To keep staff from burning out, close the whole office for a week, Chronicle of Philanthropy by M.J. Prest
“It democratizes rest,” Feldman says. “Everybody in an org gets to take a break at the same time.”
Excerpt. Full Chronicle of Philanthropy article here.
June is the busiest month of the year at Keshet.
At this nonprofit, which works to advance equality for LGBTQ+ members of Jewish communities, Pride Month is overflowing with festivities, parades, advocacy, and stories shared on social media. “People are often working in evenings and on weekends to make Pride Month happen for our communities, and then at the end of that, we really need a moment to recharge,” says Jaimie Krass, its president and CEO.
In 2025, Keshet began ensuring its entire staff could do that by offering a weeklong, organization-wide shutdown at the beginning of July. That means no one on call, no social-media monitoring, and coordinated “our offices are closed this week” autoreplies from every employee — Krass included.
She says she received overwhelmingly positive feedback from peer leaders who are impressed with how Keshet prioritizes rest. “They were looking to us as a role model that we were giving ourselves this time off, especially during such a crucial time for our communities,” Krass says….
A small but growing number of foundations have begun putting money behind break weeks.
R&R: the Rest of Our Lives runs a program to cover some of the costs behind closing an organization for a week. Its annual Breakweek grant awards $3,000, along with coaching and evaluation tools, to U.S. nonprofits that serve the Jewish community. Keshet self-funded its first break week in 2025, then became one of R&R’s Breakweek grantees in 2026.
Feldman says this kind of support is spreading. R&R also convenes the Rest Roundtable, a group of funders that make grants for sabbaticals and other forms of structured time off, though many, like the California Wellness Foundation and the Colorado Health Foundation, give only within defined regions.