Feeling Guilty About Leaving a Nonprofit Job? How to Decide What’s Next

Few jobs ask as much of you as nonprofit work. You didn’t take the role for the salary or the perks. You took it because you care about people, animals, a landscape or a cause that feels bigger than you.

So when you start wondering whether it’s time to go, the guilt can hit hard. What about your team? What about the animals in your care, or the communities relying on the programme you helped build? Can you really walk away?

If you’re feeling guilty about leaving a job like this, you’re not alone, and it doesn’t mean you care any less. Usually it means you care a great deal. The real question is what that care is asking of you now.