What can we do about burnout rates in charity communicators?

What can we do about burnout rates in charity communicators?

We’re really pleased to welcome Sarah Clarke as a guest writer on the blog. Sarah is Head of Membership and Insight at CharityComms, the membership network for anyone working in communications in the charity sector. She benchmarks comms salaries and ways of working in the sector through an annual salary and organisational culture survey. The full 2025 report will be published at www.charitycomms.org.uk in April.

With a third of charity communicators saying they’re burnt out, Sarah Clarke from CharityComms explores how organisations can create better balance at work.  

The annual CharityComms Salary and Organisational Culture report measures how valued charity communicators are in their organisations by benchmarking salaries and understanding perceptions around culture and wellbeing. Initial findings from our 2025 survey are showing a continuing trend of burnout. 

While many charity communicators told us they feel positive about their work-life balance and happiness, a third of people say they often feel burnt out and are experiencing high stress and workloads — that’s up from 26% who said they often felt burnt out at work in 2024. 

With a significant portion of comms professionals still experiencing these challenges, how can charities support their people more effectively?  

It all comes down to how we manage our processes and support our people.  

Improve workload management

The most direct way to reduce stress is to ensure the workload for everyone is realistic and sustainable.  

There are lots of ways to do this, and with regular evaluation, you can make sure you’re building regular touchpoints and opportunities to adjust tasks and priorities when needed.   

Regularly review projects and tasks holistically to identify pinch points, and make sure timeframes are realistic and that nothing is being left out or added last minute. Ensure others in the organisation know the capacity of the comms team, so that everyone knows what can realistically be achieved and asked of them. 

Update any marketing and comms strategies or process guides to make sure everyone knows how to prioritise tasks, submit requests in a timely way, and say “no” to non-priority work if needed.  

Create clear boundaries

Actively encourage and model a healthy work-life balance, ensuring staff take regular breaks and all their annual leave. 

Offer and promote genuine flexible working options (e.g. variable start times, hybrid work, or a compressed week) to help staff manage external responsibilities. 

Provide team autonomy and collaboration

Give team members independence in how they approach their work and involve them in decision-making processes where possible, so they are clear on the “why” as well as the “what”. 

Regularly discuss priorities as a team to make sure everyone is comfortable with the pace and can identify where they can provide help or request support. 

Create space or use frameworks to discuss individual strengths, creating ways to adjust arrangements or delegate work to help people play into those strengths. On the other hand, this kind of review can help communicators to better manage anything that’s causing stress or creating barriers. 

Deliver open communication, training and support

Create a culture where staff feel safe to speak up, challenge, or ask for help without fear of negative consequences. Building a supportive culture helps staff manage the emotional impact of periods of high-pressure work and have methods at their disposal to reduce strain.    

Consider more formal wellbeing measures too. For example, invest in Mental Health First Aider training for key staff to provide confidential, initial support and signposting. Provide access to confidential support, such as an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), counselling, or stress management workshops. Offer training on resilience-building and practical skills like time and priority management. 

Show recognition and appreciation

Make sure comms is included in key planning and project discussions, so other departments understand the value and role of comms (in general as well as within specific projects or tasks). This involvement will also help communicators feel appreciated beyond the home team. 

Build regular ways to acknowledge achievements – both large and small – so you can celebrate together as a team and share these wins more widely. 

Show appreciation by investing in their professional development through learning opportunities, training and mentoring. 

Conduct regular salary benchmarking to make sure staff are being paid fairly for their role and support staff retention. 

Centre comms at work

Our new Connected Comms template is designed to help measure how comms is integrated within your charity. Making sure comms is embedded at all levels of your organisation can alleviate many of the challenges and issues that comms professionals face on a daily basis – reducing stress and feelings of burnout.  

By looking at how we manage workload, cultivate a culture of wellbeing and strengthen the appreciation of comms internally, we can create more sustainable ways of working, for charity communicators to be more effective and happier in their roles.