This is an excerpt from an article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review Spring 2024 edition. For the complete article, you can go here.
Written by: Carrie Avery, Stella Chung & Sarah Walczyk
There is an admonition floating around: “Work smarter, not harder.” But what if the smartest approach is to stop working and truly rest? It may seem counterintuitive, but the Durfee Foundation has adopted this approach since 1997, when it launched its sabbatical program.
Durfee’s sabbatical “formula” is simple: provide a coach to help participants think through their plans, offer wisdom from previous Durfee sabbatical awardees, and prohibit all contact with work and work-related activities. Because sabbatical and renewal grants can be interpreted as grants to individuals, Durfee applied to the IRS for approval to make grants to individuals.
When Durfee introduced the program, the response from the funder community ranged from bemusement to concern. Some saw the funding as frivolous. Others wondered what would happen if overworked nonprofit leaders got a taste of freedom and quit. But our question was different: What if nonprofit staff continue to do their jobs without getting the rest they need?
After 27 years and more than 120 sabbatical awards, Durfee can say with certainty that sabbaticals are remarkably effective tools for change. Rest and joy are not the enemies of productivity, but its source. After Suh’s sabbatical, CPAF’s expanding programs, strength, and budget were not a fluke. At Durfee, we have seen how dozens of organizations across Los Angeles have followed a similar path after their leader took a sabbatical.