Author Archives: Natasha Wahid

About Natasha Wahid

Natasha is a seasoned marketing leader with a curious mind and a passion for storytelling and community. A mission-driven person, Natasha has spent the majority of her career in industries that impact people, including HR and education technology. A firm believer in lifelong learning, Natasha is currently sharpening her roller skating skills and dusting off her Italian.

1. How to Improve the Registration Process: 6 Tips to Reflect on Your Last Enrollment Season

   September 4, 2024 9:33 am Leave a Comment

   Every registration season delivers lessons for how to improve the registration process for your classes. The trick is recognizing those lessons when they come along. Education program directors may not realize that they already have a wealth of information that could help them make informed decisions about the next enrollment season. 

   We’ve compiled a 6-step checklist to help you reflect on your most recent enrollment season to learn from it and apply the lessons next season. 

   We’ve drawn on our years of experience supporting arts and nonprofit programs with class registration and payment processing to develop a seasonal registration audit checklist that brings these lessons to the surface. We’ll show you where to look for information about your most recent enrollment season and how to collect even more data so you can use it to increase enrollment.

   6 Steps to Improve Your Registration Process

   At the end of each registration season, follow these 6 steps to complete a registration process audit that will help you identify areas for improvement and get results.

   1. Check Your Metrics

   Start by comparing this season’s metrics to metrics from the same time last year. Don’t get too caught up in month-to-month fluctuations. Most programs see peaks and valleys in their registration numbers. Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples by checking this September against last September or this fall against the previous fall. 

   Even if your enrollment numbers are trending in the right direction, it’s worth completing the full registration process audit. Seasonal check-ins can help you spot small issues before they blow up into major problems. 

   Investigate: 

   • Whether enrollment levels grew, shrunk, or remained the same
   • Which classes got the most enrollments
   • Which classes got the fewest enrollments
   • How students enrolled: online, in-person, by phone
   • How people reached your website: ads, web search, email, direct link

   Use this information to understand how people are enrolling in your classes and where changes may be needed. You can segment data to help you spot specific trends. For example, you may want to look at whether specific populations are enrolling, or whether 6pm classes attract more students than 7pm classes. 

   2. Collect Student Feedback 

   Ideally, you’re asking students to complete student feedback forms at the end of each class. These can give you information about what students thought of the class experience, but probably won’t tell you much about registration. For that you may want to send out a seasonal survey that asks about the registration, customer service, website experience and payment process. 

   Asking students for feedback doesn’t just help you collect useful information. Harvard Business Review reports that it also increases customer loyalty. People feel valued when you ask for their opinion.

   We’ve written a whole article about how to collect and use student feedback, and here’s a broad overview of the kinds of questions that could help you improve your programs.

   Ask students: 

   • How easy the registration process was
   • Whether they could easily find the classes they wanted
   • Their overall level of satisfaction
   • Whether your website was easy to use
   • How you could improve the registration experience

   Use these questions to understand how students actually feel about your process and identify areas for improvement. A complex process, confusing website, or hard-to-navigate course catalog may be holding you back more than you realize. The best way to find out is to ask.

   3. Investigate for Tech Issues

   Some technical issues may be obvious — you’re not going to miss a website crash during your busiest enrollment day of the year. Others are harder to spot and may take some digging. A link that sends visitors to the wrong enrollment form might result in staff confusion, but no complaints from students. 

   Many education program directors assume that a lack of complaints means everything is fine. That may not be true. Research shows that the majority of unhappy customers don’t complain. Most just leave. And almost a third of customers will walk away from a company they love after just one bad experience.

   Our own professional experience managing websites and payment systems tells us this is especially true if your website is clunky or hard to use. If your website is confusing customers, asks them to complete a complicated process, or simply does not deliver a seamless registration and payment process, they may leave without telling you. 

   Check for: 

   • High bounce rates on class registration pages
   • Abandoned carts
   • Waitlisted students who don’t convert into registrants
   • Broken links
   • Low traffic on course catalogs or registration pages

   Proactively looking for technical issues helps you improve the user experience and enroll more of the visitors who come to your website. 

   4. Ask Staff for Their Impressions

   Instructors and staff who work directly with students may have special insight into the registration process. Ask them for their impressions and opinions. You’re not necessarily looking for hard data here. Instead, you want to hear how staff and instructors perceive the process. 

