Why are so many charities rubbish employers and going downhill fast?

[Artygirlghost]

I started my career in the voluntary sector 22 years ago. I had very decent employers in the beginning who ran their organisation well and I spent about 11 happy years in various roles going up the ranks.

But now every charity I work for seems to have major issues: complete disorganisation, no induction for new staff, rubbish IT, the job turns out to be completely different from what was advertised, fundraised money being wasted, issues with safeguarding for staff and clients.

I started working for a homelessness centre recently and colleagues are friendly and dedicated but as usual the induction is a mess and I am absolutely horrified as to what I am seeing safety-wise. Homeless people with complex needs are a very difficult client group I know, but the charity is simply not putting enough in place to make clients and staff are kept safe.

I think this is just going to be the end of my charity career as I simply can't deal with this anymore.

Anyone else in the sector who works or volunteers for charities has seen a massive decline? have you ended up leaving the sector?

I am at a crossroad right now and wondering where to go next.

I used to work in the voluntary sector. I left partially due to what you say. The public sector is worse though...

I think it comes back to education not educating people to have work place skills.

I think a lot of places like this are managed by people who don't have the right skill set because they got into it due to a passion for the cause. It's then hard to attract people with the right skill set because the jobs don't pay enough. There's very weak oversight from the Charities Commission so no real threat of any bad practice being exposed unless it's something media worthy.

Also, like with school support staff (and the arts actually - I did low paid arts marketing jobs in the 1990s and early noughties) these jobs used to be the preserve mostly of people who didn't need the money that much because they were recent graduates, living hand to mouth or supported by people with 'proper jobs'. With the cost of living what it is, households can't afford 'passengers' in many cases.this

Random 'this' there, sorry.

I got out of the arts when I approached senior management level in 2010 and switched to doing something else entirely after completing one of those Clore Leadership courses and realising I'd have to work all the hours under the sun for about £30k!

Because they don't attract good leadership for the wages they pay.
Lots of press saying oh this charity ceo gets 100k but at the end of the day they are running a huge org and still recovering a lot less than they could in the private sector.

I left the charity sector and do a similar role in an SME where I get paid literally twice as much and have flexible working, a relaxed atmosphere and much more progression potential.

*receiving not recovering !!!

I know a charity shop manager, who is working full time on a minimum salary (not living wage at all). She doesn’t even get a lunch break, she is supposed to be dealing with clients and volunteers even when she is quickly having a sandwich. She is also expected to minute the “board” meetings for free if they meet outside her working hours.

But it is all for their good causes… and for her to build her CV 🤔

It's a "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" situation. People generally want to work for a charity because they support the cause or at least want to feel like they're doing something to help others with their life. The trouble with this is that it often means people are hired and promoted based on "belief in the cause" rather than skill or ability.

In the private sector, most people don't give a damn about their employer, they just want a job that pays them enough to live the life they want. (I mean, it's hard for someone working in admin for a clinical waste company to give a shit about a business that is about collecting bags of human shit.) This leads to lower levels of job satisfaction, perhaps, but there is more chance of the right person being in the right role for their skills and abilities.

Not always, but a better chance.

I agree with PP, as someone working in this sector. I’d add, as government support frameworks have crumbled some charities are finding themselves dealing with lots of complex issues beyond their remit or service users “falling through the cracks”.

I have always worked in the charity / grant funded sector and my experience is the opposite. With organisations increasingly professionalising systems, protocol and infrastructure.

But many of the things you talk about count as ‘overheads’ and we know how much the charity-giving public hate / misunderstand the importance of overheads.

The paperwork has increased 4 fold since I entered the sector. Installing and Maintaining a functioning IT system is expensive. We never had workplace pensions until the last moment when it was legal not to, and never more than the legal minimum.

And then there is demand.

My sector gives good value and is effective. But it does rely on passion for the cause because the pay is bad.

I work in the charity sector. I do think funding is a huge issue, it's rarely reliable and most of it goes to the people supported, the wages of staff and running costs of buildings so that makes it hard to invest in really good it systems etc. But in terms of safeguarding, training of staff, management, organisation and how money is spent I've always found it to be transparent and very well done but maybe I've just been lucky. I work with a very high risk group of people so that might be part of it- the charities I work for have had to be very on the ball and policies robust but I also think if you see things that aren't right you need to flag it up and offer solutions so things can improve.

Oh yes. I've worked in this sector for years, and have seen some shocking managerial decisions and behaviours. Money wasted. Overseas jollies. Lack of any kind of structure or line management support. I have been bullied twice, at national charity level, and took one manager to a tribunal. I'm now working for a very small local charity with a lovely manager, and super team.

I think back to the charity team of 7 I worked in 4 years ago - all but 1 have left the sector.

As PP have said, this is as a result of long term starvation of charity infrastructure.

Much of this comes down to fundraising pressures and ironically, public attitudes that charities are making “back office” staff rich - charities don’t invest in the infrastructure (IT, people leadership, training, decent salaries) that help a charity be a decent employer.

Some of this pressure comes from donors, others from statutory funders who will fund frontline work and absolutely no administration costs.

Historically, people used to join the sector because they wanted purposeful careers. There are now lots more ways to get this, for more money - social enterprises, social impact roles in corporates etc.

