Stay Centered: 3 Mindfulness Tips for Nonprofit Professionals

As a nonprofit professional, you’re used to learning from others in the sector. For example, you might try a text-to-give campaign after witnessing another nonprofit’s success with that idea. But what about when it comes to alleviating workplace stress?

Although you’re working to further a good cause, that doesn’t mean you’re immune to the stress of being a working professional. However, stress and burnout are sorely overlooked issues in the nonprofit industry.

To mitigate stress in the workplace, look to the business world. From business marketing techniques to stress-relief strategies, you can glean many valuable insights from companies that apply to the nonprofit sector. For example, consider the idea of mindfulness and its rise within corporations.

This guide will cover the concept of mindfulness as a way for nonprofit professionals to relieve stress. We’ll discuss the basics of mindfulness and three tips for how to center mindfulness at work.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness has a few different definitions, but it generally refers to a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment. It’s a therapeutic technique where the practicing individual calmly acknowledges and accepts their current feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

Numerous studies have been done on mindfulness, even as early as 1982. These studies have found that practicing mindfulness brings a variety of benefits, including better stress management, reduced anxiety and depression, increased ability to relax, and improved self-esteem.

Nonprofit professionals often lack the mental health support system that businesses have, solely due to budgetary reasons. Instead of and in addition to these systems, mindfulness is a great way to take your work health into your own hands.

Mindfulness Tips to Stay Centered for Nonprofit Professionals

Practicing mindfulness is easier said than done. That’s why we’re giving you three actionable, mindfulness tips to help you implement this practice in your life. Let’s dive in!

1. Stay present in your work.

When juggling multiple tasks, as nonprofit professionals often do, staying present in your work is difficult. You might get trapped in your head, losing touch with your body as you fret about the future.

One of the core tenets of mindfulness is being present. Here are a few suggestions to help you stay in the moment as you work:

• Work on one task at a time. Although you may feel pressured to multitask during your workday, studies have found that only 2.5% of people can multitask effectively, reducing productivity by as much as 40%. Keep yourself focused and productive by working on only one task at a time.

• Keep a time journal. Record in a journal what you’ve accomplished in a set block of time. This allows you to reflect on the work you’ve done and mindfully determine when your most productive times are. In the future, you can save your most difficult or important tasks for those periods and evaluate how and why you feel increased productivity.

• Perform breathing exercises. Much of modern work occurs online, making it easy for nonprofit professionals to get stuck in their heads. Take a moment and reconnect with your body by performing some breathing exercises. This is particularly helpful if you feel stressed or overwhelmed, as it allows you to ground yourself in the present rather than worrying about the future.
• Reduce distractions. Although you may be waiting on emails from fundraising event sponsors or major donors, you may have other work to do while you wait. Eliminate the urge to check your inbox every minute and minimize any other potential distractions. For example, you could close your email and only open it after you’ve completed a task. Or, if you’re finding your corner of the office loud, consider investing in noise-canceling headphones.

Remember that it’s important to be physically and mentally present. Continually evaluate how you feel and take steps to improve mindfulness in those areas. For example, if you’re feeling physical symptoms such as headaches or muscle aches, consider what steps you can take to alleviate them.

Perhaps your body wants a little more activity in the day. In that case, you might purchase a standing desk and a walking desk pad. Or, if your symptoms are stress-related, you could book a massage instead. MassageBook advises checking with your health insurance if you’re worried about the cost. Some providers cover the cost of massages, making it much more affordable for you to care for your physical well-being.

2. Effectively manage your work time.

It’s not enough to reduce the symptoms of work stress—you also need to address the root causes. As you continue practicing mindfulness, keep track of and evaluate the moments you feel most stressed at work.

One of the most common stressors at work comes from mismanaged work time. Here are a few strategies you can try to manage your schedule effectively:

• Set realistic deadlines. All tasks have deadlines in some shape or form. Be realistic about how much work you can complete in a single day to set realistic deadlines for your tasks. For example, if you need to create a nonprofit video for social media but you’ve never dealt with video editing before, give yourself ample time to get familiar with all the tools you’ll be using. 

• Establish daily priorities. Choose a daily priority to decide which tasks to work on each day. This should be the most important or urgent task you must attend to first. By doing so, you’ll ensure that you complete your most important duties first.

• Pick a time management system. If you have trouble focusing on a single task, pick a time management system to keep you on track. For example, you could schedule your day into different time blocks. Or, you could use a system like the Pomodoro Technique.