   These anecdotes can be valuable because they reveal problems you may not have noticed otherwise. A receptionist who tells you they got three phone calls a day asking how to find your course catalog lets you know there is a pattern worth addressing. 

   Sometimes staff will use their own workarounds to try to solve these problems on their own. They may have developed scripts, tracking documents or resource lists to try to help students register. These kinds of resources help staff do their jobs, but can also obscure an ongoing problem. A functional workaround may mean you never notice that there’s a major issue with your system.

   Ask staff about: 

   • The questions they most often heard from students
   • Any shortcuts or special tools they developed 
   • Student stories that stuck out to them
   • How they would improve the registration process

   When you ask for staff feedback, you don’t just get valuable insight into your registration process. You also improve relationships with staff and instructors. Multiply this effect by thanking staff for their insight and keeping them informed of how you use their feedback.

   5. Identify Areas to Improve

   With baseline metrics and insight from your students, technical team, and instructors, you should be able to build a short list of areas to improve. Prioritize the list based on which issues have the greatest impact on student experience. An issue that affects just one course is less urgent than a systemic problem with your process. 

   Try to step back and get a big-picture view of what’s going on. This can help you find efficient solutions rather than creating a patchwork of fixes for various issues. For example, if you notice that some potential students are leaving the registration process without completing payment and others seem to be struggling with finding the classes they want, you may be able to solve the problem with all-in-one class registration and payment software. 

   Find solutions by: 

   • Prioritizing your problem list
   • Looking for solutions that solve multiple issues
   • Considering budget and complexity of roll-out
   • Asking for recommendations from other course providers

   These steps help ensure that you’re choosing efficient and effective improvements for your class registration process. 

   6. Make and Test a Strategy

   Make a plan for how you’ll implement the solutions you’ve identified. Some may be simple and require little up-front planning. For example, adding a link to your cancellation policy to your universal registration form may take just a few clicks. Other solutions could benefit from a longer roll-out process. For example, before you introduce a new registration software you might need to train staff on how to use it, announce the change to students, and have technical support documents ready to go. 

   Consider: 

   • When you’ll roll out the new strategy
   • Who will be responsible for each step
   • How you will communicate changes to staff and students
   • How you will measure the strategy’s success

   A well-planned change strategy will help you make positive changes to your class registration process without the unintended side effects of confusing or frustrating the people you’re trying to help.

   Repeat Every Season to Keep Improving the Registration Process

   Complete this registration audit at the end of each enrollment cycle to help your program grow season after season. Regular check-ins will help you catch small issues before they become enrollment-impacting problems. Along the way, you’ll strengthen your relationships with both students and staff.

   If a complex registration process is keeping your enrollments low, it might be time to investigate a new enrollment tool. Learn How the Right Enrollment Tool Can Save You Time, Money, and Effort.

2. How to Use Social Media Trends to Attract More Arts Students

   August 21, 2024 11:07 am Leave a Comment

   It’s a fact: Many of us love social media. Maybe you like to swap memes with your besties, send your father-in-law funny sports videos, or check out the latest social media challenges on TikTok with your tween niece. (If you’re not familiar with the hilarious “paint your partner challenge,” read on.) 

   Wondering how to use social media to promote your classes? What should you post, and where? We’re here for you with trends and examples!

   But if you’re an arts education director, you may be wondering about how to use social media to promote your classes. Is it worth the time and effort? And what should you post, and where? 

   Don’t worry! We’re here for you. We’ve pulled together some examples of social media trends and how others are using them – including other arts orgs like yours. We’ve also included data from marketing experts and our own State of the Arts Report to show you exactly how to use social media to grow your program and keep loyal students coming back. 

   2024 Social Media Trends You Should Know About

   Social media is more than a way to see pictures of your cousin’s cat. It’s also a powerful way to reach a wide range of people. About 87% of adults report that they spend time on some type of social media. Figuring out how to use social media trends to your advantage lets you tap into this massive audience. In fact, our State of the Arts Report (SOAR) found that social media is the second most powerful marketing tool for classes (after email).

   Trend #1: Facebook Is Still the Headliner

   According to CRM software company HubSpot, 82% of consumers used Facebook in 2023, making it the most-used social media platform of the year. Our SOAR data bears that out. Among CourseStorm customers, 56% of visitors to their class websites come from Facebook. 

   If you’re only on one social media platform, Facebook should be your platform of choice. But keep an eye on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Younger audiences tend to prefer these more visual and video-based platforms, and they may one day topple Facebook’s throne.

