#130 | Are fundraising professionals prone to tolerate toxic work environments?

I am always grateful for the opportunity to have a conversation with community leaders in advance of my visits. I appreciated having some of Debbie’s time earlier this week to make a connection, learn a little something about the community and hear the ideas and topics might be of particular interest to those in the Tampa Bay Area.

What certainly seems like a timely conversation and one that I suspect many will find time to wrestle with in the coming weeks is whether fundraising professionals are prone to tolerating toxic work environments and what responsibility do nonprofit leaders have to ensure a healthy environment for their fundraisers to work in. The foreseeable time away from the office will give many of us the opportunity to contemplate these types of questions. Some of us will contemplate the Importance of taking care of ourselves and reflect on whether we are currently in the right place.

I often encourage fundraising professionals to ask themselves whether their job description counter-productive; for example, bogged down by work habits that lock them behind a desk every day rather than creating opportunities for more meaningful engagement with others. Debbie and I agreed that asking these types of questions creates the healthy tension that is necessary for addressing a problem and offers us an opportunity to be a part of a solution rather than allowing the problem to fester.

As always, we are grateful for OneCause’s support of The Fundraising Talent Podcast.