.

Accommodating employee needs in these ways also helps you stand out as a great employer. When hiring with a nonprofit’s limited budget in an increasingly competitive job market, added flexibility could be the key to attracting more applicants and securing top talent.

2. Implement programs that support wellness.

Dedicated wellness programs give employees the resources to stay healthy, setting an excellent foundation for their work satisfaction. You can break programs into two categories: physical and mental.

Physical Wellness

The best physical wellness benefit you can offer is robust health insurance, empowering employees to take better care of their health. The provider should cover a wide range of services and make it convenient and affordable to visit the doctor for annual checkups and preventative care. To take it a step further, go beyond basic health needs. For example, you might take MassageBook’s advice and look for a provider that covers wellness services like massage therapy and acupuncture.

In addition to offering great health insurance, you can set up programs such as:

• Walking or running groups
• Group stretch breaks
• On-site fitness classes
• Gym membership stipends
• Healthy lunch catering

Mental Wellness

For mental wellness, focus on reducing and eliminating burnout within your workforce. According to Kaiser Permanente, the top five causes of employee burnout include:

• Unfair treatment at work
• Unmanageable workloads
• Lack of role clarity
• Lack of communication and support from managers
• Unreasonable time pressure

To combat burnout, ease the pressure on employees by reducing their workload. This may mean investing in efficiency-boosting software. For example, fundraising platforms make collecting donations and automating donation tax receipts easier, reducing time spent on repetitive or time-consuming tasks. Additionally, you might work with a dedicated consultant to improve your organization’s fundraising practices, as they have years of experience and the objective view needed to make efficiency-boosting changes.

In addition to streamlining and reducing employees’ workloads, here are a few programs you can implement to support mental health:

• Mindfulness and meditation sessions
• Stress management workshops
• Mental health education
• Extra time off for mental health
• Therapy or counseling stipends

3. Partner with wellness-related businesses.

Investing in wellness can be costly, which is challenging for nonprofits with limited budgets and resources. Luckily, many businesses participate in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and philanthropy. Through these programs, corporations give back to their community and local nonprofits in various ways, including providing services and products for free or at a discounted rate.

Leverage the current trend of CSR by partnering with businesses that can support your wellness activities, such as:

• Spas
• Massage practices
• Fitness centers and gyms
• Yoga studios
• Dance studios
• Personal training services
• Health food stores
• Nutrition counselors

To identify if a business will likely respond positively to a partnership, explore their pages for any markers of CSR interest. For example, let’s say you’re interested in partnering with a massage therapist to provide massages to employees at a discounted rate. Look through their massage practice’s website and social media pages for indicators of CSR activities. You might find a post on their Instagram explaining how they volunteered to give free massages at a local community fair. Their site may also have a dedicated partnerships page listing all the steps to building a partnership with them.

When you make your partnership ask, remember to highlight the benefits for the business. In the example above, you might emphasize that a partnership will lead to more loyal clients for the massage therapist since you’re incentivizing employees to patronize their practice.

4. Provide employee engagement opportunities.

Happy, engaged employees are more likely to be physically and mentally healthy, which is why boosting employee engagement is a crucial wellness strategy. Double the Donation breaks employee engagement into the following categories:

• Recognition and rewards. Employee appreciation ideas include “employee of the month” programs, social media shoutouts, award ceremonies, peer-to-peer recognition opportunities, and milestone celebrations.


• Team-building. Any activity where your team spends time together can be considered team-building. Examples include company retreats, office competitions, sports and recreation clubs, team dinners, and birthday celebrations.


• Skill development. Simultaneously increase job satisfaction and empower employees to develop their professional skillsets with programs like job shadowing, mentorship, personal training budgets, and leadership training.


• Communication and feedback. Employees appreciate when their employers listen to them. Show that you care about their thoughts by sending frequent surveys, setting up a suggestion box, and organizing regular one-on-one meetings.

With the right mix of these program types, you’ll develop an employee engagement plan that meets your nonprofit’s unique needs. Don’t feel pressured to figure it all out immediately—feel free to start with a single program. You can always make adjustments and expand it in the future!

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By prioritizing employee wellness, you’ll create a stellar workplace that makes employees feel excited to work. Whether they’re tasked with developing your online fundraising strategy or reaching out to major donors, your happy, healthy team members will be well-equipped and inspired to work hard to drive the change your nonprofit desires.