The charity comms burnout problem we need to talk about.
I’ve been reading the latest CharityComms Salary & Organisational Culture Survey 2025 and one thing stood out immediately:
A significant number of charity communications professionals are exhausted.
Not just busy. Not just stretched. Actually burned out. And honestly, that probably won’t surprise many people working in the sector right now.
Communications teams across charities are being asked to deliver more than ever before, often with limited resource, increasing complexity, and growing organisational expectations.
At the same time, comms functions are still too often viewed as reactive support services rather than strategic operational teams.
That combination creates pressure that simply isn’t sustainable.
Charity comms teams are carrying more than ever
The role of communications in charities has evolved dramatically over the last few years.
Today’s comms professionals are expected to manage:
- social media
- digital content
- brand management
- internal communications
- campaigns
- leadership communications
- crisis response
- fundraising support
- storytelling
- impact reporting
- reputation management
- audience engagement
- AI and digital adaptation
And in many organisations, all of that sits within very small teams.
The issue isn’t that communications professionals lack resilience. The issue is that the workload, pace, and expectations often continue to grow without the structure, investment, or capacity needed to support them properly.
Burnout shouldn’t be normalised
One of the most concerning aspects of conversations around charity work is how quickly burnout can become normalised.
There’s often an unspoken expectation that because people care deeply about the mission, they will simply keep absorbing additional pressure.
But passion for a cause is not a substitute for sustainable working practices.
And caring about impact should include caring about the people responsible for communicating that impact.
When comms teams are constantly operating in reactive mode, several things start happening:
- strategic work gets deprioritised
- creativity declines
- mistakes become more likely
- internal tensions increase
- staff retention becomes harder
- quality becomes inconsistent
- people disengage or leave entirely
That doesn’t just affect communications teams. It affects the organisation’s ability to build trust, raise awareness, engage supporters, and communicate effectively with the public.
Salary matters, but so does culture
The CharityComms survey also reinforces something many professionals already know:
Organisational culture matters just as much as salary.
People want to feel:
- trusted
- valued
- listened to
- supported
- strategically included
Communications professionals often sit at the centre of organisational visibility. They see internal pressures, external expectations, leadership messaging, supporter sentiment, and operational challenges all at once.
When comms teams are excluded from strategic conversations or brought in too late, it creates frustration for everyone involved. Strong communications rarely happens as an afterthought.
The organisations that communicate well externally are usually the ones that value communications internally too.
Good communications requires investment
There’s still a tendency in some organisations to underestimate what effective communications actually involves.
Good comms is not simply posting on social media or producing content quickly.
It requires:
- strategic thinking
- planning
- audience understanding
- emotional intelligence
- consistency
- collaboration
- governance
- creativity
- operational coordination
And importantly, it requires enough time and resource to do the work properly.
If organisations want stronger engagement, fundraising performance, reputation management, and public trust, communications cannot continuously operate at the edge of burnout.
What needs to change?
There probably isn’t a single solution.
But there are some important shifts organisations can make:
Treat communications as a strategic function
Comms should be involved early in planning and decision-making, not simply brought in at the delivery stage.
Create clearer workflows and priorities
Not every request can be urgent. Teams need structure, prioritisation, and realistic expectations.
Invest in capacity
If expectations continue to increase, resource needs to increase too.
Build healthier cultures
Psychological safety, trust, realistic workloads, and supportive leadership are operational necessities, not optional extras.
So what’s next?
The CharityComms survey feels less like a warning and more like confirmation of what many people in the sector are already experiencing daily.
Charity communications professionals care deeply about the work they do. But commitment alone cannot carry unsustainable systems forever.
If organisations genuinely want stronger communications, stronger supporter engagement, and stronger public trust, then supporting the people behind those communications has to become a bigger priority.
Because burnout should never be the cost of meaningful work.
