A Letter to Your Board About Winter Cave

Dear Board Members,

I am writing to request approval for a staff investment that I believe will have a meaningful impact on our team's capacity, cohesion, and long-term effectiveness.

I am proposing that we send our staff to Winter Cave — a three-week virtual rest and culture-building experience facilitated by By Moonlight, running December 19 through January 10. The investment is $500 per person.

Why now

Our sector is in a workforce crisis. 95% of nonprofit leaders report concern about staff burnout. Nearly 7 in 10 nonprofit employees said in 2025 they were planning to look for a new job that year. Turnover in the nonprofit sector sits at 19% — compared to 12% in other industries. The cost of replacing a single staff member is estimated at 50–200% of their annual salary.

We are not immune to these pressures. Our staff is carrying a heavy load. And the standard response — pushing harder, doing more, moving faster — is not working. The data is clear: the nine-to-five, never-stop model of work is not productive. Research shows it takes 23 minutes to fully refocus after a single interruption. Neuroscience tells us that the brain's most creative and generative work happens not during peak performance, but during rest.

We are asking our people to do their best thinking while never giving them the conditions for it.

What Winter Cave is

Winter Cave is a three-week virtual collective rest practice facilitated by Sojourner Zenobia of By Moonlight — a healing justice facilitator who has worked with the ACLU, Grantmakers in the Arts, EPIP, and cultural sustainability cohorts across the country.

The experience runs during the holiday period — December 19 through January 10 — a time when productivity is naturally reduced and many staff members are already navigating family obligations and year-end fatigue. Rather than losing those three weeks to scattered attention and depletion, Winter Cave transforms them into a strategic investment.

Staff will move through the experience together in small groups, building genuine relationship and trust across departments. They will practice yoga nidra, collective rest, altar sessions, and creative practices rooted in the wisdom of Black women and femmes leading the global rest movement — Tricia Hersey, Tracee Stanley, and Octavia Raheem.

What changes

Organizations whose staff have gone through Winter Cave report:

  • A shared language around rest, rhythm, and care that carries into the new year

  • Stronger cross-departmental relationships and trust

  • The ability to reframe how to show up in a capitalist world. 

  • A return to work with clarity and deep inspiration around projects that felt overwhelming

  • A renewed sense of purpose and connection to the mission

  • a deeper understanding of the value of rest - not as something separate from meaningful work, but as an essential part of sustaining it. 

“I had never experienced a moment where I was intentionally taking such great care of my body, with cushions and being so meticulous about comfort. Since then I have shifted so much of my life to integrate mindfulness about rest. These circles have had a huge impact on my professional life. To remind myself of the need for rest. “ - William Estrada. By Moonlight Client

As Carl Honoré writes in In Praise of Slowness: "The things that need slowness — strategic planning, creative thought, building relationships — get lost in the mad dash to keep up." Winter Cave creates the conditions for exactly those things.

The investment

At $500 per person, Winter Cave is one of the most affordable professional development and team wellness investments available. For context, the cost of replacing one staff member who burns out and leaves is estimated at $30,000–$75,000 or more depending on salary and role. Preventing even one departure more than pays for the entire team's participation.

Winter Cave does not require time away from work. It runs during the holiday period and is designed to be flexible — staff participate at their own pace, choosing the practices and sessions that work for them.

My ask

I am requesting approval to register our team for Winter Cave 2026 at $500 per person for [X] staff members, for a total investment of $[X].

I believe this is one of the most important investments we can make right now — not just in our people's wellbeing, but in the long-term sustainability of our mission. A team that knows how to rest, trust each other, and care for themselves will be more creative, more resilient, and more effective in everything we ask them to do.

I am happy to discuss this further at our next meeting.

With gratitude,

[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Organization]