Over the past two months, nearly 300 people joined Maryland Nonprofits as we launched the This is the Moment to Care campaign in honor of our 30th Anniversary. The campaign is a long time coming and is our response to the urgent need to shift toward an internal culture of caring for all nonprofit organizations.
On March 25th, to celebrate our exact birthday, members of our team captured some of the nonprofit workplace issues and the legacy of uncaring actions that have led us to this sector-wide culture of burned-out people holding up the communities we serve on our shoulders. Watch the recording of this event here.
In a presentation giving a side-by-side review of the Culture 500 Report and the Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture (also known as American Business Culture), Nyah Vanterpool graciously helped us to understand how organizations have inherited non-inclusive culture and governance practices stemming back from President Washington’s “efficiency farming” and the placement of increased burden on enslaved workers.
Nyah said, “The structural inequities that we are seeing in society are so pervasive that it is larger than any single one of us; it is larger than any single organization. There is something causing us to feel these high degrees of burnout.”
Ana Sanjuan explained that the root of overwhelm and burnout in the sector is directly related to a scarcity lens and workplace trauma. A scarcity lens is a set of unconscious, unexamined assumptions that govern our lives without evening knowing it, leading us to believe there is not enough to go around.
“Workplace trauma is any experience that psychologically overwhelms us and makes us incapable of responding intellectually or emotionally. We have accumulated trauma in the nonprofit sector such as harassment, toxic cultures, being fired without conversation, blame, accusations, excessive workload, lack of autonomy, lack of job security, unrealistic expectations, and poor interpersonal relationships. The list goes on and on. And right here, in this moment, we invite you to join the movement to end workplace trauma and nonprofit burnout.”
Maryland Nonprofits is leading a journey for all of us in the sector to stand up in the name of love and caring. We will be spending the entire year (and beyond) curating and producing tools to help you ensure that your nonprofit workplace is one that demonstrates intentional caring for your people. We are crossing a bridge to get us from a reality in which exhaustion and scarcity rule, to a place that is full of possibility in the name of love and care.
There are many ways to get and stay involved throughout this year. You can join the Caring Corps, a group of workplace care innovators ready to help the collective thrive. If your organization is interested in working with our consulting group to transform the culture in your workplace, complete this form to claim a 30% discount.
Finally, we invite you to register now for the next events in the This is the moment to care campaign. On April 29 we will convene a conversation with members of senior leadership and executives to discuss the ways they can, and do, build cultures that care. Then, on May 6, workplace care innovators at all levels in the organization will join a conversation about how to create major positive shifts for their workplaces.
