Giving Compass' Take:

• At Apni Shala, they believe that social impact organizations need to prioritize well-being in organizations and share five insights on how to do so. 

• How can charitable giving support efforts to prioritize well-being? 

• Read about the importance of integrating individual and organizational well-being. 

People working in social impact have had to deal with COVID-19 and its varying impact at two levels—on one hand, they have to manage themselves and their own lives in this pandemic, and on the other, they are daily witnesses to how structural negligence, violence, and badly designed policies affect the lives of the communities they closely work with.

In this way, the pandemic has emphasized the need for organisations in our sector to develop highly-resilient, thoughtfully-designed, and responsive systems so that teams can continually build on their competencies and engage with their work, while also taking care of themselves. In social impact, we often speak about the importance of compassion for the people we work with, but fail to meaningfully engage with nurturing compassion for ourselves and focusing on our own well-being.

While there are plenty of organisations that are interested in supporting their teams’ mental health and well-being, the lack of knowledge on how to do so, combined with the constant struggle for funds, the corporatisation of the development space, and systemic deprivation of resources in the sector often limit the possibility of them doing so meaningfully.

At Apni Shala, we believe that it’s not a ‘good thing’ for social impact organisations to build care-based policies. Instead, it is a non-negotiable if we want to serve our communities in the best way possible. That’s why, over the last seven years, we have worked to centre team well-being in how the organisation is designed.

Over the years, here’s some of what we have learnt, and what I think other organisations looking to start might find useful:

  1. Be intentional about centering well-being
  2. Build meaningful management relationships
  3. Consider the variety of assistance you can provide
  4. Know your team, respond to their humanity
  5. Ask your team what they need

Read the full article about supporting well-being by Rohit Kumar at India Development Review.