Let’s Stop Scaling Burnout: Why Social Impact Organizations Fail the Humans Inside of Them

The impact sector often scales solutions at the expense of the people building them. Inspired by the “triple bottom line”, this session centers on human sustainability, challenging burnout, overwork, and disembodied leadership in the social impact ecosystem. Drawing on Midwest community-led models and cooperatives, we will explore how to design organizations that value people, well-being, trust, and belonging alongside social and financial returns. Through dialogue and reflection, participants will co-create practical, field-tested tools that strengthen communication, improve retention, reduce burnout, and build resilient, human-centered organizations, redefining what successful impact truly means.