How to handle feeling overwhelmed and over capacity

As with many sectors, nonprofits are struggling. The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted some things, the most notable of which is the ability to find workers. As other industries feel the same crunch, nonprofits are increasingly forced to accomplish more with fewer resources.

For nonprofits, it’s important to find a way to push through these tough times. Here are some tips that can help if your team is starting to feel the strain of too much to do with too little time to do it all.

Identify the Cause

Before you can tackle your overwhelmed feelings, it’s important to sit down and identify the cause of your frustration. Acknowledge your feelings and look at the events that led up to them. If you arrived at work to find an overflowing email inbox and team members in crisis, note that so that you can then look for ways to ensure that doesn’t happen again tomorrow, next week, or next month.

Rethink Recruiting

In the past, your recruiting methods have been sufficient, but in this new era, you might have to come up with some more creative ways to line up volunteers. This is also a great time to think about diversity and attract employees, board members, and volunteers who are reflective of your community.

Go Virtual When Possible

Pandemic restrictions made many people realize they could do a lot from the comfort of home. If your team and volunteers feel like they have to travel to a physical location to work, you might have a hard time filling vacancies. But that doesn’t just apply to your volunteers and employees. You can reduce some of your overwhelm simply by doing part of your role from home rather than commuting. This will help free up a little time.

Prioritize and Delegate

It’s easy enough to delegate when you’re fully staffed, but if your nonprofit is running on empty, there are still things you can do. Technology can be your friend. Automate as much of your work as you can, relying on tools like IFFFT or Zapier to offload some of your more mundane daily processes. You might even consider contracting with a virtual assistant to handle a few of your tasks.

Set Boundaries

Nonprofits are struggling, but that might not be widespread knowledge. The activities your nonprofit participated in prior to the pandemic might no longer be a good fit. Prioritize activities that are important to you, but don’t feel like you have to say yes to every request. Also don’t feel bad about shutting off your phone or email notifications for a half hour or more to plow through your to-do list. You’d be surprised how many issues employees resolve themselves when you aren’t always immediately accessible.

Nonprofits are going through unprecedented challenges in 2022. Being short-staffed and low on resources can make your to-do list seem impossible. But by delegating where you can and using the many tech tools available, you can stay on top of your daily tasks and accept the things you simply can’t get done.

Be sure to check out our blog, which is packed with plenty of tips for nonprofits.