The Happy, Healthy Nonprofit

Chapter 7 The Activities and Cues: Self-Care to WE-Care

WE-Care in the Workplace

We remember seeing a viral tweet from entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg that touches on why organizations need WE-care. “The entrepreneur’s dilemma: Maintaining friendships. Building a great company. Spending time with family. Staying fit. Getting sleep. Pick three.” This dilemma is all too common for nonprofit professionals as well. In this chapter, we focus on activities and cues that you can integrate into your workplace well-being initiatives to help address this dilemma. Activities are events that require participation designed to support organizational well-being for greater productivity and morale boosts. Cues are environmental reminders that make happy and healthy choices easier for employees to make.

Workplace activities are typically group undertakings in the form of programs that help your staff work together to acquire self-care habits and practices. Activities can be introduced into every aspect of your organization—from the C-suite to teams across all departments as well as at all-staff meetings and events. They can take place on-site at your organization’s workplace or off-site—for example, offering a gym discount at the local YMCA—but well-being activities are definitely not just about the discounts.

When identifying and designing activities for your organization, keep in mind the ...