Your nonprofit team members are the equivalent of superheroes. They are passionate, dedicated, generous and hard-working, wearing multiple hats and working long hours to help fulfill your organization’s mission. And while they may be doing the work for the good of your mission, that doesn’t mean that burnout isn’t a real problem. When your employees start to burn out, they may find less joy, satisfaction and motivation in the jobs they are doing.
So how can you keep your nonprofit team inspired and motivated? Here are some tips:
- Encourage work/life balance. The nonprofit industry can be all-encompassing and extremely time consuming, so sometimes keeping your employees motivated and inspired means giving them a breather. Encouraging employees to prioritize work/life balance will help them come to work more alert and rested. It also demonstrates that your leadership cares about their mental health and self-care. Teams do their best work when they are also prioritizing themselves!
- Demonstrate fundraising progress. You send out an email to your donors to let them know the progress of the fundraiser, campaign or project that their donation went toward, so why wouldn’t you keep your employees apprised of the goings-on? Make sure that employees have an inside look at the progress of the campaigns they are working on. This will help them feel more connected to their projects and will give them more insight throughout their fundraising efforts.
- Celebrate wins, big and small. Did your team meet their fundraising goal? Did one employee out-perform their previous months? Did your organization win an award? Whether the win was big or small, make sure to recognize it! Recognizing victories will make nonprofit team members feel noticed and appreciated.
- Schedule team retreats and town halls. Communicate what’s going on at the leadership level and encourage company unity by hosting retreats and town halls that discuss the ins-and-outs of the organization, progress toward goals, financials, the state of the nonprofit, and employee recognition. This gives team members the chance to be involved in the conversation and to be informed about what’s going on in the organization that they are dedicated to. It also provides face-time between team members and leadership to generate a greater sense of involvement and personalization.
- Try a little friendly competition. Create fundraising teams, set fundraising goals or set up a fundraising leaderboard. Making fundraising into a competition will help keep your employees motivated and excited to do the jobs that they already love, but with a fun twist! And don’t forget prizes to encourage your fundraisers to participate in the competition.
What steps has your nonprofit taken to ensure your fundraising team is inspired and motivated?