   Trend #2: Short-Form Video Is the Format of Choice

   The rise of TikTok and continued popularity of both YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels points to another important trend: Consumers love video content. The most engaging videos on social media tend to be short — less than 60 seconds. 

   If you primarily post text or photos, consider adding some video into the mix. You might share a quick tip from an instructor, a clip from a recent class, or an art reveal video like the one below. 

    

    

    

    

    

   View this post on Instagram

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

   A post shared by katy (kmctcreative) – artist (@kmctcreative)

   


   Don’t worry about making movie-quality video for social media. HubSpot’s survey found that most consumers think it’s more important for marketing videos to be authentic rather than polished. 

   And keep in mind that social media video should almost always be in a vertical format. Most social media platforms are designed for vertical and most users access these platforms from mobile phones. 

   Trend #3: Make ’Em Laugh

   People go to social media looking for entertainment. They want relatable content and often that means content that makes them laugh. Try to inject some humor into your social media posts. That might include sharing a meme, using a trending sound on a Reels or TikTok video, or participating in a humorous trend like the “paint your partner” challenge.

   If humor isn’t your style, look for ways to share creative ideas and artistic inspiration. People on social media are often looking for something that will get their creativity flowing. So offer tips, advice, insight from your teaching artists, and, of course, links to your class catalog.

   How to Use Social Media to Increase Class Registrations

   Now that we’ve explored the big trends, let’s get down to details. How can you use social media to increase registrations? Using the trends above will get you part of the way there, but here are a few things you can do to fill every seat. 

   1. Link directly to specific classes in your social posts

   Few things frustrate a user more than seeing a social media post about a class that looks interesting, clicking the link, and ending up wading through dozens of course catalog listings trying to find the one that caught their eye. Some visitors will just give up. Don’t make learners hunt for the class they want. Wherever possible, link directly to the specific listing for that class.

   

   2. Create Facebook events for your classes

   One reason so many people still use Facebook is because it’s a quick and easy way to find out what’s going on in their area. You can create Facebook events for each of your classes to make them easily discoverable on the platform. Just make sure that you’re including a registration link. 

   

   3. Sing the praises of your teaching artists

   These are the people who actually teach your classes and these folks often have a following of their own on social media. Introducing your instructors and sharing their work on social makes your organization look good—it highlights your high caliber instructors and celebrates their work and the work of their students. Plus, it allows you to tap into their social network and attract new potential students. Basically, it’s an all around smart thing to do. 

   How to Engage Loyal Learners on Social Media

   Social media doesn’t just help you attract new students, it also keeps you connected to loyal learners. Make sure you’re making content for them as well. If you can turn your social media pages into a virtual community where loyal learners enjoy spending time, they’ll be more likely to sign up for another class and share your posts with their friends. Here are a few things you can do to engage your existing student community. 

   1. Share examples of student work (with permission, of course)

   Images and video of student work helps learners feel like part of your community. They feel seen and valued and are likely to share with their own social networks. So a single post could engage previous students and attract new ones. 

   2. Post memes, jokes, and insider content

   Everyone likes to feel like part of the inner circle. Memes, jokes, and other insider content can tap into a shared language and sense of humor among your learners. Consider asking your instructors for examples of content that represent their particular community of artists. Here’s a YouTube Short from our customer Mile Square Theatre that actors will relate to. 

   3. Create polls or one-question surveys

   These can be funny or serious, like what classes would you like us to offer next season. You don’t even have to use the built-in poll feature. Sometimes asking people to drop an emoji in the comments to cast their vote is just as powerful.

   What Audiences Want on Social Media Now

   Across the board, people want personal, funny, and entertaining content on social media these days, according to HubSpot’s 2024 Consumer Trends Report. Consider the examples above and see what might work for your program. Experiment with some social media trends and see how your audience reacts. Share a meme, repost students’ Reels, or participate in a challenge. Most of all, have fun with it! 

   For more insights that can help your arts education program grow and thrive, download our State of the Arts Report 2024. 

3. Seniors and Technology: How to Make Class Registration More Accessible to All

   August 7, 2024 9:19 am Leave a Comment

   If you want to get more class registrations and boost your bottom line, it’s time to start thinking about older adults. Census projections show that by 2035, people over 65 will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history. That means seniors are likely to be a growing audience for your nonprofit education program. Even programs primarily aimed at children should consider the needs of parents and grandparents who are completing the registration process. 

