How to Build a Happy Healthy Nonprofit

This piece originally appeared on LinkedIn.

Feeling bogged down by holiday stress? I’ve got the perfect solution for you: walking meetings. When I recently reached out to Beth Kanter, the guru of social change in the digital age, she immediately wrote back and suggested we meet at “The Dish” – a radio telescope in the Stanford Hills where soccer moms, academics, and marathon runners alike meet to walk rolling hills with stunning views of the Silicon Valley. As it turns out, walking meetings are Beth Kanter’s thing, and they are my thing now, too.

Kanter’s latest book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit, with co-author Aliza Sherman, reveals a wealth of strategies just like the walking meeting, all for making an impact while avoiding burnout – a notorious feat for passion-driven nonprofit leaders. In their book, Kanter and Sherman describe how scarce funding in the nonprofit sector has led to a culture where nonprofit leaders work themselves into the ground for the causes that they care about so deeply. According to The Foundation Center, only 0.03 percent of the sector’s $1.5 trillion in annual spending goes to leadership development, leaving hardly any emphasis on self-care!

The Healthy Happy Nonprofit is a lively, practical, feel-good guide, the perfect antidote to the burnout problem. As a working mom of three, I admit to often burning both ends of the candle to get everything done, so I’m always looking for ways to take better care of myself. On a recent getaway, I devoured the book in a single sitting, and I’m confident that anyone who reads this book will come away with several nuggets for how to improve their quality of life, and make a better leader for their team. After soaking up so many great ideas from The Healthy Happy Nonprofit, here are some of the ways I’ll be practicing better self-care, starting now:

• Download a gratitude app on my phone to note things I’m grateful for throughout the day – Kanter recommends the Happier app, a great tool for staying more present and positive throughout the day.
  
  
• Make myself a green smoothie every morning to try to increase my vegetable intake – I love this recipe from Jane on Fillmore.
  
  
• Start taking one walking meeting a week - I’ll need to keep a pair of sneakers at my office so that I can go at any moment. If you don’t have a particular meeting, Kanter suggests walking 20-30 minutes daily during the work day.
  
  
• Schedule one-on-one dates with each of my three children to incorporate more alone time with them – I recently took my five year old to Pescadero for our first overnight and it was magical, so I’m looking forward to more of this.
  
  
• Give myself the permission to say no by placing a post-it on my computer screen that says “you can say no” – While this will be a hard one for me, the subtle note is a great reminder throughout the day!
  
  
• Practice 10 minutes of meditation every afternoon - I use the Headspace app, but even the timer on your phone will do the trick.
  
  
• Remove my mobile phone from the bedroom at night - I’ve been doing this lately and my head is so much clearer after not checking emails right before bed. Not quite ready to commit? Be sure to activate “Night Mode” on your phone, which automatically shifts the colors on your display to a warmer spectrum, making for a better night’s sleep. 
  
  
• Turn off notifications on my iphone and check my email less frequently – This one has been a game changer for me, as I now check my email and social media on my own terms.
  
  
• Start doing one 6am cycling class a week before my kids wake up – Waking up an hour early once a week is totally doable, and makes me feel so much better going into the day.
  
  
• Take more bubble baths to wind down at the end of the day – An easy luxury I will not deny!
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There, I said it out loud, so now I’m accountable. Ultimately, to have healthy organizations, we have to start with ourselves. Only then will we be able to maximize our potential for social change. So what are the things that you will do to practice self-care? 

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