Activities in the Burnout Aid project, implemented in the Polish-Croatian-Slovenian partnership, aim to create a system of online support for non-governmental organizations, providing measures of preventing and counteracting burnout.

Desk research was the first stage of the project. In each of the three countries, we were looking for data on burnout, to analyze:

• the current state of research on burnout,
• the presence of burnout-related issues in public discourse,
• occupational/activist burnout in the third sector.

The published summary is based on national desk research summaries and refers to sources available at the turn of year 2019 and 2020.

Our international cooperation resulted also in the qualitative study, carried out in 2020, on burnout awareness in non-governmental organizations, the specificity of the problem, the impact of burnout on the organization and the remedial measures.

In each country, we carried out 5 case studies involving NGOs working with: 

• seniors, 
• people with disabilities, 
• women, 
• migrants or refugees,
• LGBTQ+ people.

In addition to the interviews carried out in the NGOs, in 2020, we conducted expert interviews on professional and activist burnout in the third sector. The experts from the three countries invited to participate in the study, specialized in:

• psychology and psychotherapy
• psychiatry
• law
• education (including anti-discrimination education)
• activism
• institutional development of NGOs.

We hope that the results of our research will constitute an important message in the current discussion on the work culture in NGOs, will contribute to breaking the burnout taboo, and will be the basis for taking the necessary remedial actions.