When an earthquake hit Syria and Turkey in 2023, Colin Skehan threw himself into his job as a fundraiser with an international relief group. His organization and the affected communities were counting on him to raise money to help.
At the time, Skehan was a new father and exhausted from lack of sleep. But he pressed on with what was often emotionally tough work, searching photos of children killed in the quake to create appeals. Pressure and stress led to panic attacks and what he later realized was a nervous breakdown. Finally, his wife’s words jolted him.
“It was tough to hear at the time, but I needed to hear it,” Skehan recalls. “She said, ‘You’re being quite a dark presence,’ because I’d be sitting there anxious and stressed.”
Skehan’s story appears in new research from Rogare, an international fundraising think tank. Like many other fundraisers, Skehan had worked to the point of burnout and beyond.
“I thought that I was putting the mission before myself and that was the right thing to do,” he says. “But what I learned is I was actually less good at being a dad, less good at being a husband, and less good at being a fundraiser.”
The report, “Caring Too Much,” highlights what leads to burnout and the costs to individuals and the organization. Many fundraisers who experience burnout leave, says Michelle Reynolds, author of the research.
“The turnover is really high, and as a result, it’s actually costing charities more,” she says. “All of that skill, expertise, experience, and in-house knowledge that you have when you’ve been with an organization for a period of time — you lose that.”
Turnover is also expensive, as organizations must recruit and train new staff who often take time to get up to speed. “So it’s shortsighted for us not to pay more attention,” Reynolds says.
Contributors to Burnout
The report notes that fundraisers have four traits that can lead to burnout: “inherent empathy”; their tendency to put the interest of clients, colleagues, and others before their own; perceived or real pressure to achieve more for less; and an acute sense of responsibility for the organization while at the same time feeling “unseen.”
Fundraisers often experience secondary trauma when they see the charity’s beneficiaries suffer. Reynolds, a former fundraiser who now is CEO of Anam Cara Parental and Sibling Bereavement Support, knows this firsthand.
At a recent organization event, Reynolds says, “I must have met five different people who told me their own stories around the death of a child. How can we not take that away in some way, shape, or form? Our job is to truly and deeply feel and understand the experiences of the people that our organization is caring for and find a way to share that with other people. So of course there is emotional stress.”
Fundraisers often don’t feel their pain matters, the report notes. They see traumas like cancer patients dying or children going hungry and often minimize their own personal challenges, Reynolds says. “They’re like, in comparison to what this person’s going through or what my beneficiaries are going through, this is just nothing.”
There’s also a lot of pressure to raise money, Reynolds notes. Charities “literally can’t do the work that we do unless we’re successful in fundraising,” she says. “There’s this sense of responsibility and ownership and accountability that’s there.”
How Workplaces Can Help
Both fundraisers and their bosses can work to reduce burnout.
A first step for employers: offer care, says Renee Branson, a mental health professional and consultant who works with companies to improve culture. Fundraisers often don’t get the institutional support afforded nonprofit frontline staff doing work like caring for cancer patients or sexual-assault survivors. “But they still carry the weight of that.”
Branson suggests supervisors discuss how people are feeling in regularly scheduled check-ins. “You’ve got to encourage fundraisers to normalize talking about their burnout, to talk about that vicarious trauma that they might be experiencing,” Branson says. “Asking, ‘What was difficult about today?’ Or ‘I know that you spent a lot of time talking to someone about X, Y, Z situation. And that can be a heavy thing to talk about. How are you doing after that?’”
Leaders should watch for signs of burnout and encourage fundraisers to share that they need help, Reynolds says.
“We should talk about emotional stress in team meetings,” Reynolds says. “Those should be open conversations. There should be this culture of acknowledgment right from the get-go that this can be tough.”
A culture of openness means staff doesn’t have “fear of judgment” or ridicule for talking about emotional stress, she adds. It’s crucial that leaders participate.
“You can say all the right things in the world, but if you’re not doing it yourself, the implicit message is, Well, ‘I’ll say this, but actually my expectation is what I’m doing myself,’” she says.
What Fundraisers Can Do
Not every workplace has such an open culture. But there are things you can do to foster that openness.
“If you’re a frontline fundraiser and your boss isn’t doing those reflective check-ins, then find some people within your organization or even fundraisers from other organizations to build that community and have those check-ins,” Branson says.
Also, set boundaries to avoid overworking. Individuals should find what works best for them, says Branson, who notes that some people take off work early, spend time with their family, and then hit the computer at night to finish up emails. “I never like to tell someone you shouldn’t work after whatever time at night,” she says. “Find what works for you, communicate that, negotiate that with your boss.”
Reynolds suggests setting boundaries around what matters most to you. “Figure out what’s OK and what’s not, then be really disciplined and hold yourself accountable,” she says.
People “feel more vulnerable” when they alone try to set boundaries in the organization, Reynolds says. However, she’s seen success when people start small by talking with their manager.
“Have the difficult conversation and do it in a kind and compassionate and open kind of a way,” Reynolds says. Even if an organization isn’t making support a priority, there are often teams and individual groups of people “that have beautiful cultures.’”
For Skehan, determining his priorities, setting boundaries, and focusing on his well-being has made a big difference.
“Nervous breakdowns, burnout, whatever you call it, it’s not just about the volume of things you’re dealing with. It’s about feeling like you’ve no autonomy or you’re overwhelmed,” Skehan says. “I have been busier in the past few months than I was then [during my breakdown], but I don’t feel overwhelmed. I’ve got focus, clarity of purpose, and the coping skills that I developed. I’m able to think big picture just because I’m in a different place mentally.”
