Nonprofits working to address immigrant rights are stretched thin with high rates of staff attrition and staff experiencing high levels of burnout and lacking economic security, a report by the California Community Foundation and Weingart Foundation finds.

The report, From Burnout to Wellbeing: Building a Sustainable Immigration Movement (64 pages PDF), examines the immigration sector in Southern California, which is also home to the largest immigrant population in the country. Informed by survey data of more than 100 staff members and interviews with 21 individuals, including executive directors at various immigrant-serving organizations, the report found that 59 percent of respondents derive meaning from their work. On the other hand, 84 percent of staff report that they find work sometimes, often, or always emotionally exhausting, with burnout being experienced at all positions and levels. 

To help remedy the situation, the foundations are launching the Immigrants Are Essential Fund, which is dedicated to promoting sustainability and wellness within the immigration sector so nonprofit staff and organizations can continue to support immigrant communities. It will serve as both a call-to-action and catalyst for more funders to invest in the immigrant rights movement to move funding from a place of scarcity to one of abundance. 

“This is a critical moment for the philanthropic community,” said California Community Foundation president and CEO Antonia Hernández and Weingart Foundation president and CEO Miguel A. Santana in a joint statement. “[We] must do our part to address the needs of the immigrant rights sector so that it can not only be sustained, but flourish, and to do that, the funding pie must increase.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Vesnaandjic)