Non-profit leaders should look after their own wellbeing too

Since 2020, we have been privileged to support 100s of small charity and non-profit organisations who partner with their local housing association to support tenants and the wider community.

The Resilience Programme is funded by the Fusion21 Foundation, Clarion Futures and Places Foundation with several other housing associations nominating small community organisations to benefit from the support on offer.  All participating organisations receive a package of bespoke consultancy and/or coaching support from Almond Tree Strategic Consulting and most are invited to apply for a core costs grant to help them embed their learning from that support.

Two recent celebration and peer learning events for the latest cohort of participating organisations gave us invaluable insight both into the impact of the programme and the pressures facing leaders of small community-led organisations.

It was incredibly heartening to hear about the positive, in many cases transformational, impacts on these organisations. The benefits they spoke about included a wide range of practical improvements to the management and governance of their organisations, including significant amounts of new funding they have secured as a result of our help.

Perhaps the most compelling benefit described by almost all delegates at these events was the positive impact our support has had on the mental health and wellbeing of the leaders of participating organisations.

It is clear that these amazing people operate under considerable pressure to keep their organisations afloat and grow their impact, and that many do this on top of stressful personal and family situations. Many of them really are a “force of nature” in their community.

Of course, we have not been providing direct mental health and wellbeing support; we are not therapists.

What delegates spoke about was that our consultants have providing them with space to share their burden, explore solutions and help them focus on what really matters to make the biggest difference to their work. Many of them said that simply having validation from an independent expert that they can set aside the things that are less important provides a release and relief that enables them to get on with what matters and feel good about the difference they are making in their community. In some cases, it has even been as simple as reassuring them that what they are doing is good and helping them find simple, easy to implement ways to build on that and grow the impact of their work.

We are proud to have played a part in this and excited to be working with the next cohort of small community organisations.

It has also set us thinking about whether and how we and our partners in The Resilience Programme, could be more deliberate in support the mental health and wellbeing of community organisation leaders. Their work is the glue that binds communities together and we all have a responsibility to ensure they do not fall part in the process.

It’s too early for us to have reached any conclusions on the next step, but for now we simply want to encourage all non-profit leaders to take time and give themselves space to nurture their own wellbeing. You are amazing people and we salute you, but you need to look after yourselves.

To find out more about how we can help your charity or community organisation, please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to arrange free initial telephone discussion.