   Meeting the needs of seniors does not mean avoiding technology. Many older adults are capable of using online registration systems as long as those systems are simple and straightforward.

   After 10+ years dedicated to class registration and payment systems, we’ve learned that designing for seniors improves the registration experience for everyone. 

   Class Registration Myths About Seniors

   Myth: Seniors aren’t a big audience for us. 

   Reality: Many seniors are committed to lifelong learning for themselves. They also register children and grandchildren for classes. 

   If you’re not already marketing classes to seniors, you may be missing a major opportunity. People aged 50 and older account for 51% of consumer spending although they represent just 45% of all adults. In short, this audience is spending more per capita than younger shoppers. Some portion of that spending is going to classes.

   Many seniors are interested in lifelong learning. According to the Seniorlist, 19% of older adults say they have taken an academic course in the last six months. That word, “academic,” may be artificially limiting this result. According to AARP, 55% of Americans age 45 and older are actively learning new things either through classes or independent study.

   Even if your education program primarily provides classes for kids, seniors are still a key audience. Consider the grandmother who enrolls her young granddaughter in a drawing class. The class may be for the little girl, but Grandma is the one navigating your registration system.

   Myth: Seniors won’t use online registration options.

   Reality: Seniors will use online options as long as you make them simple and straightforward.

   Seniors may be more tech savvy than you realize. A Pew survey found that 61% of adults 65 and older own a smartphone and 75% use the internet. Making purchases is the second-most popular online activity among people age 50+ (email holds the top spot).

   During and since the pandemic, seniors have learned to use technology to do everything from buy groceries to book doctor’s appointments. About 24% of respondents in a survey on aging in place said that they use grocery and food delivery apps. There’s clearly openness among older people to engage with more digital experiences—the key is to make sure those experiences are simple and seamless. 

   Since the pandemic, seniors can and do use technology to buy groceries online, book doctor’s appointments, and more.

   Myth: Seniors are uncomfortable with online payments.

   Reality: If it’s easy and safe, seniors will pay online.

   Many seniors have spent a lifetime paying with checks or cash. Some are more comfortable with these methods, but others welcome the convenience of online payments. In recent years, more seniors learned how to pay for products and services online as a result of the pandemic. 

   But seniors are concerned about the security and privacy of online payments. A 2020 survey by Lightico found that people over 65 were more likely to say that they don’t feel online transactions are secure. Nonprofit class providers will see the best results if they show seniors that their payment systems are dependable and secure. Post links to privacy and security details on your payment pages so they’re easy to find.

   

   How to Make Course Registration Easy for Seniors (And Everyone Else)

   It’s not just seniors who benefit when you simplify your online registration process. Easy registration helps everyone. Apply these tips to improve the registration experience for people of all ages.

   1. Remove extra steps and complexity

   Seniors may get frustrated if asked to enter information in multiple places or complete a long series of steps. One 72-year-old told AP news that she has no problem shopping at Amazon or Target.com but that the grocery store app has too many steps and she often ends up starting over.  

   Map your registration process to understand how many steps it includes. Does the user need to access more than one website or service to complete registration? If you’re asking people to fill out a form in one place, but make a payment somewhere else, they’re likely to get confused.

   The best class registration systems seamlessly guide the user from the course catalog through registration, to payment. With CourseStorm, registration and payment is one seamless process that starts with a button on your course catalog. We don’t even ask registrants to create a user profile first. Instead, they have the opportunity to automatically create a profile as part of the registration process. 

   2. Prioritize accessibility

   Older adults are more likely to have vision or motor challenges that can impede accessibility. About a quarter of adults 71 years old and older have visual impairments. These could prevent seniors from using online systems unless accessibility tools are in place. 

   Simple design changes, like creating high-contrast color schemes and including alt text for graphics can improve accessibility. Check with your website designer and class registration software provider to make sure accessibility options are in place. 

   CourseStorm course registration and payment processing software complies with Level AA guidelines set by the Web Accessibility Initiative. That means we’ve put the work in to ensure that our registration software is as accessible as possible for people with disabilities. 

   3. Share safety and privacy information

   Some seniors are hesitant to use technology for safety or privacy reasons. They may have heard of or experienced scams where older people have been taken advantage of. In fact, seniors lose more than $3 billion each year to financial scams, both online and offline. 

