In June, CVNC welcomed Dr. Devin M. Moran, founder of The Joy Praxis, to facilitate a workshop exploring leadership wellness, burnout, and sustainable practices for nonprofit leaders. In this guest reflection, Dr. Moran revisits that conversation and shares practical ways leaders can make care part of their everyday work.
Community-based work asks a lot of us. The needs are real, funding cycles are tight, and the work matters deeply. It can feel like there is never a good time to slow down. In June, I had the privilege of spending a morning with CVNC leaders on a question many leaders quietly carry, what if caring for ourselves isn’t a break from leadership, but part of it? I hope these reflections support leaders who are feeling stretched, and those that want to stay well before they get there.
1. Burnout and Stress are not the same thing.
It is important to make a distinction that changes how we lead. Stress is typically short-term and situational. It comes from a deadline, an event, or a crisis. It often eases with rest or completion. Burnout is chronic. It shows up as exhaustion, detachment, and a shrinking sense of effectiveness. It can impair judgement and increase reactivity.
In the non-profit sector, burnout is fueled by chronic urgency, a pattern where everything feels critical and there is little room to reflect. That urgency is rooted in real pressures like community need, funding or systemic inequity. But living in constant fight or flight narrows our thinking and strains our relationships. Burnout is not a personal failure. It is a predictable result of sustained imbalance between demand and resources.
2. Care is a leadership practice, not an indulgence.
Leaders who model rest, clear boundaries, and emotional regulation give their teams permission to do the same. Rested leaders make better strategic decisions and respond to conflict with more thoughtfulness. Joy and care are not opposites of rigor and accountability. They make rigor sustainable.
3. Sustainable leadership needs structure and shared responsibility.
Willpower alone won’t protect our capacity. Calendar buffers, realistic deadlines, and protected focus time do more than good intentions. Organizations can also align work with real capacity, build in rhythms of recovery, shift from urgency toward intentionality, share responsibility and model care from the top.
Before your next week begins, finish this sentence: “This week, I commit to______.” Then ask yourself what might get in your way, and plan for it. Who on your team could share some of the load? What would change if your calendar reflected your values?
Practices you can try:
Check your capacity honestly. Ask yourself whether you are grounded, managing, strained or depleted, and notice what that means for the decisions in front of you.
Map your drainers and restorers. List what depletes you and what restores you. Then add to the list each week.
Take a three-minute breathing reset. Do this between meetings. Mindfulness isn’t about clearing your mind or doing it perfectly. It is a learnable skill for pausing instead of reacting.
Looking back on our time together, the biggest takeaway for me is that care is not separate from the mission. It is what makes the mission sustainable. I closed our workshop with an affirmation, and I’ll leave you with it:
I deserve rest. My well-being strengthens my leadership. Joy is a practice I commit to.
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Dr. Devin M. Moran is a teacher educator, consultant, womanist, and founder of The Joy Praxis. With 15+ years in K-12 and higher education, she researches Black feminist pedagogies and intergenerational joy and helps educators and organizations imagine a more equitable world with purposeful joy at the center.
Dr. Moran earned her PhD in Educational Leadership, Culture & Curriculum from Miami University, her M.S. Ed in Educational Administration from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and her BA in English and Allied Language Arts (Secondary Teaching) from Western Kentucky University. She is also a BEST-certified postpartum doula.
