Empowering Nonprofits Empowering Nonprofits to Thrive:
Lessons Learned from Our Wellness Grants
Guest Post By
From economic turmoil to elimination of government funding, the nonprofit workforce is facing increasing challenges, at a time when many have already been expressing concerns about being stretched thin and burning out.
According to the State of Nonprofits 2024: What Funders Need to Know report by the Center for Effective Philanthropy, 86% of nonprofit leaders expressed concern over staff burnout.
Survey results like that drew our attention at the Hewlett Foundation, when we saw the trend of staff burnout increase precipitously among our grantees during the pandemic and its aftermath. Recognizing a need across all of our program areas, Hewlett’s Effective Philanthropy Group (EPG) launched a dedicated wellness grants fund in 2023 as part of our organizational effectiveness strategy, which aims to strengthen grantees’ ability to adapt and thrive so they can better achieve their missions. During this effort, more than 50 grantees received small, one-time wellness grants.
We’ve been inspired by the creative ways nonprofits have leveraged these grants—and the benefits extend beyond their staff to the communities they serve. Grantees have used the funding to help their staff feel supported, rested, motivated, and connected to their mission in times when burnout is causing high turnover and disruption in services.
For example, one organization that provides music training created a new position of mental health officer and set up a “calming tent” for its summer program, reporting that both were successful in improving staff morale and reducing staff burnout. Another, which focuses on reproductive health, used their wellness grant to facilitate a team retreat – and described how “team-building and wellbeing are vital for sustaining motivation and preventing burnout, improving job satisfaction and productivity.” An organization that works with education leaders said that their wellness grant “came at just the right time,” reporting that the grant helped “foster joy, which flows into the way we engage with community partners.”
These reflections highlight an essential truth: Investing in staff well-being is not just about preventing burnout—it’s about ensuring that nonprofit teams are equipped to deliver sustained impact for the people and causes they serve.
Why we created a Wellness Fund
Due to the nonprofit starvation cycle, where funders are systemically not fully funding nonprofits for the programmatic and administrative costs of the work, nonprofits are often understaffed without the resources needed to fully achieve their missions. As a result, staff often face high levels of burnout and stress, impeding their ability to carry out their work.
Flexible funding, which makes up most of Hewlett’s grantmaking, enables organizations to be nimble and responsive to their priorities. However, even with this support, nonprofits often struggle to dedicate resources specifically to staff wellness. The wellness fund provided one way that we could signal the importance of investing in people—creating space for reflection, rest, and self-care.
How we structured the fund
The fund was designed to minimize grantee burden while maximizing impact. Existing grantees who already receive flexible funding from the Hewlett Foundation as well as organizational strengthening support from our organizational effectiveness strategy were eligible, with priority given to smaller-budget organizations with limited resources. Grantee recipients received a one-time allocation of $10,000 to put towards wellness, which was added to an organizational effectiveness grant that an organization was already receiving. This meant grantees did not need to apply separately, streamlining the process for both grantees and internal staff.
The grants gave organizations the flexibility to prioritize wellness in ways that allow the grantee to choose how to use the funds to suit their unique contexts, from team-building retreats to stipends for employees.
Emerging Insights
The wellness fund has already led to some noticeable shifts in how we engage with grantee partners. Offering the additional wellness grant has enabled program staff to open up meaningful conversations with their grantees about staff burnout and wellbeing. Grantees are sharing with us more candidly the challenges they face, knowing that we can provide funding to support their wellness efforts. We are also encouraged to see more, and larger, OE grants directed entirely to wellness. As more grantees share back how they are using the wellness grants, we will continue to share our learnings with the field.
The Bigger Picture The Bigger Picture: Investing in Systemic Solutions
While individual wellness grants are a step forward, we recognize they are just a small piece of a much larger systemic challenge. Beyond this fund, we have made grants to organizations such as The Wellbeing Project, Fund the People and Independent Sector, who are working to promote a healthy nonprofit workforce by advancing practices that prioritize competitive staff pay and benefits, professional development, and retention in nonprofits. We hope more funders will join us to contribute to a sector-wide shift towards more supportive and sustainable working environments at nonprofit organizations.