   Help your senior registrants feel secure by posting your privacy policies prominently on your website. Let them know how their information will be used and let them opt out of storing payment information. 

   At CourseStorm, we take security seriously. Our credit card information handling process is PCI compliant and all stored cards are safely encrypted. Our servers are located at state-of-the-art data centers with multi-tiered security systems. 

   4. Market beyond social media

   Social media is a powerful way to reach potential students. But it may not be as effective in reaching older adults. Only 45% of adults age 65 and older use social media. Programs may have better luck reaching seniors through search ads and email marketing. Our State of the Arts Report found that email accounted for the highest percentage of visitors to our customer’s class registration websites. Traditional direct mail campaigns may also be more attractive to seniors. 

   As a CourseStorm customer, you get personal automated marketing tools that will send personalized email recommendations to students based on past registration history. We keep an eye on marketing trends and best practices, sharing them with customers on our blog.

   The Class Registration Solution for All Ages

   By now we hope you see that what’s good for seniors is good for registrants of all ages. When you simplify processes, prioritize accessibility, ensure privacy, and market beyond social media, you make registration easier for everyone. And improving the student experience is ultimately what’ll help you fill classes and extend your program’s impact in your community.

   Whether you offer classes specifically for seniors, or primarily for children, CourseStorm can help attract this growing and motivated audience of older adults to boost your bottom line.

   To see the impact of this simplicity in action check out this case study featuring American Stage. Integrating CourseStorm with their ticketing software helped this nonprofit theatre education program improve the customer experience and save staff time.

4. 3 Ways to Improve the Student Experience in Arts and Community Ed

   July 17, 2024 9:25 am Leave a Comment

   It’s easy to assume people are happy if you get few or no complaints. But when it comes to your class registration system, a lack of complaints isn’t always a good thing. Research shows a huge majority of people won’t complain when an experience doesn’t meet their standards—they’ll just leave.

   A great student experience separates thriving education programs from the rest. The student experience is the overall interaction between the learner and your organization. Your classes are just one tiny piece of that. The rest of the experience, including ease of registration, communication, and issue resolution, is more important from a customer service standpoint.

   Make no mistake, your students are customers. That’s why customer service matters in education.

   And make no mistake, your students are customers. You may not usually think about them in that way, but most bring a shopper’s mindset to the experience of signing up for a class. If their needs aren’t met, they’ll go elsewhere, leaving you wondering where all your students have gone.

   Customer Service in the Education Industry: Why It Matters

   When a potential student is looking for a block printing class so they can impress everyone with handmade Christmas cards this year, they want the process of finding and signing up for a class to be as easy as possible. 

   If they run into an issue, they expect quick and helpful service that gets everything sorted out without burning through their entire lunch break. That may be why the Qualtrics Consumer Trends Report found that customers are much more likely to do business with organizations that have a great reputation for customer experience, even in a down economy.

   Obviously, the class itself should deliver on student expectations. The material should match the course description and students should walk away feeling more skilled, more informed, or at least entertained.

   A good student experience can turn one-time customers into lifelong learners and brand ambassadors.

   But, the student experience doesn’t end when the class is complete. Ideally, you’ll keep communicating with those students. Your social media, email, and SMS messaging will offer them personalized class recommendations they can get excited about. That’s how one-time customers turn into lifelong learners and brand ambassadors. 

   If an organization can’t meet student expectations for customer service, they’ll look for one that does. Often, they’ll do so without stopping to tell you about it first.

   Most Unsatisfied Customers Never Complain 

   CourseStorm customers find that about 35% of arts students return to take another class. Those students were clearly satisfied with both their first class and the student experience. But at least some of the remaining 65% probably felt less than satisfied and didn’t explain why.

   You might think that students will complain if they are unhappy, but often that is not the case. Overall, people are giving less feedback to the organizations they buy from. According to Qualtrics, about 66% of customers won’t complain when they’ve had a bad experience. They’ll just take their business elsewhere. 

   Data show 66% of customers won’t complain when they’ve had a bad experience. They’ll just take their business elsewhere.

   This happens for a couple of reasons. Some students are just busy and unwilling to invest time in complaining when they can just find another class. Others may believe that their complaints won’t make a difference, so they don’t bother voicing them. 

   They may not be talking to you, but they’re almost certainly telling friends and family about the experience. People may end up avoiding your program without ever experiencing it for themselves. 

