It’s been one thing after the other, hasn’t it? We are living in an unprecedented time in our country, while managing unprecedented levels of anxiety. In the wake of a pandemic from which we have yet to fully recover and a looming election that has everyone in a mind whirl, we have yet to take one collective exhale. Some have even coined this era as The Great Exhaustion.
It’s a weight that so many of us have been barely able to lift. But in this struggle, we started to name what has been ailing us all: our collective fatigue—and continuing on was simply not sustainable. It was time to quit molding our lives to fit a corporate culture that never actually served us. It was time for a real change.
The subtle rebellion of Quiet Quitting and The Great Resignation gave us the confidence to raise our expectations of the kind of life we deserve—one that moved away from a business-needs-first lifestyle to a human-needs-first lifestyle,where our needs as human beings are prioritized and valued. And corporations are taking notice.
A recent employee wellness trend report found that 91% of the surveyed companies were investing more in mental healthcare in 2024 than in 2023 and 66% were allocating more resources towards stress management. When companies invest in holistic wellness, it sends a powerful message. It shows that they value their employees not just as workers, but as multi-faceted individuals with needs and aspirations.
Of course, this recent surge in employee wellness support is not just happening out of corporate altruism. It’s largely about damage control. Study after study shows that burnout, exhaustion, and mental distance from the job are bad for business—and we know this. Increasing rates of distress have intensified absenteeism, presenteeism (attending work while ill, but not at full capacity), and labor turnover. According to the World Health Organization, depression and anxiety cost the global economy US $1 trillion each year. If corporations want to attract and retain their talent, they have to provide competitive benefits that meet the needs of not just the worker, but the whole human being.
Today, we are seeing clear signs that we’re heading toward a human-centric era. The most encouraging one is that organizations now realize that health is actually wealth, and that wellness support is a reliable long-term investment.
For example, along with stock options and traditional benefits, Netflix offers employees access to free counseling and coaching sessions along with mindfulness and meditation programs. Microsoft’s employee assistance program provides 24/7 online counseling as well as telephone appointments, face-to-face sessions, and a mental health app.
However, as encouraging as it is that corporations are putting serious dollars towards a healthier and happier workforce, we must acknowledge that it is—yet again—going to a select few, particularly those who have the opportunity to work at corporations that are known to have the deepest pockets.
In the nonprofit sector, the high levels of burnout among employees are well-known. Despite being tasked with solving the deepest structural issues in our country, many non-profit employees are left to do the work without the necessary resources, planning and bandwidth. We’re navigating our society’s broken system while working inside another broken system—it just doesn’t work.
And there’s research to support this. Recent research from the Stanford Social Innovation Review shows that half of all nonprofit employees are burned out or close to burnout. A survey conducted by Nonprofit HR shows us that it’s actually impacting retention with 25% of nonprofit employees planning to leave their current job, 45% looking for a new job, and 23% considering leaving the nonprofit sector altogether.
At the heart of social impact work has always been Black women, who have experienced the brunt of this. According to a recent study, a staggering 88% of Black women experience burnout at work. In addition to facing unique challenges, such as systemic racism, gender discrimination, and cultural expectations, we operate in environments where we are tasked to whip up solutions to centuries old problems.
Outside of work, Black women shoulder even heavier burdens. For generations, we have assumed caregiving roles within our families, providing care for young and old, along with emotional and financial support. Black women are more likely than any other demographic to be the primary caregivers for both family members and friends. Add to that the physical threats we are facing with the highest levels of maternal mortality and violence in our own communities.
In a time where our democracy is hanging by a thread, we can’t afford to continue to neglect Black women’s emotional and physical health. We desperately need their experience and ingenuity to help us find the way to a more just and equitable society. The nonprofit sector needs to take note anddouble down on support for those who are leading the change and who are continuously asked to do so much with so little. To build a world of uninterrupted progress for justice, we have got to invest in Black women. And not only for short-term progress, but as real human beings who are imagining and building multigenerational change that impacts all of us, including our national prosperity.
For the last few years, the organization I lead, The Highland Project, has been centered around investing in the brilliance of Black women leaders. Our approach to social change is to think holistically and make long-term investments in the leader driving the solution, rather than just the solution itself. By providing financial capital and communities of care, we have seen amazing, transformative things take place when we invest in the human.
Highland Leaders report that when they are sustained, the sustainability of the change they’re leading can have a multi-generational impact. Practically all of them (98%) said that support from The Highland Project has increased their motivation for advancing multi-generational visions and 87% found that greater focus on personal wellbeing allowed them to clarify, modify, and refine that legacy-building.
We believe that we have tapped into a formula for creating truly groundbreaking possibilities for social innovation and that our learnings can help inform and inspire the nonprofit sector to truly invest in Black women. Because if we want to philanthropy to fuel the power and purpose to truly innovate our world and sustain change, we must learn how to sustain the people who drive it.
Black women have always managed to make the most with less. Just imagine what we could do with more. Health is wealth—not just in terms of corporate profit margins, but for building a richer future for generations to come.