The Hidden Cost of Incivility in Canada’s Nonprofit Sector

This is the fifth blog in our Bite-Sized But Impactful Data series. We collect a lot of powerful data at YMCA WorkWell and we believe that data is only meaningful if it's shared. While our Workplace Well-Being Reports dive deep into our data, this blog series shares bite-sized and data-driven stories throughout the year. We want these stories to be short, quick reads that pique your interest more than answer all of your questions, so if you would ever like to go deeper and learn more about what we are seeing in our data, please contact us. We're always open to talk data with anyone and everyone.

Do you feel like our communities feel a little more... tense these days?

If so, you're not alone. And that matters.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has been extensively tracking the lives of thousands of people since 1938. They found that the best and most consistent predictor of long and happy lives wasn’t social class, physical health, IQ, or genes – it was the quality of our social connections.

Studies have shown that a lack of social connection over time affects our health more than smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure - even suggesting that prolonged loneliness can have the same effect on our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Connection matters - it's the whole reason why we built communities in the first place. Yet, recent Canadian data points to cracks in that foundation. For example:

• An Angus Reid study found that nearly two-thirds of Canadians believe our level of compassion for one another has weakened.
• StatsCan data finds that the majority of Canadians believe that you "cannot be too careful in dealing with people".
• A Canadian Mental Health Association study found that feelings of empathy are declining.
• Research has demonstrated that Instances of incivility have been on the rise in political discourse, in classrooms, and in the retail and hospitality sectors.

The purpose of community is connection. And if connection is eroding, so is well-being.

And we're seeing it in our data too.

The Early Warning Signs in Our Data

At YMCA WorkWell, our Insights Team collects well-being and experience data from tens of thousands of Canadians every year.

In early 2024, we started to notice a new trend in our data. Employees - especially in nonprofits - were increasingly mentioning negative interactions with community members in their survey comments. These weren't just anecdotes. Difficult interactions with customers and program participants were surfacing as a clear issue impacting employee well-being in the sector.

This was a warning sign that something was shifting and it was worth digging deeper.

So, we teamed up with many of our nonprofit partners and added a question to our standard Insights Survey:

"To what extent do you believe that negative interactions with community members and/or participants impact your personal well-being at work?" 

In the last 12 months, 9,515 nonprofit employees have responded to that question across a wide range of nonprofit sectors including child care, community health, community development, and housing.

What did we learn? Let's break it down.

These Interactions Are Widespread

Of the thousands of employees we surveyed, 76% reported that negative interactions with community members impacted their well-being at work. Not only were they experiencing these interactions, but these interactions were impacting their well-being at work in some way.

That is 3 out of 4 nonprofit employees carrying the emotional aftermath of these interactions.

In our opinion, this data is already enough to raise serious red flags and echos other reports that speak to a growing sense of incivility in our communities.

These interactions range in severity and tone - some are overt and hostile, some are passive and persistent, some are broadly directed at the organization and others are far more personal. They can include hostile and abusive language, passive-aggressive behaviours, manipulation tactics, and physical abuse. We've heard about it all in our data.

And while much has been written about traditional nonprofit challenges like funding instability and overwhelming workloads, these increasing negative interactions present a significant burden that doesn't receive enough attention - often being brushed aside as "part of the job".

They will wear on anyone over time. So, when respondents say that these interactions "impact their personal well-being at work", what does that really look like?

They Impact The Employee Experience

Let's consider some of the clearest examples we see in the data.

For example, employees reporting that these interactions impact their personal well-being are 3x more likely to report burnout "often" or "extremely often":

They are nearly twice as likely to consider leaving their role in the next six months:

And they are twice as likely to report a need for more mental health supports at work:

Now, we take data seriously at YMCA WorkWell. We know that correlation does not necessarily mean causation - but we do feel comfortable saying that the 76% of nonprofit employees who report these negative interactions are impacting their personal well-being also report higher levels of burnout, higher turnover intentions, and a greater need for mental health supports.

That speaks to a significantly different employee experience - and one that deserves our attention.

It's also important to note:
These negative interactions are not experienced equally across the sector. Certain groups are disproportionally affected and more likely to experience and carry the weight of these interactions.

Equity-deserving groups are disproportionally affected, with 2SLGBTQIA+ employees (83%), non-binary employees (83%), and employees with a disability (80%) being more likely to report that their well-being is impacted by these interactions. These differences provide an important equity lens to this data and are a powerful reminder that the people already navigating social and structural challenges are often the ones who are more likely to experience personal forms of abuse.

