Looking after the people who look after everyone else
The charity sector runs on purpose and people. Here’s how leaders can help both to thrive. If you lead people in the charity sector, you probably know most of what I’m about to say. You know the gap between demand and resource. You know what it looks like when someone is carrying too much. And you know, likely better than most, how hard it is to prioritise your team’s wellbeing when you’re stretched yourself.
This piece is about what you can do – often with very little resource – to make a real difference to the people working alongside you. Some of it is about addressing pressure. Some of it, perhaps surprisingly, is about joy.
One research finding has stayed with me: nearly 70% of people say their manager affects their mental health as much as their partner, more than their doctor or therapist. In environments where staff and volunteers are regularly supporting people through crisis, poverty, illness or grief that figure carries particular weight.
Seeing the pressure clearly
Charity workers and volunteers often arrive with deep personal commitment to the cause. That’s a strength, and it can also mean they’re the last to say they’re struggling, because the needs of beneficiaries feel so much larger than their own. When the gap between what your team can offer and what people need is visible every day, it can take a toll that doesn’t show up neatly in a wellbeing survey.
Psychologists call it moral injury – the distress that comes from being unable to act in line with your values. It’s well documented in health and social care, and it runs through a lot of charity work too.
It shows up in small ways. For example, the caseworker who keeps thinking about a family they had to turn away, the volunteer who replays a conversation they weren’t sure they handled well, the team leader who takes on more because they don’t want to say they’re at service capacity. None of these people may describe themselves as struggling, but they are carrying something, and they need a leader who notices.
Other research shows that 45% of employees don’t feel comfortable expressing their needs at work, and 35% don’t feel safe asking for help. You can often sense this before you can measure it – in the one-to-ones where everything is always fine or with the team member who seems to absorb difficulty without ever naming it.
When people can’t bring their whole selves to work – their struggles alongside their strengths – nearly 40% say it affects their productivity and more than a quarter say it knocks their confidence. In roles that are already emotionally demanding, creating the conditions where people feel genuinely safe to speak up is what makes the work sustainable.
Situation for volunteers
Volunteers deserve the same thoughtfulness as paid staff, even though the structures around them can be thinner. They may not have access to occupational health support or formal supervision, and they’re often less likely to feel entitled to raise concerns. Yet they may be doing precisely the same emotionally demanding front-line work.
The duty of care you hold towards volunteers is real, even though they are not protected by employment law. Good practice means ensuring they have access to regular check-ins and clear signposting to support. It also means being honest about role boundaries – not placing on a volunteer an emotional load that would require professional support structures to carry safely, however willing they are to take it on.
Watch for the quiet disappearing act: volunteers who feel the weight of the work but don’t feel they can say so will often simply drift away. Some charities can lose people they’ve invested in without ever understanding why. Creating a culture where saying “I’m finding this hard” is genuinely welcomed, for volunteers as much as staff, is both good practice and good retention.
Don’t forget the joy
Something that often gets lost in conversations about workplace wellbeing is that the work your people are doing matters enormously, and many of them know it. That sense of purpose is the reason people came to the sector in the first place, and it’s one of the most powerful wellbeing resources you have. The question is whether your culture is actively drawing on it.
When did your team last stop to talk about the difference they’ve made? Not in an annual report, but in a team meeting, a check-in, a conversation over coffee? Sharing impact stories does something that no wellbeing policy can replicate. It reminds people why they’re here, and it builds the kind of pride and shared purpose that makes hard days feel worth it.
It doesn’t have to be formal or time-consuming. It can be as simple as starting a team meeting with one good thing that happened this week. Or making a habit of passing on feedback from beneficiaries when it comes in, rather than filing it away. Or asking someone, genuinely, what they’re most proud of from the last month. Or even just pausing, when something goes well, to say so.
These are small acts, but they accumulate into a culture where people feel seen and connected to the impact of their work – which is, in the end, why most of them are there.
This is especially important in environments where the outcomes can be slow, the progress is incremental or the hardship is ongoing. People need to see that what they’re doing is working, even in small ways. Leaders who make space for that, regularly and deliberately, are investing in their team’s resilience in one of the most effective ways available to them.
Good leadership in practice
Most charity leaders care deeply about this. The gap tends to be confidence and time – knowing what to say, and finding the space to say it when everything else is pressing.
The skills involved are learnable, and the actions that make the most difference are often smaller than people expect. Here are some places to start:
MAKE CHECK-INS REAL. A regular one-to-one should create space for someone to say how they’re doing, not just update you on tasks. Ask open questions. When someone tells you something is hard, try to listen before you problem-solve – people often need to feel heard before they’re ready to think about what comes next.
NAME THE EMOTIONAL CONTENT OF THE WORK. If your team regularly encounters distressing situations, acknowledge it directly. Don’t assume people are coping because they haven’t said otherwise.
CELEBRATE IMPACT, OUT LOUD AND OFTEN. Build moments into your culture where you share what’s working and who made it happen. Purpose is a wellbeing resource – and unlike most, it doesn’t cost anything to deploy.
SUPPORT MANAGERS TO MANAGE BETTER. When a team leader is struggling with people management, the most helpful thing a senior leader can do is invest in their development rather than leave them to figure it out. Many managers who create difficult environments simply haven’t had the training or support they need.
BUILD IN RECOVERY, NOT JUST RESILIENCE. Resilience without recovery is endurance on a timer. Think about what genuine rest looks like for your team: proper supervision, reflective practice, clear role boundaries and real permission to step back when something has been particularly hard.
The long game
Leading a charity is about trying to hold values and sustainability in the same hand. It requires the deliberate attention that any charity leader should bring to their team. The people who show up for your beneficiaries every day – paid and volunteer – deserve that attention. And most leaders want to give it. The challenge is rarely motivation. It’s finding the confidence and language to act – and knowing that small, consistent actions are enough to make a real difference to your culture and your people.
And that includes you. The charity sector needs its leaders to be well, not just their teams. The same permission you’re trying to give the people around you applies to you too. You can’t pour from an empty cup, as the saying goes. But you also don’t have to fill it alone.
