Burnout Isn't Inevitable with Abbey Harlow | Nonprofit411 Podcast

Abbey Harlow works with rural nonprofits, and she'll tell you burnout isn't a personal failing.Abbey Harlow founded Harlow Nonprofit Consulting in 2022, after twenty years in nonprofit strategy, fundraising, and facilitation. She came in sideways: music venues, a semester interning at a Smithsonian museum, then fundraising jobs at museums and performing arts organizations. She works from rural Vermont, where she grew up and lives now, and she helps stretched teams move out of survival mode.Abbey walks through an exercise she runs with rural leaders. Write down everything you did in the last week. Sort each item into one of four quadrants: urgent and important, urgent but not important, and so on. Then look at what surprised you, and which quadrant took more of your week than you meant to give it. The last question is the one that does the work: what could you have delegated, and if there's nobody to delegate to, what could you have not done, and how would that have felt? Most of us keep carrying tasks because we assume something bad happens if we stop. Naming the task makes that assumption testable.If the only advice you've been given about burnout is to take better care of yourself, this conversation offers a different place to look.In this episode:The three things rural leaders named when Abbey surveyed them: funding, isolation, and burnoutWhy the burnout conversation starts with a sector-wide belief about mission work, not with the individualThe four-quadrant exercise she runs with leaders, and the question at the end of itA few ideas to apply at your nonprofit:Write down everything you did last week and sort it by urgent and important. Look for the quadrant that took more of your week than you meant to give it.Pick one task you've been carrying and ask what would actually happen if it didn't get done. Test that assumption before you keep paying for it.Try one micro boundary. One leader Abbey works with stopped answering email the minute it arrived, and found that some things resolved without her.Resources MentionedConnect with AbbeyHarlow Nonprofit Consulting: https://www.harlownonprofitconsulting.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harlownonprofitconsultingRural Nonprofit Leader Summit: https://www.harlownonprofitconsulting.com/rural-nonprofit-leader-summitConnect with SarahNonprofit411: https://www.nonprofit411.orgLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nonprofit411The Generosity Roadmap for Nonprofits, a free class to explore the systems that keep community at the heart of fundraising: https://nonprofit411.org/generosity_mapChapters00:00 Introduction09:47 Funding, isolation, burnout11:57 Squeezing water from dry sponges19:22 Burnout starts with the system20:49 The four-quadrant exercise29:23 What every rural leader should know