Written by Allison Howe

Executive Director/CEO Sabbatical – Win, win and win!

Working as an executive director in the nonprofit sector has been somewhat stressful over the last few years. Nonprofit leaders are known for trying to do the best they can with limited resources. But the last few years have been especially taxing: the pandemic, the swing of social reckoning with everything from abortion rights to racial justice, the ratcheting down of resources for nonprofits and the people we serve. Executive directors are tired.

As the child of a professor, I remember my father received an opportunity to have a sabbatical every seven years. For my family, that meant that we lived in England for six months while my father did his work abroad. The idea for a professor is to get a chance to focus on his research, and also to refresh and get some new perspectives on his work intellectually. 

After working at NonProfitConnect for seven and a half years. I am thrilled to say that I am taking a sabbatical. I was very nervous to ask my Board Chair and Board Chair-elect if I could take that time, but do you know what they said? “You absolutely should!” 

Here’s a little more background… A year ago, I hired an incredibly smart, hardworking Director of Operations. She has developed rapidly and has taken on a large part of the work that I had previously been doing. This is allowing me to expand all of our programs, especially our board consulting work. It also gives NonProfitConnect an opportunity to develop a sustainable succession plan.

When I worked as Vice President of Health Services at the Planned Parenthood Association of the Mercer Area several years ago, my executive director at the time chose to take a sabbatical. She gave me the opportunity to serve as Acting Executive Director when she was gone. And although it was during a time that was not our most challenging time of year (ie. summer in NJ, no board meetings scheduled), I did have to handle some larger issues that surfaced. It was a way for me to grow professionally without the full responsibility of being an executive director.

I am writing this to share with other nonprofit leaders and board members the idea for consideration of offering a sabbatical for longtime leaders.

Nonprofits are only able to finance so many perks while requesting that employees, especially leaders, put their heart and souls into their work. What a gift to be able to take two months off to refresh and to give our future leaders a chance to practice leading at a higher level! Maybe even offer this to all of our hard working employees who have given their entire life’s work to a nonprofit. How much more productive and how high will their morale be when they return?

If you are reading this right now, I am gone (yes, I made sure all was in place before I left). And I know that our Acting Executive Director is doing an amazing job while I am recharging so that I can come back and be my best for NonProfitConnect and my community.