From the desk of The Harvest Foundation President Kate Keller
In the day-to-day business of work, it’s easy for staff to become focused on deadlines, meetings, and individual tasks. While productivity matters, organizations thrive when teams feel connected, engaged, and aligned with a shared vision. In the nonprofit sector, it’s common for teams to become stretched thin as they juggle limited resources and carry the weight of serving the community. We often lose sight of the bigger picture.
That’s where staff retreats come in. More than just a change of scenery, retreats are powerful opportunities for organizations to invest in their people, culture, and mission.
The Harvest team uses a variety of strategies to keep us connected, mission-focused, and learning how we can be better. Each quarter, we have “deep dives,” which are extended staff meetings where we look deeper into an issue that can be either program-related or an internal process. We also do an extended staff retreat every other year.
The extended staff retreat is an overnight retreat where we incorporate learning, team building, and staff wellness. I appreciate that we have the luxury to have these retreats, and I also see the results of staff building stronger connections to each other and to our mission, and believe it is worth the investment.
During our retreats, we typically visit another foundation and learn about their approaches. This year, we visited the Dogwood Health Trust in Asheville. We dug deep into their response to Hurricane Helene and into their recovery approaches. We learned strategies we can put into place prior to a disaster to assist the foundation in its ability to respond faster, and ways we can support our local community agencies in being ready to respond. We also spent time learning about their housing strategies and ways they are trying to increase access to affordable housing.
I mentioned that we also include team building and staff wellness. We had the opportunity to spend an afternoon at the North Carolina Arboretum on their landscaped trails, exploring all the different types of flowers and plants.
Staff retreats may feel like a luxury; however, they’re a strategic investment in the health of an organization. Retreats do not need to be overnight or overly expensive. A day retreat can be structured to create time for recharging, reconnecting, and refocusing. When we take time to strengthen our relationships, we also strengthen our work, setting the stage for greater community impact.
We Choose Hope
