Every day, we witness the vital role that foundations, associations, and informal movements play in the development of civil society, fostering a sense of community, fulfilling the educational mission, and supporting those in need.
Since we’ve spent years working in the third sector in our countries, we are aware of what the reality of educational and activist work in NGOs looks like. We knew that educators and activists put a lot of effort in such work and commitment and this often leads to burnout. However, we had no idea just how widespread this phenomenon was, and the knowledge available about its causes and effects was fragmented and unstructured.
Therefore, our first step was research. We did desk research and in-depth interviews with local teams of organizations (including employees, volunteers, and leaders) operating in environments that require exceptional commitment in Poland, Croatia, and Slovenia. We also interviewed female experts from these three countries. We gained insight into the organizational, financial, and emotional difficulties linked to work in the third sector. A lack of support in crisis, management problems, a lack of supervision, or shifting the responsibility for burnout onto individuals are just some of the challenges NGO workers and teams have to face.
We structured the collected information, which allowed us to assess the scale of the problem, identify its causes and effects both on organizations and individuals. We launched the Burnout Aid portal where we gathered knowledge about professional and activist burnout, along with educational materials and specific tools to help recognize, prevent, and counteract burnout, including a test to assess burnout risk for teams, employees and activists.
