To want to earn good money in the charity sector? Success stories and tips, please!

[MyNavyDreamer]

I’m in the charity sector in a relatively senior role, earning just under £44k. I enjoy my work and want to keep progressing, including financially.

Whenever charity sector careers come up, there seems to be a lot of “you’ll never earn good money” or “you don’t go into it to get rich”. I like money and I like my work, I’d like to think those things can coexist!

I’d love to hear from people who’ve built well-paid careers in the sector. What do you do, how did you get there and what helped you increase your earnings? Happy for people to share salary ranges if comfortable.

AIBU to want meaningful work and a good income? Positive stories and practical tips very welcome.

Definitely not saying that it is in any way commensurate with the private sector. Just the only way the OP is likely to earn ‘good money’ as she put it.

I’ve done one of the big corporate charities but am way happier in smaller so accept that my earning potential is pretty much at its ceiling. It’s pretty shit that I can only afford to work in the charity sector because DH works on private e

That's what I've always assumed to be honest. That the people taking the GC at the British Museum jobs or whatever (the ones I'd love to do!) either have family money or a high earning partner.

Publishing and heritage are also full of people with trust funds or husbands who work in investment banking.

Edited to add - I'm the sole earner in my household so just can't afford the hit.

£60+k here as CEO of a small charity - the responsibility of bringing the money in, managing to continue to support our service users and keep all my staff in a job is immense

It is hard to answer without knowing your current role and location.

Charity salaries definitely seem to have not progressed in the last 15 years in the way they did before this.

When I worked within charities 20+ years ago, lots of people moved every three years or so to progress their salary and experience and for those who were ambitious, it was not impossible to become a Director with 10+ years experience.

I now work freelance (which does pay well but you have to put in the hours and accept the stress and business admin) and there is a lot of work for people with experience. Sadly there are also a lot of consultants who amaze me with their lack of knowledge and I do wonder how they are getting work.

I agree with PP who said do something better-paying elsewhere and satisfy the urge by becoming a NED at a charity or two on the side instead.

This is what I decided to do about 5 years into my career (politics, at the time) after chatting to a recruiter who warned me about charity sector salaries when I was considering a move.

I now work in the City and am a trustee for a few favourite charities in my spare time.

I would love to leave charity work but it's the only industry that does my expertise. It's a notoriously unstable industry, redundancies are common.

I have worked in the charity sector for over 15 years and still haven’t come close to that salary.

Definitely the case in my experience. I’ve work with and hired a lot of really experienced mums who are taking the hit of low salary and pension for the flexibility of charity sector (PT work, wfh etc) and career satisfaction which they can afford because they have a higher earning partner.

It’s a poor state of affairs but as someone in a SLT position who does a LOT of fundraising, donors will absolutely not be happy to pay for higher salaries.

@Dontevenlookatme of course you can. You cant just siphon off all the money but you can pay yourself a decent, justifiable CEO salary

I'm going to freelance in my specialism, with a discounted day rate for charities and a bit of pro bono for the smaller ones too. My aim is to work 4 days per week - 1x full price, 2x reduced price, 1x free.