Sprout Nonprofit | the podcast for small shop nonprofits · Rachel Bearbower

63 | How to Set Boundaries and Banish Burnout with Julia Campbell (Nonprofit Nation)

·37 min·1 clip

Work smarter, not harder in nonprofit leadership

Rachel opens with a familiar warning. She speaks directly to small-shop nonprofit executive directors, founders, and change makers who feel stretched thin, distracted, and drained, and she frames the show as a place to reclaim time, build a blueprint, and boost impact by fundraising smarter and prioritizing real connections. Then she shifts the format. This episode is an interview Rachel shared from her conversation with Julia Campbell on Nonprofit Nation, and Rachel names Julia as an OG in the nonprofit space whose work on social media and storytelling has helped people build community for years. Rachel is grateful for the share. She thanks Julia for allowing the episode to be aired and encourages listeners to follow Nonprofit Nation if they want more of her perspective. The conversation turns to systems. Rachel outlines three main technology-based systems that keep an organization moving - calendar management, project management, and operations management - and then adds executive management as the human layer that has to hold all of it together. That tension matters. The episode keeps coming back to the friction between software and the analog life most people actually live, with Rachel pointing out that many of us do our best work inside tools but still need a way to stay focused outside them. Her answer is simple. Instead of a rigid productivity ritual, she describes a morning routine that pulls the day out of software and into an analog system, like a to-do list, so the listener starts with one clear place to work from. The evening matters too. At the end of the day, she suggests the reverse: gather the post-it notes, calendar scribbles, notebook notes, and loose ideas, then upload them back into the software that is designed to help you do your job better. That reset creates edges. Rachel frames the routine as a way to build clear stop-and-start boundaries instead of trying to work all the freaking time, and the point is not perfection but a workable rhythm that protects already-thin energy. The tone stays human. There is plenty of reassurance, a few small detours, and the kind of conversational cushioning that makes the advice feel like it was built in real time for people who are already carrying too much. It ends lightly. Rachel closes by inviting people to find her on Instagram and LinkedIn, and the final exchange includes a friendly aside about Morty, her hundred-pound lap dog, reclaiming his time.

As heard by us

Burnout gets practical when the day has clear start and stop points.

The episode centers on a common nonprofit problem: when email, calendars, and project tools start setting the pace, small-shop leaders can lose any sense of where the day begins and ends.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When your nonprofit day bleeds from tab to tab, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Sprout Nonprofit | the podcast for small shop nonprofits