Front-line supervisors (81%) also feel the weight of these interactions more than front-line employees (75%) and senior leaders (65%) - as these front-line leaders often bear the brunt of these interactions in an effort to protect their teams - the "let me speak to your manager" hand-off. It's important to remember, as well, that nonprofit front-line supervisors are not always veteran or experienced leaders. One-third of front-line supervisors in this sample were under 30, two-thirds were under 40, and half had been in their role for under three years. They may bear the brunt of these interactions, but they don't always have the tools or skills to protect their own well-being in the process.

The Quick Takeaway

For those who prefer plain language over charts and numbers, here are the key takeaways:

• The vast majority of nonprofit employees (76%) report that negative interactions with community members impact their personal well-being at work
• These challenges are associated with higher burnout, higher turnover intentions, and a worsening employee experience
• Supervisors and equity-deserving employees are disproportionately affected by these interactions

Our nonprofit sector deserves better.

The sector is powered by people who care - deeply. These are people who have often made personal and financial sacrifices to support their communities. But when negative interactions are brushed aside as “part of the job,” we risk burning out the very people our communities rely on.

Unchecked, this isn’t just a threat to individual well-being - it’s a threat to the nonprofit sector’s ability to attract and retain talent.

Where Can You Start?

Tackling this issue requires real and intentional change - cultural shifts, policy clarity, and consistent leadership. It requires organizations to do what they can to minimize the frequency of these interactions, and bolster their teams' capacity to handle them effectively when some slip through the cracks. So, where can you start? 

1. Start with how you show up in your community. A community is the behaviour of its people at scale - and that includes you. I'm a big believer that people generally want to treat others with respect and most of these interactions are people falling short of who they want to be rather than premeditated acts of abuse. It happens to the best of us and when you find yourself in those situations - pause, breathe, consider the other person's perspective, and be sure to apologize when things go too far. If we all started there, this "where can you start" section would be significantly shorter.
   
   
2. Equip supervisors with the tools and supports they need. Our data found that front-line supervisors often step in to handle these incidents in an effort to protect and support their teams, but they don't always have the tools they need to protect themselves. Proactive organizations provide their front-line leaders with coaching and training in trauma-informed supervision, and outline clear processes for escalation and support from senior leaders. Our "Civility Under Pressure: De-escalation, Recovery & Resilience" workshop has also been designed to provide leaders with the skills they need to manage incivility in their organizations.
   
   
3. Set and enforce behavioural boundaries. "The customer is always right" doesn't apply to trauma-informed care. Organizations always set clear expectations for how their employees should show up, but the best community organizations do the same for community members too. Community members should be aware of what respectful conduct looks like in your organization, they should know the consequences if respectful conduct is not violated, and you need to demonstrate to your employees that you will act on them when needed.
   
   
4. Address the root causes. The customer is not always right, however the operations are not always right either. While the reactions are not acceptable, many flashpoints begin with legitimate operational barriers: waitlists, eligibility confusion, and service gaps. Minimizing these interactions also begins with service design that is transparent, easy to navigate, and easy to understand. By reducing these friction points, organizations can start to reduce the frequency of community members acting out because of them.
   
   
5. Collect and use data. Create a clear process to document and track negative interactions in your organization. Over time, this data can help you identify hot spots and trigger points, guide training content, and build the case for policy changes. We don't know what we don't know - and the right data can both demystify these interactions and their impact, and provide valuable insights into how to address them.
   
   
6. Embed this in your strat plan. Too often, employee well-being is treated as an HR side note. If you are serious about creating a safe and respectful place to work, integrate this work into your risk management strategy. Consider it as a key consideration in your talent retention plans, your DEI efforts, and your organizational values. When we institutionalize care, we legitimize it.

The purpose of our communities is to foster connection and support the people in them - both the people walking in the door and those serving behind the desk.

Data across this country continues to show that we are falling short in that purpose, and I hope this data can provide further evidence that incivility is something to take seriously - across this country, and in our nonprofit sector in particular.

We can do better.
We need to do better.

And I hope I can leave you with at least a bit of hope: Trust may be under threat in our communities, but two thirds of Canadians believe that our communities can find a path to be united again, rejecting the notion that we're too divided to mend.

Now it's up to us to pull the remaining third along and remind them what a healthy community is meant to be.