Permission to pause: Q&A with Jill Richardson, 2017 Sabbatical Recipient

Jill Richardson is a 2017 Sabbatical Award recipient. She is currently the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Alaska but served as CEO of Sprout Family Services at the time. Her sabbatical from Sprout, she said, “was a gift to me, but it also was a gift to my organization. My organization became stronger because I was able to step away from it.” Here, she reflects on what her Sabbatical Award meant to her and how it can benefit Alaska leaders and their organizations.

Q: How did you know it was a good time to apply for a sabbatical — both for you and for your organization?

Jill: I think my board chair brought it up to me. I had basically just spent most of my life in service to others and building programs, advancing my career. I had been in nonprofit work since the age of 16, [so] my identity was really built around achievement and responsibility; I had never really paused to think about who I am outside of work.

I had a lot of things going on professionally and personally that were kind of coming to a head. It was very clear that there was a lot going on. And my board chair knew me really well personally, too. She had a lot of empathy for me needing to take care of myself.

To be really honest, I just felt sort of tired. And I think that the sabbatical gave me permission to experience life more fully.

Q: How do you think it helped, having someone essentially advocate for you to take a sabbatical?

Jill: It was actually a massive relief to me to have someone else suggesting that. Somebody outside of me saw what I maybe couldn’t see that I needed [and said], “Hey, would you consider doing this?” For me, that felt like permission, to have someone else suggest it.

Q: While the Sabbatical Program is meant to provide leaders with rest and personal renewal, it’s also a way to foster leadership growth at an organization. How do you feel your time away allowed other people to step into more responsibility and leadership development?

Jill: On the practical side, some of them had to do new and different things they wouldn’t have done otherwise. They took on ownership over things.

On the other end, when I came back, there were some things I’d been doing because it seemed like it was easier for me to just do them. When I came back, I was able to be more creative and spend a little bit more time in strategy than I had before, and it allowed me to operate at a higher level — then [other staff] grew, too, because they had to fill that sort of void of the operations that I had been doing.

Q: In what other ways did your sabbatical impact you and your organization?

Jill: When I came back, I really saw that my sabbatical was such an investment in sustainability. I know my board knew that. It wasn’t my burnout they were trying to protect. I think they saw, even when I couldn’t, that I might go somewhere else. So the sabbatical wasn’t meant to keep me from doing that; it was to prepare me.

The sabbatical gave me permission to pause, recover, and imagine a future beyond just getting through the next crisis or the next thing I need to react to. I do feel like that is really relatable to a lot of executive directors, tribal administrators, or CEOs, especially in small nonprofits.

I feel like it ultimately gave me a renewed sense of purpose. I came back committed to nonprofit work, and I missed it. [During the sabbatical], it took me a long time to even settle into not working, but I came back committed to it. I came back refreshed and with new creativity and new energy for it.

Q: Now for the fun part: How did you spend your sabbatical?

Jill: I went to Europe for two months. My now-husband came with me, and we went all over. We were in so many cities. Neither one of us had ever been there, so it was all these novel experiences, and we had a budget to do stuff I never would’ve been able to do. And we really connected with each other — we have a kid now, and we’re married, and we’ve built a whole life, and that was in the beginning of our relationship. I don’t know that we would’ve gotten there without the sabbatical.

We ate a lot of good food. We stayed in really, really cool, unique boutique places and went to a million museums and did every single Rick Steves audio tour that existed in Europe.

Q: Anything you’d like to add about the Sabbatical Program?

Jill: The sabbatical was a gift to me, but it also was a gift to my organization. My organization became stronger because I was able to step away from it.

For so many leaders, they’re so committed and loyal to their mission and work. They’re putting all their energy into it because they believe in it so much. But actually, it is a gift to your mission if you step away and see the ways in which things operate great without you and the ways in which you need to strengthen other elements of the organization.

Applications for 2027 Sabbatical Awards are now open through June 23, 2026. Alaska nonprofit executives and tribal administrators are encouraged start their applications early. In the Funding Basics Webinar, Program Officer Lindsay Hammer walks through an overview of the Sabbatical Awards and what you need for your application.