3. Establish a healthy work-life balance.

Regardless of how passionate you are about your work, you need to balance it with the rest of your life and needs to ensure that you stay healthy. Otherwise, you may fall victim to burnout and stop enjoying what you do for a living. Be mindful of that balance by constantly assessing your feelings and evaluating if you need to change your routine.

If you’ve determined that you need to reclaim some time for yourself, here are a few starting steps to establish a healthy work-life balance:

• Take breaks. Take time to disconnect briefly so your mind can rest, then dive back into your work. Even five minutes of stretching or walking around can do wonders for your focus. On a larger scale, you should also take breaks from work by using your vacation time. This will allow you to recharge and return to work, ready for what awaits you.

• Set boundaries with work. Work tends to expand to fill up the time you have available, so don’t give it the opportunity. Set firm and reasonable boundaries with your coworkers to ensure you have time for yourself. For example, you might say you’re unavailable to be contacted over the weekend or after 6 p.m. on weekdays.
• Prioritize your health. As you continue to practice mindfulness, keep tabs on your physical health. Remember that you only have one body, so maintain it well. This means taking sick days if you’re not feeling well and taking time off to go to doctor and dentist appointments.

If, after investing in tools to manage your work time properly, you still have too much on your plate, it may be time to consider outsourcing your work. 

Should your nonprofit have the budget to accommodate this request, it can greatly reduce your workload and help you maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Working for a nonprofit organization doesn’t exempt you from stress. These mindfulness tips will make you more aware of your mental state and physical needs. As a result, you’ll be better equipped to tackle your responsibilities, contribute toward your nonprofit’s cause, and improve the lives of your beneficiaries. If you’ve been looking for a way to reduce your stress and become a more conscious worker, implement the tips we’ve outlined above!

National Nonprofit Day: Celebrate Nonprofits on August 17th and Every Day

There is a national day for just about everything. So, sandwiched between National Tell a Joke Day and National Fajita Day is an observance that merits being a forerunner of all days. August 17th is National Non-Profit Day. While many more people in our industry are familiar with National Philanthropy Day, few know about National Non-Profit Day. It shouldn’t be that way.

On that day, do something meaningful like thanking nonprofit staff members or volunteers who are all around us. But, also recognize that nonprofits deserve our respect, admiration, and support 365 days a year.

When Nonprofits Do Well, We All Do Well

We can sum up the sentiment to this simple but powerful truth: when non-profits do well, we all do well. There is no part of the quality of life they don’t enrich and make better. They embody the best spirit and values of our nation. During the pandemic, we have seen nonprofits increase the volume and do even more to help those struggling.

Why celebrate on August 17th? Because that’s the date the Tariff Act of 1894 became law. It imposed the first federal income tax on corporations, which included exemptions for non-profits and charitable institutions.

Keen Appreciation of the Sector

My perspective on the subject is personal. For the better part of the last three decades, I’ve enjoyed the privilege of working in the non-profit world. I’ve held advancement positions and raised money for higher education institutions. It was instructive, challenging, and enormously fulfilling. Then in 2018, I decided to combine two passions. I wanted to teach the art and science of fundraising with the desire to venture out on my own by launching Eskin Fundraising Training. 

After conducting more than 150 workshops and webinars and working with hundreds of board members, volunteers, and staff from a broad cross-section of organizations, my appreciation and admiration for the non-profit sector have only deepened. I am inspired by the men and women who have selfless devotion in their unwavering commitment to improving the lot of others. Toiling away in relative obscurity, they’re genuine unsung heroes.

Nonprofit Proliferation

Though voluntary organizations endorsed by private contributions have existed in the U.S. since the mid-eighteenth century, they have only recently become an omnipresent part of American society. As recently as 1940, there were only 12,500 secular charitable tax-exempt organizations. Today, there are more than 1.5 million tax-exempt organizations in the nation. This stat includes all 501(c) designations such as churches, cultural centers, food banks, and disaster relief organizations. There are more than 100,000 non-profits in Texas alone.

Their story is compelling. The sector represents 10 percent of the American workforce or about 12 million jobs making it the third largest force in the U.S., behind retail and manufacturing.

High Job/Volunteering Satisfaction

You won’t get rich working for a non-profit, but the level of job satisfaction is much higher than among American workers. A survey by Classy, creator of online fundraising software for non-profits, reveals that 84% of non-profit employees are satisfied in their current roles at their organizations. Those involved with their organization’s fundraising efforts are especially satisfied, with 92% of this cohort expressing contentment. This contrasts with just 51% of all employees reporting that they were satisfied with their jobs.

