GUELPH POLITICAST #472 - The Burnout is Real, and Now There's Data (feat. Anouk Bertner)

Last week, Future of Good released their first ever Changemaker Wellbeing Index, which highlights the pressures facing the workers in the non-profit sector and the results paint an increasingly bleak picture. They also paint a coherent picture, putting together the various pieces that we’ve been hearing about these last few years: Organizations are struggling for money, staff and volunteers, and now we have the data!

The Changemaker Wellbeing Index surveyed 1,100 Canadian non-profit workers, from frontline staff to senior leaders. Future of Good worked with GreenShield, ATB Financial, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, WES Mariam Assefa Fund, Definity Insurance Foundation and United Way Centraide Canada, while Environics Research did the heavy lifting with the surveying. What they learned was kind of shocking.

Of the 1,100 people surveyed, 36 per cent said that they "often or always" feel burned out or exhausted, 31 per cent said that they experience food insecurity, and that rises to 48 per cent for frontline staff,  and one-in-three non-profit workers said that they’re ready to quit. At issue is low wages, and half of entry-level workers say they're struggling because of it, so what lessons can we take from this survey and what solutions can be put in action?

Anouk Bertner, who is the executive director of Future of Good, will join us to talk about those lessons and more on this edition of the podcast. She will talk about how they put together the Index, and the methodology they used to get the most accurate picture possible. She will also talk about the perceptions of non-profit work, why arts and culture workers are being hit the hardest, why compensation is not the end of the story here, and why more money may not be the answer.

So let's talk about the state of Canada's non-profits in this week's Guelph Politicast!

You can learn more about Future of Good at their website, which is where you can find a direct link to their Changemaker Wellbeing Index and get all the information and statistics that we talked about on this pod. If you’re interested in helping out local non-profits here in Guelph and Wellington, you can can see the list of various community services at 211 Ontario, and you can see a list of volunteer opportunities through the United Way website.

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