On Trial: Recognition in the Nonprofit Space

All rise.

The Court of Nonprofit Workplace Wellbeing is now in session.

On the docket today: The Case of Employees vs. Employers - The Recognition Gap.

Representing the Prosecution: employees from across the nonprofit sector, alleging that despite working with passion and purpose, they often feel unseen, unheard, and undervalued.

Representing the Defence: employers - paid leadership teams and board members - who assert they care deeply, recognize contributions regularly, and are doing their best to demonstrate their gratitude in a changing landscape. 

The jury? That’s you, dear reader.

Prepare to hear testimony, examine evidence, and just maybe, uncover the truth about why efforts to appreciate good work are falling flat.

Prosecution (Employees):

“Your Honour, people of the court…

We are tired. Not just physically, but emotionally; drained from giving so much to workplaces that rarely give back in ways that matter to us.

We are not asking for trophies. We’re asking to be seen. We’re asking for our labour, visible and invisible, to be acknowledged with intention, not performative praise.

Too often, our contributions are buried under deadlines and politeness. “Great job” is a placeholder. Pizza parties are distractions. What we crave is not novelty, but genuine appreciation that reflects who we are, what we value, and what we need to keep going.

We believe our employers may care - but we don’t feel it. And that gap is what this case is all about.”

The Defence (Employers):

“Your Honour, members of the jury…

We are not the villains. Most of us are not heartless overlords using gratitude as bait. Most of us deeply care about our teams; we know we couldn’t do this work without them.

We do say thank you. We do notice the effort. We do try to celebrate wins. But sometimes, no matter how hard we try, no matter what type of recognition we offer, it’s never good enough for the prosecution. 

What worked yesterday might fall flat today. What works for one, doesn’t work for another - and it’s tricky to implement something unique for every individual on a big team, especially in the nonprofit world where time and resources are limited. Those are not excuses - they are requests for grace as we work to close the gap, and prove that our intentions are real.”

Prosecution (Employees):

“Honourable people of the court, there are plenty of us who have real-world examples of an employer missing the mark when it comes to recognition. A gift that felt too tokenistic, a public shoutout that embarrassed us, or recognition that rewarded overwork instead of balance. Or worse yet, not even being acknowledged for our efforts at all. We know it’s tough - our needs are fluid and hard to standardize - but figuring out how to reward us for the work we do on behalf of you and your organization is part of your job!”

• Employers overvalue urgency and perfection and undervalue emotional labour, boundary-setting, and creativity. People are rewarded when they push past capacity, not when they set healthy limits.

• What’s visible and measurable is celebrated but employers miss everything else. They only seem to see the most outgoing members of the team; those of us who are more introverted or less comfortable promoting ourselves often don’t get acknowledged at all. 

• Recognition seems to happen on a schedule  - at annual reviews, team meetings, etc. - not when it really matters. If you see us doing something well, tell us then and there! 

• Employers think they’re recognizing people. But to us, it feels like a performance. They're following outdated scripts. No one feels rewarded with a pizza party and a ping pong table anymore. We want to be able to pay our rent and enjoy our lives outside of work. 

• When it comes to employee benefits and perks, employers are often telling, not asking. Why don’t you just ask us what would make us feel appreciated?

• We know you have a lot on your plate and that you’re sometimes overwhelmed - but trying to automate empathy won’t work. The HR department is stuck in a rut of compliance over connection.

Defence (Employers): 

"Your Honour, we acknowledge the importance of employee recognition and strive to make our teams feel valued. However, we face challenges in meeting the diverse and evolving expectations of our workforce. Nothing we do to demonstrate our appreciation ever seems good enough - it often feels like our well-intentioned efforts are met with skepticism or derision. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. In some cases, the automatic and default feeling seems to be that we don’t really care about our employees - but that isn’t true; we do care."

• Diverse preferences make recognition really challenging. For example, some employees appreciate public acknowledgment, while others prefer private praise. Often, we don’t know about these preferences until after - without clear communication, it's challenging to cater to individual preferences. 

• Sometimes our efforts to recognize high performers leads to perceptions of favoritism, which can cause dissatisfaction and feelings of frustration among other team members. We’re not doing this on purpose, but we’re stretched thin too and it’s hard to see the impact everyone is making if we aren’t told about it. 

• Being in leadership is hard. It feels like no one ever appreciates you and yet you’re expected to find unique and special ways to appreciate everyone else, all of the time. Sometimes we just want our recognition efforts to be acknowledged and appreciated, even if we don’t always get it right every time. 

• In many cases, we’ve been trained to lead through checklists, policies, and platitudes - not emotion, curiosity, and humanity. We’re not ignoring our people. We’re just still learning how to listen better.  

• We acknowledge our ways might be outdated, awkward, or out of sync with what’s needed now. But that doesn’t mean we’re not trying. Recognition seems to be fast evolving - and due to budget constraints, approval requirements and other limitations that impact everything we do in our sector, it’s difficult to change benefit systems quickly.

In many nonprofit organizations, recognition is still output-based. “Good job on that report.” “Thanks for staying late.” But people aren’t tick boxes, spreadsheets or robots. They’re humans navigating life - including change, burnout, isolation and loss of joy - and employer appreciation needs to meet them at that level.

• People are craving authenticity, not applause.

• You may be missing the people who need recognition the most - because they’re the ones quietly holding everything together.

• Recognition must be adaptive, not one-size-fits-all.

• True appreciation is based on listening, not guessing.

• Acknowledging employees’ efforts needs to be a practice, not an HR task.

You can send them an e-card. You can buy them lunch. You can shout them out in the team meeting. But if your people still feel unseen, misunderstood, or emotionally invisible - it doesn’t matter. Your recognition system is broken.

Saying "thank you" is a start, but true recognition is about witnessing people, not just their productivity. In a sector that’s supposedly built on heart, we need to honour the humans who keep it beating.

Don’t ask yourself: “Did I say thank you today?”Ask yourself: “Who didn’t feel seen; why?”Then go do something about it.

Recognition isn’t a perk. It’s a core ingredient of retention, resilience, and performance. It’s also the hallmark of human connection and belonging. Especially in nonprofit spaces, where passion is often exploited in place of pay, recognition becomes currency.

But here’s the truth: Recognition isn’t free and it isn’t easy. 

It takes time. Presence. Emotional effort. 

You have to notice, not just reward. 

The Judge sentences the defendant to: 

• Ask your team how they want to be recognized.

• Build space for reflection, feedback, and evolution.

• Recognize effort, growth, values lived out - not just deliverables.

• Notice and name invisible work.

• Give credit even when people aren’t in the room.

• Let people into rooms they’ve never been invited to before.

• Allow people to rest.

• Pay people what they’re worth.

• Be bespoke, specific and timely about your acknowledgement.

• Create rituals of celebration, not just metrics of productivity.

Kind folks of the jury, thank you for your time and attention during this trial. Your service is a vital part of our justice system, and we appreciate your dedication to fairness. 

Case dismissed. Court is adjourned.