   That leaves education directors and administrators with the challenge of how to provide a better student experience without much feedback. Fortunately, there are a few areas we know can improve the student experience.

   For more insights on what’s working in arts education and how to improve the student experience, download our State of the Arts Report 2024.

   How to Improve the Student Experience

   Consumers in general, and students in particular, prefer to do business with organizations that deliver these three things: 

   1. Self-service on-demand 

   Learners expect to be able to sign up, change registrations, and handle payments online and without direct interaction with a staff member. In fact, about 67% of survey respondents said they preferred self-service over speaking to a representative. 

   Online registration and payment systems with carts and friends and family registration tools can help customers help themselves. 

   2. Quick and helpful communication

   When registrants do run into an issue they can’t solve on their own, they expect quick and helpful service. Research by author Jay Baer found that customers “hate” having to contact a business more than once and about 66% of customers think speed to respond is as important as price.

   Arts nonprofits probably don’t have someone standing by to answer customer questions at any moment of the day. That makes it all the more important that whoever is assisting customers is trained in customer service and empowered to provide real solutions to issues, for example, tech support, discounts, refunds, or transfers.

   When someone does reach out, let them know how quickly they can expect a response. Feed the need for self-service by offering an FAQ sheet or a knowledge base they can read while they wait.

   3. Personalized marketing and communications

   According to HubSpot’s Marketing Trends Report, 75% of marketers say offering a personalized experience increases sales and repeat business. Personalized messaging can lead to 50% better customer re-engagement. 

   Customized class recommendations, SMS-based text reminders, and centralized customer data management can help you personalize communications so each student feels valued. 

   Offer returning students exclusive early-bird registration or special promotions to make them feel valued.

   Acknowledge a preexisting relationship with students who have enrolled before by offering them exclusive early-bird registration or special promotions for returning students. When you personalize marketing and communications, you make every student feel valued.

   Listen and Take Action to Improve the Student Experience

   Although customers may not seek you out to complain about a sub-par experience, some will answer candidly when asked. Asking for feedback from students can help you catch and fix common issues. It can also strengthen your relationships with learners. After all, everyone likes feeling like they’ve been heard.  

   For more advice on listening to learners to improve the student experience, read our article on How to Collect and Use Student Feedback to Build Better Programs.

5. 4 Ways Arts Ed Organizations Can Defend Against Nonprofit Burnout

   July 10, 2024 9:26 am Leave a Comment

   Does your staff regularly work through lunch and answer emails on weekends? This might seem like the norm for understaffed nonprofits. And besides, most people working in the arts are there because they love it, right? But perhaps you’re noticing in your staff what you may have experienced yourself: the moment when work you used to love becomes an impossible burden. 

   If your previously cheerful employees are snapping at coworkers and missing meetings, if they’re taking more sick days and productivity is slipping, if you’re seeing a negative impact on how staff interact with your customers and community … nonprofit burnout could be the culprit. 

   “Burnout is about your workplace, not your people.” – Jennifer Moss, author of Unlocking Happiness at Work

   The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that 69% of nonprofit leaders are concerned about employee burnout. According to a Council of Nonprofits survey, more than 50% of respondents said stress and burnout were causing workforce shortages. But it doesn’t have to be this way: leaders in nonprofit organizations can develop a strategy to detect, prevent, and deal with nonprofit burnout—both for themselves and their teams. Here’s how. 

   Where Nonprofit Burnout Comes From

   According to the World Health Organization, burnout is a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by:

   • feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
   • feelings of negativity or cynicism related to one’s job; and
   • reduced job performance.

   In some ways, people working in arts nonprofits are especially susceptible to burnout. They care deeply about the work they do and tend to selflessly go beyond the call of duty to keep serving their stakeholders. Being deeply invested means they may not feel like they can say no or take time off when they need it.

   Many nonprofits are chronically understaffed and constantly scrambling to secure next year’s funding. At the same time, they may be working on intense projects with hard deadlines. And they’re doing all this with a small team of volunteers, part-time employees, and no real HR oversight to speak of. 

   According to the American Psychological Association, burnout is most often observed in professionals who work in service-oriented vocations; nonprofit arts education certainly qualifies. Experts have written whole books about how to identify and fix burnout, but we’ll summarize the essentials for you.

   How to Spot Nonprofit Burnout Before it Consumes Your Staff

   The best time to get rid of burnout is before it happens, but you may already suspect your team is suffering from burnout. 

