Has anyone escaped the charity sector?

[HoliHormonalTigerlilly]

If so, what are you doing now & are you glad you left?

Following this. I've been in the voluntary sector my entire working life and I'm so sick of the shit pay.

I did. I now work for the NHS.
Don't regret it for one minute. Better pension, paid overtime and unsocial hours pay, set shifts and no relying on funding being renewed at the end of every contract

Yes..worked for smaller charities for 20 or so years...moved to a national one and was bullied by manager, went through procedures, negotiated settlement..left..I was a trainer and took time one summer to work in forest school..loved it..did pgce...two years in school then moved abroad to sunny climes and work for much less stressful international school. I was destroyed by my experience but I never look back..taking control made me strong and happy.

Opposite for me.

worked in public and private sector, badly bullied and discriminated in both sectors.

Now work in charity sector and I love it. Yes there are one or two people I don't like, but my manager, and the one above him, are awesome, they really have my back. The wider team are also really nice. I also have flexibility which is great when you are disabled - I am permanently home based.

The salary does concern me though. It is less than I was earning before and apparently there's only been a 4% pay increase in 15 years in this company. Lots of my colleagues have left recently. As I'm still new to the sector myself though. I'll see how it goes but I'm happy for now.

Yes, after working in charities for 10 years. I had been accepting too much stress, hassle, long working hours and low pay for too long. Perhaps I was unfortunate to end up in charities that seemed to be eternally restructuring and changing strategy, but I endured some truly awful managers and frankly, life's too short. I also loved WFH due to Covid and realised this suits me better.

I was lucky enough to land a job working for a consultancy in the NFP sector. I absolutely love it - I still work with charities and get to help them in some really positive projects, but my working life is so much calmer. My new employer is brilliant and values the charity knowledge and experience I bring to them (I consistently felt like nothing I did was ever good enough at my last charity). I work from home permanently and earn 25% more.

I've been lucky, I think, to find the right opportunity at the right time, but I hadn't previously thought to look at the organisations that service and support charities and once I did, a whole load of new possibilities opened up.

I did and am freelance in a slightly different role. However I have managed to retain links with the industry and have charity clients. So am lucky to still have a toe in the water. Agree though OP it is tough and hard work and often very political which is not easy to deal with day to day. That said it has some great stuff going for it too.

@Systemagic

Yes, after working in charities for 10 years. I had been accepting too much stress, hassle, long working hours and low pay for too long. Perhaps I was unfortunate to end up in charities that seemed to be eternally restructuring and changing strategy, but I endured some truly awful managers and frankly, life's too short. I also loved WFH due to Covid and realised this suits me better.

I was lucky enough to land a job working for a consultancy in the NFP sector. I absolutely love it - I still work with charities and get to help them in some really positive projects, but my working life is so much calmer. My new employer is brilliant and values the charity knowledge and experience I bring to them (I consistently felt like nothing I did was ever good enough at my last charity). I work from home permanently and earn 25% more.

I've been lucky, I think, to find the right opportunity at the right time, but I hadn't previously thought to look at the organisations that service and support charities and once I did, a whole load of new possibilities opened up.

Ooo interesting thanks!

Following as I'm desperate to leave too. I work in fundraising, and find it difficult to find jobs to transfer to. Anyone had any luck escaping from fundraising?!

I echo everything that @Systemagic had said. i now work for a membership body that supports charities and CIC’s so still working on projects but a permanent post with decent pay, holidays and a great management structure. Never again will i put myself through the will they, won’t they refund my post, the awful pay and some rather dubious managers.

I just did. