Greetings Subscriber First Name, and Happy October! Shout out to all my fellow Libras in the house ⚖️

So, what’s a trust recession you ask? It’s when the collective consciousness feels an increase it skepticism, doubt, and a reluctance to being in relationship with others. It makes perfect sense why our society is in a trust recession. The endless news cycle reminds us again and again why we absolutely cannot and should not trust certain politicians, corporations, and media outlets.

But the trust recession also shows up in our own communities—I’m hearing so many stories like these:

staff losing faith in leadership…

leadership feeling doubtful of their boards…

boards feeling skeptical of funders…

funders feeling cautious about working with nonprofits.

Navigating a trust recession is pulling us deeper into the depths of my least favorite B word: Burnout.

Funny enough, burnout has everything to do with trust. I’m going to do a little truth- and story-telling to make this connection:

Before I founded Do Good Leadership Collective, I worked as an in-house nonprofit professional for 11 years. In that time, I experienced not one, not two, but THREE bouts of nonprofit burnout.

I shared my first burnout story earlier this week on LinkedIn. I was in my early 20s navigating vicarious trauma as a frontline worker within the criminal justice system. When I expressed this to my bosses who were 30+ years my senior, I felt deeply misunderstood and was ultimately told that they didn’t have the budget to support my wellbeing needs.

Fast forward to 2020, I was working as a grant writer. I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders as I navigated being a severely underpaid Black woman in America and trying to secure critical dollars to help keep my organization afloat. When the burnout inevitably crept in, I went to HR and asked if there was anything they could do to help a sista out. I was told the best they could do was a 25 cent p/hour raise.

A year later, I found myself at a new organization with values that I felt totally aligned with and a significant bump in my salary. And somehow, burnout still found me. My body shut down and refused to write, answer phone calls, or join meetings.

The third time must truly have been the charm, because it was in that third burnout experience that I learned how much trust was necessary in eradicating burnout from my life.

First and foremost, I had to trust myself and trust my body. In each of these stories, I didn’t realize my burnout was present until it was bordering a physical and/or mental health challenge. My body had to shut down or my emotional capacity had to crumble to signal to me that something was wrong.

Secondly, I had to surround myself with trusted colleagues who were willing to listen to my frustration and take my stories of exhaustion seriously. Some of the most painful moments of my burnout was feeling dismissed by colleagues and being led to believe that my burnout was my own fault.

Finally, I had to unlearn that last sentence and trust that burnout wasn’t a ME issue, but a SYSTEMIC one. And that is exactly why Do Good Leadership Collective exists. We’re here to protect the nonprofit workforce by centering wellbeing, trusting the lived experiences of nonprofit professionals, and challenging the systems that keep people trapped in cycles of depletion.

What I love most about our work at DGLC is that we trust that nonprofits have the answers. We know what it feels like to live a nonprofit life, and our work is to put those closest to nonprofit burnout in the decision-making seat to create solutions that support healing, recovery, and growth.

So yes, we’re in a trust recession. But my hope is that DGLC can be your partner in rebuilding trust—trust in your own intuition, trust within your teams and boards, and trust across the sector that nonprofits are powerful vehicles for change, and that the people leading them are worthy of wellbeing.