The Power of Sabbaticals: Readers Respond

In Sabbaticals Strengthen Leaders and Nonprofits: Here’s How to Recharge, the chief executives of five nonprofit groups shared the rejuvenating benefits of their sabbatical experiences and offered insights and peer support to other leaders. The Chronicle received many reactions from readers, some of which have been included below.

Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

‘A Gift of Presence’

The experiences our employees have had on sabbatical are as diverse as our team. The first person to take a sabbatical — an accountant — traveled across the Indonesian islands to visit family and friends, an adventure she never imagined she could take. Another employee volunteered at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Others have used the time for quiet reflection, hiking in Europe, or spending time with loved ones. Personally, I spent over four weeks visiting favorite vacation spots and reconnecting with my favorite books and family, a gift of presence that’s hard to come by in the frenetic pace of nonprofit leadership.
— Mark Stuart, president and CEO of the San Diego Foundation

‘A Leadership Strategy’

Sabbaticals aren’t just a luxury — they’re a leadership strategy. This powerful piece from the Chronicle of Philanthropy highlights how nonprofit executives are leveraging sabbaticals to recharge, build stronger teams, and model sustainable work culture.

At the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, we see supporting nonprofit worker well-being as essential to the health and impact of the sector. Time away can have a significant positive impact on leaders, organizations, and certainly their ability to carry out their missions.
— Jamie Allison, executive director of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund

‘Renewed Hope’

As a 16-year executive director at the East Coast Greenway Alliance, I deeply appreciate your piece on the importance of taking time for perspective. My recent sabbatical allowed me to read critical and inspiring books and to meet with innovators in the field of biking and walking trails that foster community, deeper connection with nature, and much more. The perspective I gained from peers in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands give me renewed hope that we can transform the world together through bold, collaborative initiatives.

Most nonprofit efforts are marathons, not sprints. Giving our staff at all levels a reward for their dedication and the time to think deeply and intentionally in an otherwise attention-deficit world is a tool I believe in for our nonprofit and for the sector. Thank you for highlighting leaders’ positive experiences and advice. In these intense times, finding the time to get more rooted may just be the critical step nonprofit sector leaders need to restore our social fabric and address the environmental and health challenges of the day.
— Dennis Markatos-Soriano, executive director of the East Coast Greenway Alliance

‘Rest Is an Investment’

Collective rest policies are part of a trend toward embedding structured rest into the rhythm of organizational life. It builds on the momentum of nonprofit sabbatical policies, which in recent years have gained traction as powerful tools to retain leadership, combat burnout, and encourage long-term planning. Evidence keeps growing that proves these practices lead to higher productivity, stronger retention, and healthier, thriving employees.

In 2024, R&R: The Rest of Our Lives launched a grant experiment called Breakweek — a one-week, organization-wide pause where teams shut down operations entirely.

This grant pilot illustrated that rest should be part of an organizational well-being strategy. R&R’s Breakweek grant pilot included an investment in 15 nonprofit organizations (270 employees), and the results are powerful. Nearly every participant reported a positive experience: Over 90 percent said their stress or burnout decreased, and more than two-thirds said their productivity improved after Breakweek — a direct counter to a more common belief that time away leads to inefficiency.

In many ways, Breakweek offers a logical first step for organizations committed to this work for their teams, and an even more natural step for those who already have sabbatical policies. It applies the same principles of intentional pause and recovery, but distributes that opportunity equitably across the entire team, reinforcing a culture of shared care. Breakweek creates a regular cadence where people can reset together. It showcases to all staff that rest is an investment that their leadership is not only willing to make but is also intentionally prioritizing for everyone.
— Josh Feldman, founder and CEO of R&R: The Rest of Our Lives

‘A Healthy Work Culture’

It was wonderful to see your article on the value of sabbaticals! We have implemented a monthlong sabbatical each July for all staff at our organization to cultivate rest and reflection as a key tenet of our work. During that time, our office takes a pause, messages publicly on our socials and email out-of-office replies that we are observing a time of rest. We create an office-closure plan to allow operations to run at a baseline and align our work throughout the year to honor the period of pause. Taking a pause as a team allows everyone access to the benefit of rest and has become an important tool in our sustainability resource kit.

Glad to see more discourse on the practices that can support a healthy work culture.
— Lisa Willis, executive director of Cave Canem