Would I recommend that my children go into the sector? Right now, absolutely not. It takes advantage of young, purpose driven young people. Despite existing to fill the gaps in society that government doesn’t reach, I’ve seen too many charities perpetuate this inequality through terrible pay and working conditions.

If you’re thinking of leaving - absolutely do it. My stress levels are so much better now I’m not juggling huge safeguarding challenges (or hiding them from donors) for pitiful recompense.

It’s tricky isn’t it. Job satisfaction though is so intrinsically linked to actually delivering what you are told you will/ what you say you do.

Id be much happier collecting the bags of shit that I say I do, vs saying that I am changing lives - when in reality knowing that the service isn’t able to touch the sides of long term complex needs!

Ppl in management don't understand the value of investing in good infrastructure- IT etc.

Members of staff in management not really getting when it's a good time to step aside and let new blood in..

But also low wages, pay cheap, pay twice..

Ie don't reliably recruit good ppl, compared with private sector. That's not to say there aren't good ppl, but there are a lot of less good staff who stay too long , sometimes doing very little.

From friends who work in the charity sector the answer is simple

They don’t pay enough to get good staff, this then festers to the top.

The CEO of one of my friends charities only earns about £95,000 - which for such a role is awful.

You’re not going to get the best people steering the ship with such low salaries, yes there is the element of wanting them to want to work for the charity regardless of salary, but the real world doesn’t work like that.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I do think that charities are left to pick up the slack as mental health services, social care and other services are cut or really hard to access and the cost of living is getting worse. More and more people come for help with a variety of complex needs.

But still, I think I have reached the stage where I can't continue to work in environment where systems are not in place, everything is left to the last minute but yet you are expected to do the job of several people (in my case during part-time hours) and where I can see that safety and safeguarding is compromised.

Sad but I think I will have to leave after this year and make a career change.

@Artygirlghost i know this is almost a zombie thread but I hope this are getting better. There is a lot of research that low wages and high turnover is a false economy, particularly for containers which I lead for my charity, and basically we need to up our game (and pay!). It’s something we’ve been doing and I hope you eventually experience.

I realise it’s a zombie thread too but this is not my experience of the voluntary sector
I’ve worked in all sorts of roles for 25 years and most charities I know locally are extremely professional
We follow local authority pay scales, terms and conditions are hot on HR, training, recruitment and induction
In general we can mobilise quicker and work more effectively and economically than other bodies eg NHS
The thing we suffer most from is lack of funding
I also get very frustrated by general lack of understanding about the financial side of things for example most of my funding goes on salaries, this allows us to provide free services to those in need, but some of the costs are hidden eg volunteers need recruiting, training, supporting and supervising which all costs money, including providing them with equipment, DBS checks, expenses, insurance etc

This!

Let's hope it is true and that some of it rubs off in the public sector. Of course if pay rises do happen expect a press backlash.

Because there are lots of people who think that all charities, irrespective of size, should run on fresh air and goodwill. People should absolutely not be paid a competitive salary for their work, they should do it for nothing or minimum wage at most. Charities should definitely not be spending anything on HR training, or IT systems or anything which is not the "cause".

That's why you get the situation you describe of people trying their best with outdated systems and poorly trained staff.

I work in the NGO sector organisation receives most of it's funding from government to run government programmes. I recognize your experience and it all comes down to money. There just isn't the funding there for roles such as HR everything is fudged as a result and done by people not experienced or qualified. Same goes for management no requirement to have any managerial or leadership training and it shows. I have had horrendous incompetent managers that just had zero people skills. I am currently looking to move on after 25 years working in the sector. I have had very good managers in the past but as funding gets more and more squeezed there is less and less money for decent HR support. Staff are constantly expected to go above and beyond and we generally do because of the vulnerable communities we work in but no thanks or acknowledgement for it. The extra work during covid nearly broke me, we just move from one crisis to the next and with completely chaotic management and leadership you are constantly stressed.

Because they have as their primary purpose promoting their cause. They are also terrified of spending money because they think it should all go on the cause.
What they forget is that they are also an employer, and effectively running a business. By underspending on staff wages, training and HR they are making false economies, because it does effect the efficiency of their fundraising and promotion. Some bigger charities do now get it, but lots of smaller ones don't, sadly.

In my experience, it comes down to people who put mission and values over competence.

Workplaces put a lot of emphasis on diversity, but neglect to consider that diversity of personalities and dispositions is actually HUGELY important to making a business tick.

I'm a data specialist. I applied for a role which was 100% data management. It was for an air ambulance charity. I got the rejection feedback that I "wasn't sufficiently passionate about air ambulances". I mean, ffs, you can hardly be anti air ambulances for inaccessible locations, can you?

I've seen it time and again. Charity recruitment focusing of people who are good for the fuzzy, values, empathy end of the organisation, but completely mishandling the practical, organised and function-focused staff, who end up wound up to the hilt by being treated as unempathetic.

(I have a real bee in my bonnet about this because I have had a LOT of experiences of "empathetic" management that is completely shit at making a nice place to work. Whereas I have run companies in a way that isn't very fuzzy, fluffy etc - but that actually prioritises sorting out the problems that are upsetting people rather than shrugging the shoulder that people are crying on.)

For containers read fundraisers. At least public sector get great pensions. Generally charity packages are way worse. 40% off fundraisers want to leave the sector, yet fundraising is based on relationships. That’s the false economy.