JANUARY 1996
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 5 / $5.00
PhilanthropyJoumal
High-stakes sector
Burnout takes toll on nonprofit leaders, programs
While the problem of burnout is a
much-talked-about issue in the
nonprofit sector, nonprofit lead
ers say it too often is ignored in
favor of other concerns.
By Barbara Solow
Nan Holbrook Griswold keeps a
list of behavioral “don’ts” on the wall
of her office at the Fbod Bank of
Northwest North Carolina in
Winston-Salem.
The list is a reminder of conduct
that can lead to burnout. Among the
behaviors and attitudes she seeks to
avoid are “illusions of control,” “per
fectionism” and “tunnel vision.”
When she talks about burnout,
AAANAGING
Griswold uses language associated
with 12-step recovery programs. And
that’s no accident.
Five years ago, she had a mild
stroke while working on a capital
campaign for the food bank. While
Griswold’s stroke was not directly
caused by her job, the experience led
her to reexamine her habits and
address what she describes as a clas
sic case of workaholism.
“There truly is a work addiction in
nonprofits,” Griswold says. “Work
addiction is the only addiction you get
praised for. I’m also a challenge
addict - give me a challenge and I’m
going to do it. But what you find is
that you start to lose your productivi
ty and your creativity when you try to
do too much.”
Doing too much is a well-known
occupational hazard in the nonprofit
sector - experienced by everyone
from volunteer board members to
executive directors to staff.
But while individuals have tried to
address the problem by venting to co
workers, finding outside hobbies or -
as Griswold did - taking advantage of
foundation-sponsored sabbatical pro
grams - the sector as a whole has
tended to avoid solutions.
Nonprofit leaders know they are
ignoring the issue of burnout at their
peril.
“We’re losing a lot of people,”
says Annette Smith, who
directs the Carrboro-based
North Carolina Alliance for
Arts Education. “I can
think of six peers in the
arts that are no longer
working in the field and
have no intention of ever
working in the field
again because of the
burnout.”
In an era when non
profits are being called
upon to do more with fewer
resources, many worry that
burnout could become even
more common.
“If we continue with our present
pattern of organizing our work in the
sector and we have these increas
ing demands from government
program shifts, it’s going to be
an extraordinary challenge
for the leadership of organi
zations,” says Valeria Lee,
program officer for the Z.
Smith Reynolds Foundation
in Winston-Salem.
DANGEROUS PA'TTERNS
Burnout might be a much-
talked-about issue in the
nonprofit sector but those dis
cussions most often take place
behind the scenes.
A number of people interviewed
for this story agreed to speak only on
Look for BURNOUT, page 19
New markets
The arts take on
tou^ leading role
This article is the second in a series
that will examine the response of
nonprofit leaders to the new prior
ities of policy leaders in
Washington and Raleigh. The topic
is also the focus of Philanthropy
’96, the state’s annual nonprofit
conference, sponsored by the
Philanthropy Journal.
By Sean Bailey
We have the arts to thank for keeping
things tense.
For some, there always seems to be
another pubUc art project to squawk
about, another movie to picket, another
rapper release to consider censoring.
Art, at the edge of its creation, at its
moment of inception, often stirs our pas
sions, challenges our values and even
threatens our view of the world. So it’s
not surprising that art often elicits a
strong reaction.
Essayist E. Louis Lankford describes
the tense and complicated relationship
between art and society as one “brun-
mingwith misunderstanding, arrogance
and suspicion.”
But for all the heat that surrounds
the arts, the truth is that from large
cities like Charlotte to small towns like
Gamer, the arts are thriving in North
Carolina. Whether it’s musemns, gal
leries, and performing arts centers, or
poetry readings, dance performances
and ^ classes, the home state of the
leading opponent of pubhc-supported
arts, Jesse Helms, seems engaged in a
full-fledged celebration of the arts.
THE NEXT REVOLUTION
“It’s not the sense of gloom and doom
that someone might think from reading
the paper,” says Robert Maddrey, presi
dent of Arts North Carolina, an associa
tion for state arts groups.
Arts groups have a great advantage
over other types of nonprofit organiza
tions: The arts are fun. That’s probably
the arts’ great strength. People enjoy
attending many varied events. Wealthy
contributors relish being associated
with symphonies, operas and playhous
es.
Still, the arts do not exist in a vacu
um. The current poUtical and economic
environment affects the arts just like
nonprofits in other fields. And as arts
leaders plan how to guide their organi
zations through the last half of this
decade, they realize they must confront
key issues regarding how to improve
public awareness of their work, develop
better funding sources, collaborate with
in and across sectors, and prove that
their programs are successful.
IMPROVING AWARENESS
It’s ironic that the arts have a prob
lem with their message. The one seg
ment of the nonprofit world that is pur
posefully engaged in communicating
with the public as its primary mission, in
fact, faces serious challenges about how
the public views its work and mission.
“There’s a perception that the arts,
and the people who work with arts oi^-
nizations, are somehow outside the gen-
Look for ARTS, page 9
The arts are part of learning at Bugg Elementary in
Raleigh. Here, Jacqueline Jordan and her 4th grade
class make up a rhyme as part of a map lesson.
As Rudolph the Reindeer, Christy Davenport (left) and
other Bugg special-education students rehearse for
performance at a Garner senior citizens center.
Photos by Elaine Westorp
Successful track record
Cutbacks
spotlight
community
development
Community development's integrated
approach to improving social and economic
conditions in poor neighborhoods may
attract more attention as government
reduces its role in many social programs.
By Merrill Wolf
For nearly three decades, community develop
ment corporations - nonprofit organizations run
by residents of poor, usually African-American
nei^borhoods - have quietly and successfully
tackled many seemin^y intractable problems in
both urban and rural America.
Each year, they build or rehabihtate hundreds
of thousands of homes for people who otherwise
could not afford them; provide job training and
create tens of thousands of jobs for the chronical
ly unemployed; and generally take on the work of
restoring hope to dying communities.
The many tangible achievements of communi
ty development corporations - or CDCs - have
gone largely unnoticed by mainstream society but
their relative anonymity may end soon.
At a November meeting in Durham, the direc
tor of their national trade association told repre
sentatives of North Carolina’s CDCs to prepare
for the limehght.
Stephen Glaude, president of the National
Congress for Community Economic Development
Look tor COMMUNITY, page 22
: NONPROFITS
i FOUNDATIONS
1 VOLUNTSERS
CORPORATE GIVING
...3
Dance company
Farm coalition
Volunteers market
Paint executive
.16
.16
closes funding gap
digs for answers
Third World crafts
devoted to kids
?n
The African-American Dance
A sustainable-agriculture
A network of nonprofit stores
RD. Williams has spent hun-
in
Ensemble in Durham hopes
coalition hopes to identify
is forging links between Third
dreds of hours helping the
.17
to shed the tumult of staff
common problems and sup-
World artisans and con-
state's Support Our Students
.18
turnover and a serious cash-
port local initiatives to look
sumers in the developed
after-school program take
flow crisis.
for solutions.
world.
root.
• Page 4
• Page 6
• Pages
• Page 12
INSIDE
People.
; FUNDRAISING
Olympic fundraisers
find corporate gold
This summer's Olympic
Gomes in Atlanta present
fundraisers with a task of
Olympian proportion.
Page 14