In a sector defined by mission-driven work, conversations about internal culture are often sidelined. The inaugural Nonprofit Culture Fest, held April 10 at Gwinnett Technical College, set out to change that.
Organized by Kate Viana, founder of Nontoxic Nonprofits, the one-day conference brought together nonprofit leaders, consultants and staff from Atlanta Community Food Bank, Partnership for Southern Equity, Urban Alliance, North Georgia Community Foundation, among other organizations, to examine how workplace culture shapes organizational success and failure. According to a 2025 study, nearly 90 percent of nonprofit leaders report concern about burnout.
“The sector has spent decades preoccupied with external elements like funding and outreach and almost no time focused on the experience of its people, the people actually doing the work,” Viana said.
The event focused not on fundraising strategies or program outcomes but on the internal dynamics that determine whether those efforts succeed. Through panels, speakers addressed topics including leadership behavior, communication and setting personal boundaries.
Viana said the idea for Culture Fest emerged from her 14 years working across the nonprofit sector in Atlanta.
“One thing that struck me over and over and over is that no matter the size of the mission, all these organizations had the same thing in common,” she said. “They had cultural toxicity that was keeping them from achieving… mission fulfillment.”
That toxicity, she said, often appears in the form of unclear expectations, miscommunication and leadership and staff misalignment, issues that ultimately limit impact.
“People just aren’t willing to tolerate those unhealthy work environments anymore just because of the mission,” Viana said. “If they don’t address culture now, they’re going to continue to lose talented people and chip away at their long-term impact.”
A central theme of the conference was that culture is not abstract but actively produced through everyday decisions.
“Culture is not this abstract thing floating somewhere out in the ether,” Viana said. “It’s something that is actively being shaped every day through leadership decisions, through communication patterns.”
Despite its importance, culture often goes unaddressed in nonprofits because it is harder to measure than metrics like fundraising totals or service numbers. There is also a tendency, Viana said, to tolerate dysfunction in service of urgent missions.
“The mission feels more important than these microaggressions or getting along with a co-worker,” she said. “People feel like we don’t have time to fix this.”
Panels throughout the day pushed back on that mindset, arguing that internal health is directly tied to external impact.
“When nonprofit teams are aligned and supported, everything improves,” Viana said. “And that ultimately is going to improve outcomes for the communities they serve.”
One session led by Catherine Ashton, founder of Giant Squid Group, LLC, explored the concept of the “container,” a framework for understanding individual working capacity.
In the discussion, the “container” was defined as a person’s capacity for responsibilities, pressures and expectations. Participants were asked to identify what fits within that container and what does not, and to consider what must be removed to prevent overload.
“Think about your full load, your personal, your structural, your organizational,” Ashton said. “And then anything that doesn’t quite fit.”
The exercise resonated with attendees, many of whom described feeling overextended by both professional and familial demands. Others pointed to systemic pressures within nonprofit work that discourage setting boundaries, including fear of conflict and expectations to take on additional responsibilities.
Ashton emphasized that boundaries are not optional but necessary for sustainability.
“You cannot do it all,” she said. “Boundaries are necessary. They are not optional.”
Nontoxic Nonprofits plans to host another Culture Fest within the next six to 12 months. Updates about Nontoxic Nonprofits and Nonprofit Culture Fest will be shared via social media.
For many attendees, the event marked a shift in how nonprofit success is defined, not just by the strength of its mission but by the health of the people carrying it out.