   It might seem like common sense to just ask if people are burned out, but that doesn’t always work. Some employees will feel shame or discomfort if they are burned out—that they should be able to power through to keep serving your community. On top of the stigma, people don’t always know they’re burned out. Often, they need an outside observer to point out the problem. 

   Signs of burnout include being available 24/7, skipping lunch, taking more sick days, and having a short temper.

   Look around and see if you spot any of these common signs of nonprofit burnout among your team. 

   Signs of nonprofit burnout: 

   • Working more to do less
   • Skipping lunch, breaks, or social events
   • Available at all hours
   • More sick days
   • Short tempers or tears

   Any of these signs on their own could be a personal quirk or the result of a bad day. Taken together, they point to just one thing—burnout.

   What Nonprofit Organizations Can Do to Prevent Burnout

   The good news is that since burnout is often an organization-level problem, you have the power to help your team avoid it. The following systemic changes can help shield your team from some of the stressors that can lead to burnout. 

   1. Encourage restful time off.

   Time off is more than a benefit, it’s essential to avoiding burnout. People need time to rest and rejuvenate their mind and body. Studies show that productivity falls off sharply when people hit about 50 hours of work per week. So while some nonprofit team members wear overwork as a badge of honor, your most valuable employee is one who is well-rested and burnout free.

   Some subtle changes can help give employees permission to fully unplug. For example, you can use the scheduling feature in your email if you need to send a message after hours to avoid accidentally triggering after-hours work. Also, pay attention to how you talk about time off. Comments like “I hope you had a good time while the rest of us worked” or “I wish I could afford to take the afternoon off” leave employees feeling judged and guilty. If you find yourself thinking these thoughts, that may be an indicator that you, yourself, are on the verge of burnout.

   Encourage restful time off by:

   • Limiting off-hours messages and emails
   • Reminding people to use their vacation benefits
   • Avoiding statements that make time off sound like a luxury

   2. Offer as much flexibility as possible.

   Flexible schedules allow people to shift their work time to match the demands of their life. Giving people the power to control their own schedule helps them avoid burnout by managing their tasks and energy. 

   Of course, there are some times when you need staff and volunteer coverage. An instructor can’t just not show up to teach a class. But wherever and whenever possible, make it okay for employees to flex their schedules, work from wherever they want, and come and go as needed. 

   Offer flexibility by:
   

   • Allowing remote work
   • Letting employees flex schedules
   • Crosstrain so no one person is carrying too much responsibility
   • Offering mobile-friendly work tools

   3. Model self care as a leader.

   As a leader in your organization, you set the tone for the workplace. If your team sees you always working late, never taking vacation, and working through lunch, they may feel pressured to do the same. On the other hand, if you regularly unplug and take a walk during lunch, they’re more likely to feel free to care for themselves as well. 

   Model self care by:
   

   • Leaving work on time
   • Taking your vacation days
   • Pausing to eat lunch
   • Flexing your time for family events

   4. Praise and thank your people.

   In nonprofit work, it’s easy to run from one major project or challenge to another. Often, we forget to stop and appreciate what we’ve accomplished. Endless work with no reward is a fast track to burnout. Put the brakes on by stopping to thank your employees and volunteers and find ways to reward them for good work.

   You can get as creative with this as you want to. Sometimes an old-fashioned thank-you note strikes the right chord. Other times you might want to make a special trophy or entrust someone with The Team Plant.

   Acknowledge success by:
   

   • Publicly thanking staff and volunteers
   • Building in a rest day after a major project closes
   • Celebrate birthdays and life milestones
   • Handwrite a thank-you note

   5. Evaluate your systems.

   Nonprofits often operate on tight budgets. Your organization may be using free tools, software or programs designed for larger or for-profit businesses, or cobbling together some combination of solutions. It may be the way things have always been done, but it’s important to recognize that these hacks and workarounds take a toll. The first step in affecting change is taking inventory.

   Identify areas for improvement by:
   

   • Survey your employees on what’s working and what’s not
   • For more detail, have staff track a typical day — how many steps does it take them to do certain tasks? Are there any blockers that prevent them from completing things?  
   • Talk to other organizations like yours to learn how their systems work and what solutions they use

   Awareness and praise alone won’t solve the nonprofit burnout problem, but a culture of gratitude and self-care can go a long way. For more tips on reducing the administrative burden on your staff, subscribe to our blog.