There are so many more people who toil for non-profits. However, they’re just not paid. America is blessed with a gigantic army of dedicated volunteers. According to data released by the Corporation for National and Community Service, 77.4 million Americans, or 30 percent of the adult population, give 6.7 billion hours of volunteer service worth $167 billion.

These volunteers set an amazing example. As champions of good causes whose time and resources are already stretched, they find ways to give more time and more money to better the lives of others. And they do so with smiles on their faces. The secret is that they are energized, not drained, by their labors of love.

Fundraisers have even more reason to love volunteers. Gifts of time, talent, and treasure go hand-in-hand. Volunteering and Civic Life in America research reveals that nearly twice the number (80%) of volunteers donate to charity as people who don’t volunteer (40%).

By the way, the term “nonprofit” is a bit of a misnomer. Nonprofits can make a profit and should try to have some positive revenue to build a reserve fund to ensure sustainability. The key difference between nonprofits and for-profits is that a nonprofit organization cannot distribute its profits to any private individual. However, nonprofits may pay reasonable compensation to those providing services. 

In Closing …

Whether we like it or not, the stark reality is that it is likely that the government’s role and grant funding in meeting escalating human service needs will continue to shrink. It will be up to nonprofits to fill gaps to ensure that people in need and pressing issues aren’t abandoned.

I can’t wait for each new day to partner with nonprofit staff and volunteers to develop more resources so that they can extend the impact of their noble missions. Their passion for their respective causes gives them an essential tool to be effective fundraisers. Armed with the Jeffersonian virtues of a “knowing head and an honest heart,” they can effectively tell their stories, nurture relationships, and ask for and obtain gifts.

Non-profits are all around us and improving the world through advances in education, healthcare, arts and culture, economic development, animal welfare, human services, seniors, children, and other vital areas. They remind us that more is possible and that we can take matters into our own hands and make the world a better place to live, one person and one community at a time. If you’re not already contributing time and money to a nonprofit, there couldn’t be a better time than August 17th to add your voice to the non-profit movement and magnify good works.

Laying a Foundation for Highly-Connected Nonprofit Teams

For many nonprofits, 2022 is shaping up to be a turning point in how they conduct internal operations. Many teams that previously worked remotely are now returning to the office. Others are content to continue operating remotely. In addition, some are experimenting with hybrid approaches. 

Each method has unique pros and cons, and teams must adapt. Specifically, many nonprofits will need to consider how their choice to return to the office or work remotely will impact their staff’s ability to stay connected.

Highly-connected teams with strong communication practices tend to be more dynamic, responsive, and effective than those with significant delays in their responsiveness. This allows them to quickly respond to challenges, seize opportunities, and clear up confusion. 

Four communication best practices

This article will explore these four communication best practices how to improve remote work, and how nonprofits to stay connect at home or in the office, such as:

1. Create internal communication guidelines. 
2. Invest in tools to streamline workflows. 
3. Implement effective work-from-home protocols. 
4. Routinely collect staff feedback.  

These tips rely on a combination of effective nonprofit software and communication strategies. Assess your nonprofit’s current communication tools to consider how they can help build a reliable framework to support your communication practices. Let’s get started. 

1. Create internal communication guidelines. 

Whether employees work remotely or in the office, any organization can suffer from communication slowdowns and miscommunication. While it might seem like a small change to how your team interacts with one another, structured communication can improve your employees’ productivity, and engagement as teams will know who to reach out to and when.

Tips

• Create a priority system. Knowing where to start when organizing emails each morning can be challenging. It’s pretty common for high-priority messages sent early in the day to get buried under emails that don’t require immediate attention. Create a priority system by having employees mark messages to indicate how quickly action is needed. This can be done by adding abbreviations at the beginning of each email subject line. For example, “HP” for high priority or adding color-coded markers to messages in your CRM. 
• Select communication channels. If your team uses email, your CRM, Slack, and text to communicate, it’s easy for messages to get lost between channels. Streamline your communication process by using only a few channels. Consider designating certain channels for specific types of messages. For example, your staff might communicate primarily via email but have a group text for emergencies. 
• Create templates for routine messages. There are many messages you likely send over and over again, such as when you approve volunteers, schedule board meetings, or answer constituent questions. Instead of writing unique emails every time, create a series of templates that staff members use. This also ensures that your emails will always be professional and consistent across your organization. 

