Sabbaticals are a powerful form of healing, practice, and exploration. Our coalition is responding to what we’ve heard from community about the overwhelming need to support BIPOC nonprofit leaders in rest and recovery.
Check out our Black and Brown paper on Sabbaticals For BIPOC Leaders: Capacity Building, Healing, Renewal for a deep analysis on why sabbaticals are so important to our communities, our community organizations, and our leaders.
We are kicking off our second round of our Sabbatical Leadership Awards program (2024-2025) on September 14, 2023 with the opening of our application process for our 2024-2025 Sabbatical Program. Our Sabbatical Application Form page is open for applications from September 14, 2023 – November 30, 2023. A link to the application form is posted here.
In our first round of our sabbatical program, we were overjoyed to announce $1.37 million for 20 leaders to experience three-month sabbaticals and 12 leaders to have one-month respites. Read about the announcement and meet the cohort of inaugural awardees.
What is the sabbatical opportunity?
As a coalition, we recognize that rest, renewal, and restoration are foundational to racial healing and social justice in communities. We are committed to normalizing rest and the practice of sabbaticals. That’s why we launched the Sabbatical Leadership Awards program.
Every year, we aim to support a cohort of nonprofit leaders with three-month sabbaticals that allow them to step back from the exhaustion of work and re-connect with their own vitality and balance. Each sabbatical award will be $60,000 that includes:
- Salary and Benefits for Leader – Approximately $30,000 to the nonprofit organization to pay for the salary and benefits of the leader taking the sabbatical.
- Individual Sabbatical Expenses for the Leader – About $10,000 in unrestricted funding for the leader to use as they see fit.
- Organizational and Leadership Support – Approximately $20,000 to cover:
- Bonuses for other senior leaders who take on increased interim leadership responsibilities during the three sabbatical months.
- Funding for the organization to support professional development for leaders other than the one taking the sabbatical.
- Capacity-building consultation and support from a sabbatical consultant. The BIPOC ED Coalition has consultants to choose from, or you can find your own consultant. The sabbatical consultant will meet with the leader, board, and interim leaders to develop a sabbatical plan that supports smooth transitions, effective operations, and organizational capacity building.
Our approach to giving
The BIPOC ED Coalition is committed to undoing harmful funder practices, and joining the movement toward trust-based philanthropy. We are committed to a trust-based approach to giving sabbatical awards.
As part of this approach, we invite you to self-screen using the eligibility criteria below. If you fulfill all the criteria, and are able to commit to the award requirements, please go to the next steps to complete the interest form.
Eligibility checklist
To be eligible, applicants must:
- Be a BIPOC nonprofit executive director or organizational senior leader with a central decision-making and visioning role.
- Have a demonstrated track record of social justice commitment and community engagement.
- Reside in Washington state, with your work centered in Washington state.
- Have been in a paid, full-time leadership role at your organization for at least five years.
- Work with an organization that has the capacity to maintain critical operations and programs while the senior leader is on sabbatical.
- Work with an organization that has 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status or fiscal sponsorship from a 501(c)(3) organization.
- Share the BIPOC ED Coalition’s commitment to working in solidarity with other BIPOC nonprofit leaders to promote wellness and restore resources in our communities.
- The organization’s Board of Directors must be in support of the Leader taking the sabbatical and a Board Officer must sign the application.
If awarded a sabbatical, applicants must:
- Be able to begin the three-month sabbatical within 16 months of the award.
- Agree to work with a consultant to develop a plan for organizational operations and interim leadership in your absence. The interim leadership plan will encourage current staff to step into leadership roles while the senior leader is on sabbatical and provide professional development and support for current staff.
- Commit to not working at their organization and minimizing communication with the organization during the sabbatical (unless there is an emergency at the organization).
- Commit to the spirit and purpose of the sabbatical, and not take on other work or volunteer obligations.
- Agree to provide feedback as part of our evaluation and data collection process.
“Rest is not work’s adversary, rest is work’s partner.”
– Alex Sooting-Kim Pang, Author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less
Next steps
- Our second round 2024-2025 Sabbatical Leadership program will be open for applications on September 14, 2023. A link to the application form is posted here.
- If you are interested in learning more, please complete the Sabbatical Program Contact Form. We are committed to walking alongside you to address any barriers you may have going on a sabbatical.
Questions?
If you have questions, please contact Jodi Nishioka at jnishioka@bipocedcoalitionwa.org or Victoria Santos vsantos@bipocedcoalitionwa.org.
Our gratitude to supporting organizations:
We are thankful to the Durfee Foundation, the Barr Foundation, and O2 Initiatives for their support and sharing, which informed our process.
We are deeply grateful to the following foundations and donors whose generous support makes these sabbaticals possible: Black Future Co-op Fund, JP Morgan Chase, Medina Foundation, Satterberg Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation, and Stolte Family Foundation.
Other foundations are considering support for our important effort!
