General Service Foundation

Are you wondering “How can funders support nonprofit workers in the age of burnout?!” This week on our podcast, we’ve got another great example of how! We're pleased to speak with Desiree Flores, Executive Director of the General Service Foundation. https://lnkd.in/eZE7P9DQ This episode spotlights how this foundation has made an ongoing commitment to supporting “healing justice” as a major part of its grantmaking. As stated on the General Service website, "Social justice work can be affirming, invigorating, and nourishing. But for leaders in the struggle, the work can also be rife with conflict, overwork, isolation, trauma, and oppression...we have heard movement leaders struggling increasingly with burnout and exhaustion. At GSF, we’ve been exploring how we, as funders, can support movements in creating space to cultivate resilience, wholeness, and well-being among the individuals and organizations that comprise our movements." Toward that end, since 2018 General Service Foundation has funded healing justice work in two ways: — Supporting organizations that offer healing and resilience services and trainings to social justice leaders and organizations, and — Supporting the Foundation's grant partners (aka grantees) with healing justice stipends. This is the third in our three-episode series called "How Funders Can Support Nonprofit Workers in the Age of Burnout." The precious episodes feature Jamie Allison and Jennifer Roller, CEOs of Walter & Elise Haas Fund and The Raymond John Wean Foundation respectively. You can binge all three episodes in the series in our Spotify Playlist! (No login required) https://lnkd.in/eKrb8PYT. You can also catch all these episodes on our website at https://lnkd.in/eqVwAMep, or on our podcast feed (search for Fund the People and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.) This episode and the series are based on Fund the People's presentation at the Center for Effective Philanthropy Conference in Fall of 2023. Our session focused on how funders can support nonprofit workers in the age of burnout. Thanks again to CEP for including us in the conference. Thanks to Desiree Flores for being part of the panel and the podcast! And thanks to Loftis Partners for sponsoring this season! We’ve got more great guests coming up this season. Next week our guest will be Shaheer Mustafa, CEO of HopeWell Inc, a major foster care nonprofit in Massachusetts. He’ll discuss building out an HR department at a large legacy social service nonprofit, nonprofit-government relations, and navigating his organization through the burnout crisis in the nonprofit workforce.

One of the most oversimplified misperceptions of #trustbasedphilanthropy is that it is about giving money with no strings. This is misinformation, and quite frankly, a distraction. I encourage the skeptics to get a little curious and do their homework before making claims against it. Pass it on.