How do you prevent volunteer / member burnout in your community?
Burnout is real. Especially in online communities, where the core members bear the burden of running the community by volunteering for roles like moderating, welcoming members, starting conversations, organizing events and creating new content. I’ve seen it happen in CrazyEngineers, in a video-developer community I built and even some private communities I helped grow.
I thought I’d express my thoughts on preventing volunteer burnout:
Normalise taking breaks
No one should feel like they’ve to be ‘always on’. I encourage our team and active members to take time-off, guilt-free. In the past, we have set up simple “offline” badges on member profiles and mini-cards for our moderators so that they can take a pause when they need. Communities are like test-cricket; not T20. It’s okay to take it slow.
Share the load
Instead of giving big roles to just few, I break the tasks down into small, manageable pieces. Things like “post a welcome message once a week” or “moderate one thread every Friday”. This makes it easier for volunteers to reduce the load by sharing it among the team.
Celebrate effort, celebrate often
It’s essential to celebrate the effort; not the load. It’s also important to celebrate often. Make your volunteers appreciated and recognized for the efforts they put in. Encourage ‘trying’ over ‘succeeding’.
Build a culture of peer support
When members help each other out instead of everything falling on the core team, it creates a more sustainable community. I actively encourage “members helping members” through dedicated help threads, peer-to-peer mentoring, or casual shoutouts.
Check in often
Be human. Sometimes all it takes is a message: “Hey, how are you doing? Need a break?” These small check-ins show you care beyond tasks, and they help catch signs of burnout before it happens.
I’d love to know how do you handle volunteer burnout in your community?
