BREAKWEEK Grant Program

Collective rest is more than a break. It's a reset.

Congratulations to our 2025 & 2026 BREAKWEEK Grantees!

BREAKWEEK, powered by R&R: The Rest of our Lives, is an opportunity for US-based nonprofit organizations to experiment with a powerful talent intervention - a 1-week org break - in a structured format, paired with implementation guides, coaching support, customized evaluation tools, peer-to-peer engagement and a $3,000 grant.

Organizational-wide closures are a proven practice that have been utilized across sectors to promote habits of wellbeing, retention and productivity, and combat burn-out, attrition and exhaustion. Rest-based interventions, such as this, are a critical part of equity work, defining organizational culture and giving all team members agency to help make their day-to-day feel sustainable.

We know there is a cost to shutting your organization down for one week. The grant funds, together with the holistic support and guidance, aim to make this opportunity more feasible and meaningful for your organization.

Here’s a little proof why BREAKWEEK is worth trying for your team!

Check out the *new* BREAKWEEK.org

FAQs on the grant

If you have any questions that are not listed on this FAQ, please feel free to reach out to rachel@restofourlives.org. And, if applicable, we’ll also add the question/answer to this list for others after we share it with you!

Yes! Providing a week-off to all of your employees does not need to be a new model for your organization in order to be eligible for BREAKWEEK.
The spirit behind the grant funds is to provide support and resources, and aim to make this break opportunity more feasible and meaningful for your organization. The funds should be used in alignment with the spirit of the program, but there is immense flexibility in how they are applied. The grant funds will be sent to your organization prior to your BREAKWEEK, and R&R does not require a budget to be submitted as part to the grant process. There’s some creative ideas listed in our BREAKWEEK Implementation Guide found here.
In addition to incorporating external readers to the evaluation process, in the circumstances that there a team member has a conflict of interest with an applicant (including but not limited to family, partner or joint business relationship), that team member will recuse themselves from reviewing that applicant(s) at all levels of the process. Furthermore, if any applicant that has a conflict of interest with a team member moves forward to receive a grant, it will first be cleared with R&R’s fiscal sponsor and advisory board to remain in good standing.
Yes! BREAKWEEK should be provided on-top of any existing/regular personal vacation time that an employee is eligible for in their role.
BREAKWEEK is one-week (5 consecutive work days) of paid time-off, taking place at the same time for all employees, and implemented between the months of March - October, 2026. The week cannot be scheduled during Jewish holidays, and one or more of the 5 work days off cannot be federal holiday closures (ie: July 4).
We completely understand that there are a number of nonprofits that have a critical need to operate with working staff 365 days a year, such as nursing homes, first responders, etc.

The BREAKWEEK grant is built for organizations that have the ability to close for all employees at the same time. If that is not possible for your organization, we encourage you to still explore the concept and consider implementing the idea on your own terms - maybe even in a rotation-style implementation (ie: teams switch off weeks).
This experiment is geared toward organizations that have at least 5 full-time employees as we believe implementing or piloting a practice (ie: a week-off) can be more complicated to achieve as easily with more employees. However, for example, if you have 4 full-time employees and 2 part-time employees, you are still welcome to apply for BREAKWEEK. We are open to creative structures as long as the employee count equals 5 full-time in some way. We encourage any organizations with less than 5 full-time employees to still pilot this experiment and create healthy organizational habits such as this one, and reach out to us if you have questions!
R&R supports organizations who utilize the Jewish holidays as time to disconnect for their teams. The BREAKWEEK experiment is attempting to ‘break’ with any current norms and encouraging organizations who are ready to disconnect and pause to do so during times of the year that are not necessarily as pressurized for the Jewish community and/or for its staff members. The goal is to democratize access to rest and level the playing field. Meaning, some staff members who have Jewish communal responsibilities may have a difficult time disconnecting during the holidays. We provided a long window of March - November to help organizations think as creatively as possible for their own teams’ needs.
Our goal is to continue democratizing rest by making space for new organizations to benefit from this opportunity. If you’ve already received a BREAKWEEK grant, you won’t be eligible for this current cycle, but we hope you’ll keep leaning into the experience and everything it has sparked for you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out—we’d love to explore other ways to support your work beyond grant dollars.
Yes! The first place we suggest you look is our BREAKWEEK Impact Summary. This is the evaluation of the first BREAKWEEK grant cycle, supported by data and evidence.