Non-profits make the world go ‘round, with almost two million non-profit organizations in the United States alone. Nearly every person in every community has benefited from a non-profit and the incredible teams who lead them.
As a leader of a non-profit, you know the importance of your organization to your community, and you’re always learning and adapting. You know that you’re supposed to pay attention to disruptive forces, and position yourself to grow and make continued positive change. You know the importance of avoiding mission drift.
But you also know you can’t stay focused, stick to your mission, or grow your organization if you’re burning the candle at both ends. The work behind the scene determines the front-facing success.
If the work is drowning you, your organization is in trouble.
Non-Profit Leaders And The Problem Of Burnout
A 2020 study found that 42% of non-profit workers felt their jobs were harmful to their health. 90% who eventually left non-profit work did so because of burnout.
Non-profit work is unlike anything else.
There’s the usual work burden that all leaders experience, but there is also an emotional aspect. You’re trying to accomplish amazing things and convince people to partner with you to solve problems and make things better. The emotional cart you push is heavy.
Burnout reveals itself in some obvious ways: sleepless nights, substance abuse, unhealthy habits, feeling frazzled, and being unable to cope. Sometimes even the minor sense that you can’t quite finish any of your to-do lists on time. But the start of burnout isn’t always so obvious. You might not feel physical or emotional weariness (yet) but there’s a struggle with unfinished work or a constant state of distraction.
To avoid burnout, you don’t need another set of self-help tools.
You need another set of hands.
You need to bring on more staff to help carry the workload and save you from joining the 90% who let burnout drive them from the work they love.
How Remote Staffing Keeps You On Mission
A 2013 survey of non-profit leaders revealed that one of the top challenges they faced was in managing their team.
But it might not start out that way.
Maybe you began your non-profit on your own, and happily experienced growth until one day you felt overwhelmed instead of excited by it all.
When growth overcomes your capacity, it starts to become an anchor that weighs your organization down.
Your team has to grow with the demands your clients have. Remote staffing is the best way to keep you on mission without missing a single beat. Here’s how it does that.
Bring on top talent quickly.
Several of our clients are founders of growing non-profit organizations, and they all experienced that moment when they knew they needed to onboard help quickly. However, they needed someone who had the unique experience that a non-profit requires.
Normally, their only option was a long recruitment and hiring process to search out the talent and bring them on board. That adds time and distraction, exacerbating the problem you’re trying to solve.
Remote staffing puts an end to all that.
For example, when you come to Boldly, you skip the recruitment and three-month hiring process altogether, getting a virtual executive assistant in as little as three days. And, because we’ve vetted our team very carefully (as in, sifting through tens of thousands of applicants!), we make sure you get the top-shelf skills and experience you need.
Get a good match.
Remember the emotional aspect of burnout?
A successful non-profit is one where everyone is on the same page. Culture is key. There are few other spheres of business where it’s so important that your team is meshing well. Non-profits have an emotional impact and connection in their work, and if you’re clashing with the personalities of the team, it’s going to hurt the mission.
It’s one of the reasons a core part of our process is making sure that you not only get a great skills and experience match, but that your new virtual executive assistant is also a personality fit. In fact, we think this is so important that we put this in our guarantee.
Use remote staff help with personal support.
Sometimes small things distract from the big picture. It’s like a fly at a picnic, buzzing around and keeping you from enjoying your food. There are aspects of being a busy leader that are peripheral to the mission but are important to handle because they can still distract from the mission.
Leaders are human. They have lives with responsibilities that have to be met. Appointment booking. Travel plans. Expense reports. Bursting email inboxes. All of these “small” things act like a giant fly buzzing around, nagging you and keeping you from focusing on doing your best work.
Your remote executive assistant can easily handle this kind of personal support.
Protect your time and budget.
Non-profits often have tight budgets.
You know you have to accomplish a lot with minimal expenditure, keeping an eye on the bottom line while still remaining flexible for periods of growth or increased demand in services.
Bringing on new staff, no matter how much you need it, is sometimes prohibited simply because the cost of a new hire—which can be around $4K—is too high. This is why people turn to temp agencies, freelancers, and staffing services, hoping to solve both the time and cost problem.
Freelancers are independent contractors, and that brings in all sorts of concerns about compliance with employment laws. Staffing agencies often provide you with someone on a contract basis. Whether you need fewer or more hours from them doesn’t matter; you are limited by the contract you signed.
We don’t think either of those options are helpful for you, so we offer our fully compliant W2 employees to you on a subscription model. Instead of worrying about employment laws and legal requirements, you get worry-free top talent. Instead of being locked into a contract, you pay a monthly subscription fee based on the hours you need.
There’s no longer a roadblock to bringing on the help you need. We’d love to talk to you today and help keep you from burnout so your organization can continue to make the world a better place.
Topic: Remote Staffing
