Beyond “Psychic Income”: An Exploration of Interventions to Address Work-Life Imbalances, Burnout, and Precarity in Contemporary Nonprofit Work

Robichau Robbie Waters (), Sandberg Billie and Russo Andrew
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Robichau Robbie Waters: Bush School of Government & Public Service, Texas A &M University, 4220 TAMU, 77843 College Station, TX, USA
Sandberg Billie: Department of Public Administration, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA
Russo Andrew: Department of Public Administration, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

Nonprofit Policy Forum, 2024, vol. 15, issue 2, 139-152

Abstract: Nonprofit scholars and practitioners alike adhere to a long-held assumption that nonprofit work is, and will remain, inherently meaningful work. The long-term marketization of the nonprofit sector coupled with the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic has undercut this narrative. Our research on meaningful nonprofit work indicates that while many nonprofit workers do find their work meaningful, pay, flexibility, and work/life balance are increasingly important to them. This commentary suggests that nonprofit leaders can no longer presume that workers motivated by prosocial values will seek out and stay with nonprofit work, satisfied with the “psychic income” that comes from doing good work. Nonprofits must be managed and led differently such that they center workers’ contemporary needs and desires. Organizational and public policy initiatives around pay equity and flexible work can support such a transition for the nonprofit sector.

Keywords: meaningfulness in work; neoliberalism; work-life balance; burnout; nonprofit work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1515/npf-2023-0001

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