Some Organizations That Provide Sabbatical Aid to Nonprofit Leaders

Following are organizations that provide sabbatical aid to nonprofit leaders

The Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program, in Baltimore, supports sabbaticals for longtime activists

nationwide who are members of minority groups and who organize on behalf of racial, social, economic, and environmental justice. The program provides $25,000 for grantees to take sabbaticals of three months or more.

The Barr Foundation, in Boston, includes a three-month sabbatical along with five additional retreats as part of its three-year-long Barr Fellows Program. Fellows are chosen from among the leaders of education nonprofit groups and public schools in the Boston area; the program is designed to spur creativity in the recipients’ work when they return to their jobs.

The California Wellness Foundation, in Woodland Hills, makes grants of $30,000 to nonprofit health organizations in California, enabling their executive directors to take paid leave of up to six months. Recipient organizations also receive up to $5,000 for professional development of staff members who will assume extra responsibilities during the sabbatical period.

The Durfee Foundation, in Los Angeles, each year offers stipends and expenses of up to $35,000 to six leaders of local nonprofit groups to travel and reflect. Additional support of up to $7,500 may be available to the grantee’s organizations to establish professional staff-development programs and to enable short-term leaves for other employees.

The Humanities Institute of the University of Texas at Austin offers a program to enable directors and staff members of central Texas nonprofit groups to take paid flexible leave in order to pursue a question or problem related to their organization and its constituency. Grantees receive access to the university library and other resources to enhance their research, a stipend of between $2,500 and $5,000, and assistance and consultation from university faculty advisers.

The Rasmuson Foundation, of Anchorage, awards grants of up to $30,000 to Alaska nonprofit organizations to support paid sabbatical leave; for their executive directors. The foundation has an arrangement with a local nonprofit management-consulting group to provide free assistance to the organization in its leader’s absence.

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, in Winston-Salem, N.C., provides grants for nonprofit leaders in North Carolina organizations to take a three- to six-month leave of absence. Sabbatical grants of $25,000 are awarded directly to the recipient as taxable income; each organization can decide whether to continue to keep the sabbatical recipient on the payroll during the leave.

Are sabbaticals one answer to the problem of burnout in the nonprofit world? Or are they only a temporary fix for overworked charity employees? Discuss sabbaticals’ pros and cons — and your own experiences with them — in the Executive Session forum.