I’m in Brooklyn. I’m lying in bed. I’m having panic attacks. I’m feeling in over my head in a management contract position with a theatre I was ill prepared for. My father is back in Canada, dealing with health issues. My romantic relationship in New York is falling apart. I’m thousands of dollars in debt. I can barely function at work. So I call in sick, faking a cough, and try to figure out how to get through the next few hours. A few weeks later, my contract is terminated. Humiliated and worn down, I pack up my life and move back to Toronto. I’m further in debt, unemployed, single, and have nowhere to live. At that time I really didn’t know if I could keep going.
Years after my ill-fated New York adventure, I’m in therapy. I found Jessica, and she helped me diagnose and treat the depressive fog I would fall into for days at a time. She helped me with my anxiety, and the trauma from a previous abusive relationship. I took medication, I worked out, and I continued seeing Jessica. I’ve done a lot of work since New York to maintain a much healthier lifestyle and to find stability in my life, but I’m not ‘fixed’. I know that my mental health will always be a challenge for me, especially when I think I’m doing fine. And I say this as someone who is financially stable, in a loving marriage, and working for a terrific organization.
Over the years I’ve heard many stories from my colleagues in the charitable sector about challenges with mental health:
The stories go on and on. And these are the people we work with every day, our fellow fundraisers, VP’s, Development Assistants, Research Specialists, and Event Managers.
Why mental health must be a priority
The charitable sector has a tendency to promote staff into management positions who are strong fundraisers but have very little management training. We have managers who have no human resources background, no mental health training, no conflict resolution training, and who are forced to learn on the job while advancing the bottom line.
We know that most fundraisers leave their jobs after about a year and a half, and we need to continue asking why. We know how many hours we work overtime, the comparatively low salaries of most non-profit staff, the fall fundraiser burn-out, the lack of work-life balance, the countless events…add in an unqualified manager and you have a recipe for burn-out, demotivation, and presenteeism. These factors can compound pre-existing mental health challenges, or lead to depression and anxiety at work.
And why is this relevant in our work?
Because, passionless, distracted, and depressed fundraisers aren’t going to be successful relationship-builders. I read a lot of articles asking why so many charities run the same fundraising campaign over and over and over again, getting the same mediocre results each year. Here’s one reason: our staff keep leaving, or burning out, or losing the passion that led them to the work in the first place. New staff don’t know enough to make meaningful change, and the lifers are just trying to get through the work week. That’s not everybody of course. In fact, in my experience, almost everybody I’ve met in this sector is passionate, intelligent, creative, emotional, and wants to make a difference.
I believe that there are a lot more people working in this sector with mental health issues than we would like to admit. Maybe the way our organizations are designed exacerbate those issues. Maybe people who are passionate are more sensitive, and get emotionally ground down very quickly – especially when there is no support for them where they work. I can say anecdotally that my colleagues are suffering, but I’ve had a tough time finding any data regarding mental health in charitable workplaces. There is some fundamental work being done in this area (this presentation from the Canadian Mental Health Association of BC is great). One of the brightest and most encouraging source for inspiration is Beth Kanter’s blog. She recently wrote a new book, and everybody should pick it up! Her writing is powerful and acknowledges the very real issue of burn-out in our sector.
Addressing mental health in our workplaces is a challenge – even if you have the requisite training. We need to start with compassion, listening, and working within our institutions to build a healthy and supportive work environment. We can assume the best of our colleagues and our staff, and be as empathetic with them as we are with our clients and our donors. We can invest in training for our managers and executives, and prepare the next generation of leaders for management positions. If we love ourselves and each other, and if we are generous to ourselves and to each other, then we are in a position to dig in, hold hands, and truly change the world.
Josh Bowman, CFRE has worked and consulted as a fundraiser in Vancouver, New York, Toronto, and Waterloo for over a decade.
