On a Mission for Nonprofit Leaders
Oct 6, 2026 · 20 min · 12 segments
Suzanne Smith is a nationally recognized nonprofit strategist, speaker, and author who believes everyone can be a changemaker. As CEO of Social Impact…
We, um, like to talk about some of the bigger issues that I think that plague organizations, and these are organizations across the board.
If you were to talk to any Fortune 500 company, they would say these are the things they're worried about too.
Um, but these are things specific to nonprofits, and so we've got burnout, which we've been talking about.
There's also the burden, the secondary trauma, as well as the busyness, what I talked about earlier, the kind of the busyness competitions.
This is really serious work, and so we oftentimes are wearing, um, the weight of the mission on our shoulders.
And so we've got to really create practices, um, that are very specific, uh, around helping individuals who kind of wear those heroics, um, so we've got to make sure they're not unintentionally creating burnout.
Um, and so it's really important for the people on the front lines to take breaks, um, but in just in general.
I even have some HR directors who are telling me that they're looking at people's PTO, and if they're not taking their paid time off, they're actually emailing those people and saying, "You need to take some time off." So being proactive in that behavior.
Um, so what we know based on the research is that belonging is in some ways a protective factor, uh, against this burnout, and so creating a belonging where every individual believes that they belong.
One of my favorite definitions of belonging is that there's a meeting or there's something that happens and people miss you.
Um, and so making sure individuals feel like they matter You understand them at an individual level, what excites them, uh, intrinsically, um, and then how you can help them grow professionally.
And so those are all the things that we focus on from a belonging perspective.
And then last but not least, I call this the Ted Lasso effect, which is bonding.
How do you build a team where everybody wants to show up and they want to contribute? And they're not just thinking about their work and their silo, but they're looking across the organization and looking at the bigger picture.
Um, and those are happening through retreats, recognition, staff picnics, um, conversations around the coffee, uh, and the water cooler.
And the research is really clear that if you do those things, it is the protective factors against kind of this long-term issue we have of burnout in the social space.
We, um, like to talk about some of the bigger issues that I think that plague organizations, and these are organizations across the board.
If you were to talk to any Fortune 500 company, they would say these are the things they're worried about too.
Um, but these are things specific to nonprofits, and so we've got burnout, which we've been talking about.
There's also the burden, the secondary trauma, as well as the busyness, what I talked about earlier, the kind of the busyness competitions.
This is really serious work, and so we oftentimes are wearing, um, the weight of the mission on our shoulders.
And so we've got to really create practices, um, that are very specific, uh, around helping individuals who kind of wear those heroics, um, so we've got to make sure they're not unintentionally creating burnout.
Um, and so it's really important for the people on the front lines to take breaks, um, but in just in general.
I even have some HR directors who are telling me that they're looking at people's PTO, and if they're not taking their paid time off, they're actually emailing those people and saying, "You need to take some time off." So being proactive in that behavior.
Um, so what we know based on the research is that belonging is in some ways a protective factor, uh, against this burnout, and so creating a belonging where every individual believes that they belong.
One of my favorite definitions of belonging is that there's a meeting or there's something that happens and people miss you.
Um, and so making sure individuals feel like they matter You understand them at an individual level, what excites them, uh, intrinsically, um, and then how you can help them grow professionally.
And so those are all the things that we focus on from a belonging perspective.
And then last but not least, I call this the Ted Lasso effect, which is bonding.
How do you build a team where everybody wants to show up and they want to contribute? And they're not just thinking about their work and their silo, but they're looking across the organization and looking at the bigger picture.
Um, and those are happening through retreats, recognition, staff picnics, um, conversations around the coffee, uh, and the water cooler.
And the research is really clear that if you do those things, it is the protective factors against kind of this long-term issue we have of burnout in the social space.
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