In this episode of The First Day from The Fund Raising School, Bill Stanczykiewicz, Ed.D., is joined by Amanda Sattler, PhilD, consultant and researcher with Amanda Sattler Consulting, to examine fundraiser burnout and why solving it requires more than self-care.
Drawing on more than 20 years of fundraising experience, including two significant periods of burnout in her own career, Sattler explains that fundraisers can be physically, mentally, emotionally, and relationally healthy and still struggle when their organizations fail to provide adequate resources, support, and shared leadership. Fundraisers have a responsibility to care for and advocate for themselves, but organizations and sector leaders must also recognize burnout as a systemic issue.
Sattler describes several workplace conditions that can contribute to burnout, including excessive workload, lack of fairness, conflicting values, and weak relationships. Because the causes differ, the solutions must differ as well. Reducing workload may not solve a fairness problem, just as higher compensation may not address isolation. Effective responses require diagnosing the real issue and building stronger partnerships among fundraisers, CEOs, supervisors, boards, and colleagues.
Bill and Amanda also discuss the challenge of “leading up” when fundraisers are not in the organization’s ultimate decision-making role. Sattler encourages fundraisers to raise concerns before burnout reaches a crisis and to connect those conversations to organizational outcomes. Investments in staffing, technology, training, and other resources are not simply employee benefits. They directly affect fundraising capacity and, ultimately, mission delivery.
The conversation then expands to the nonprofit sector’s long-standing scarcity mindset and the “myth of overhead.” Using the job demands-resources model, Sattler explains that burnout becomes more likely when demands consistently exceed available resources. External pressures such as the COVID-19 pandemic or losses in government funding can intensify the problem, but often reveal organizational fragility that already existed because of chronic underinvestment in people, systems, fundraising capacity, and indirect costs.
Sattler proposes a different approach: “human-centered stewardship,” where sustaining the people responsible for generating and deploying resources is treated as part of responsible nonprofit management. She also encourages fundraisers to build connections outside their organizations through professional associations, peer communities, training, and continuing education. Those relationships may not solve internal challenges, but they can provide critical support and perspective.
The central takeaway is simple: caring for fundraisers is not separate from caring for the mission. Creating sustainable conditions for the people responsible for generating resources is essential to creating sustainable impact.
