You keep humanity afloat. And you probably don't hear that enough.

After ~25 years in this sector, I want to write something with (and for) the people who stay; why they do, what it costs them, and why (I believe) it's worth it. And I want to build it differently than anything I've written before, even (especially) my first book.

I want this project to travel long before it hits the shelves. Think of it like a game of Telephone or the jeans in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. But what's passing between us is something real and useful.

In all my time tending to this work—and co-leading the Social Impact Staff Retention project—I’ve found a few things to be data-backed and true.

• People stay when they have flexibility, passion, good environments, and decent pay.

• People leave when they have poor workloads, bad bosses, indecent pay, and lacking growth opportunities.

If this resonates, I want you to respond honestly, then pass it on. Because you’ve probably never been asked to contribute to something like this before. That’s part of the problem. One story is anecdote; hundreds of them is evidence. And evidence is what changes how organizations treat the people keeping humanity afloat.

I don't have all the answers after all these years. Neither do you. But somewhere in between, there will be something close to the truth about what it means to stay.