Additionally, if your nonprofit has ongoing projects that require face-to-face communication, like creating long-term marketing strategies, consider how you can create a streamlined process. Set up these meetings rather than communicating back and forth through email.

 

2. Invest in tools to streamline workflows. 

Modern nonprofit software has significantly advanced in the past few years. Therefore, nonprofit teams now have access to various tools to help them stay in touch while speeding up their work processes. Assess your current software solutions to determine whether they meet your communication needs. Identify whether any new tools would improve your communication practices. 

For example, to streamline your workflow and communication, your team might benefit from investing in: 

• A nonprofit CRM. Your CRM is at the center of your nonprofit’s software solutions, housing key information about your donors, volunteers, grants, fundraisers, and more. When improving your workflow, you can start with investing in a CRM with streamlined automation features. Also, you can train your employees to understand better how to leverage your CRM. EveryAction’s guide to nonprofit CRMs recommends looking for a solution with the following automation features: built-in templates, custom automation workflow builder, branched workflows, automation for email and mobile messaging, CRM automation, and real-time analysis.
• Board management tools. Your board determines the direction of your nonprofit, and board-specific meeting and management tools can help your board members devote most of their time to important discussions regarding your strategy rather than working out meeting logistics. These tools often include features like a scheduling system, easy file sharing during meetings, and a note-taking system. 
• Grant management tools. Applying for a single grant can take months and often requires feedback and collective action from several team members. Help them stay organized by investing in a CRM with grant management tools. You can also separate a grant management system that allows you to keep your grant documents organized and stick to your application timeline. 

 

Things to Consider

When investing in any new software solution, take security precautions to protect your donors, constituents, and organization’s sensitive information. When onboarding your staff members to your new project management software, consider who you will give different permission levels. Think about how you can encourage members to make smart security decisions to avoid potential leaks.

 

3. Implement effective work-from-home protocols. 

Being in close proximity to other team members allows you to check on projects’ progress quickly. You get questions answered as they arise, and stay on top of all ongoing activities. Physical distance can slow down communication, even with modern technology. 

However, this doesn’t mean your nonprofit should abandon the idea of allowing team members to work from home. Instead, organizations with a remote operations structure must establish protocols for improving productivity and communication. 

Re:Charity’s guide to nonprofit work-from-home tools walks through a few popular strategies for staying connected and focused while working remotely:

• Use video conferencing tools. Hoping from remote call to call can lead to burnout and result in meetings where participants have trouble focusing. Use video conferencing tools and require everyone to have their camera on to replicate the professional environment of an in-person meeting and help staff members stay engaged.
• Create a time logging system. When you cannot physically see your staff working, it’s easy to fear that projects are not getting done as efficiently as if team members were in the office. You can assuage these fears by creating a time logging system, wherein employees track how much time they spend on each project. 
• Create dedicated workspaces. Working from home can lead to a lack of separation between work and home life. That can create unnecessary stressors. To help your team members re-assert this important division and improve remote work, encourage them to set up a designated workspace in their homes that acts as their office from the beginning to the end of the work day. 

 

Other Ideas

If your nonprofit implements a hybrid workplace, consider how you can use your in-office days to make the most of your staff’s time together. For example, you might schedule meeting times based on when the whole or a majority of your team is in the office. You can also save work that can be completed individually for work-from-home days. This will help improve remote work and streamline the workflow process. 

 

4. Routinely collect staff feedback. 

Every nonprofit is different and will have its own set of unique communication needs. While external advice and research can provide an outside perspective, seeking internal feedback and staying attuned to your staff’s specific communication challenges can help solve regular miscommunication. It can address productivity slowdowns and other issues that disrupt a team’s communication ability.

Of course, the same obstacles interfering with your communication practices can also make it difficult to gather feedback. Try creating a structured system for collecting feedback to keep communication between you and your staff as open as possible, even during ongoing external and internal disruptions. 

 

How to Collect Feedback

Here are a few ways you can request feedback from your staff to improve remote work and stay connected:

• Send out surveys. Online surveys are one of the most straightforward ways to collect feedback. These surveys can ask questions about an individual employee’s strengths, how your business can improve, and if there are any new ideas for improving internal management. 
• Schedule one-on-one meetings. Some staff members may feel more comfortable explaining their communication issues in a one-on-one meeting. Be sure to emphasize that these meetings are ultimately low stakes. Showcase that staff members are encouraged to report problems they are encountering related to communication and workflow. 
• Ensure employees know who their supervisors are. Situations can and will arise between your feedback collection periods. Your staff should know who they can go to if an immediate issue arises. If you have a change in leadership at any point, let your team know who they should report to until changes have settled to ensure no reports go misplaced in the shuffle. 

 

Final Thoughts

While you should focus first on your permanent staff, your volunteers and temporary team members can also provide unique insights into your communication processes. At the end of a volunteer’s time with your nonprofit, send out a survey using your volunteer management system. You can also have your volunteer manager meet with them to learn how you could improve the volunteer experience and operations at your nonprofit as a whole. 

Keeping your team connected even while physically distant is fundamental to your nonprofit’s ability to continue forwarding your mission. Leverage your software’s communication tools to improve productivity. Stay in touch with your team while implementing communication best practices for remote and in-office team members. Hope this blog helped give you ideas to improve remote work (or hybrid setting) to connect your team.

Frugality is a virtue in the nonprofit sector. We’re accustomed to making the best with what we have, which often includes limited funds or resources. And although it’s wise to be good stewards and maximize value, sometimes quality and excellence are sacrificed for the sake of the budget. Does this sound familiar? Here are some ways to reconsider a frugal approach to cause work.

A Cautionary Tale on Frugality

In an interview for a previous ED position, I had to provide an example of how I demonstrated “extreme frugality.” This was back in the days of coupon-clipping, and while I momentarily pondered that as a response, I instinctively knew it was not “extreme” enough for the interviewing board members. Ultimately, I shared that my husband (not me) reuses Ziplock sandwich bags on occasion. As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt my face go flush. Perhaps that was an overshare? Thankfully, the individuals conducting the interview nodded in approval and delight. My example won me the job. But the entire episode also sent a clear message about the culture of the organization: frugality ruled.

I entered a world where one day could include designing newsletters, plunging toilets, bookkeeping, and public speaking. My capacity (what little there was) was equivalent to capability from the board’s perspective. Why hire costly expertise or outside help when things were getting done? If anything, we simply needed to bring in more volunteer help—or maybe an intern or two.

This is not an uncommon story in the nonprofit sector. Too often, we prioritize frugality over excellence. We’re all familiar with wearing many different hats. And although it’s important to be intentional about our funds and our spending, let’s not leave quality behind. Consider some of the ways that your nonprofit can break free from frugality, starting with these approaches.

Fight Frugality with Outsourcing

Thankfully, my husband is a CPA. As I daily grieved my life being stretched thin and the mistakes and missed opportunities that came with wearing too many hats, he asked a very reasonable question: “Don’t you have a budget line for contracted labor?”

I wish this tale now developed into a description of a revised budget and a focus on stewardship of all resources—including human capital. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. What it does provide is a well-learned lesson that helped me in future roles: it is okay—and in fact, it is often better—to hire experts. If you can’t do it well in-house, for the love of your mission and those you serve, take it to a pro. Outsourcing is a game-changer, and even if your team has the skills to do something well, time is a valuable resource that outsourcing saves. If you focus on frugality, you’ll get lean. Focus on excellence and you’ll get growth.

Level-Up Your Approach

Doing more with less should not equate to doing more work with less impact, but it often does. When our audiences are inundated with messages, our teams are tested with ever-increasing need, and our best-laid plans come against COVID-19 and unexpected changes, our focus shifts to sustaining rather than thriving. Maintaining the integrity of the budget has trumped growth at any cost. We need to level-up our approach to all we do. Our causes deserve it, and the world demands it.

As DO MORE GOOD founder Bill McKendry often says, “You’re not competing with your fellow charities or churches. You’re competing with Nike, Apple, and Netflix. You’re competing for people’s discretionary time and income to support your cause.” I guarantee Nike doesn’t reuse Ziplock bags, last year’s advertisement, or much else. At this level of competition, frugality isn’t the answer.

Rethink Capacity, Capability, and Excellence

Just because someone is capable of completing a task doesn’t mean they necessarily have the capacity to do so. Similarly, capability and excellence don’t always go hand in hand. It’s important to seek excellence. Work with your team to really evaluate where your talents and strengths exist and where deficiencies are holding you back. This may include doing some time tracking and having tough (but worthwhile) conversations. You may not be able to bring in outside expertise in every area right away. But you can start with those that will result in an immediate return on investment and use those gains to build an even stronger team.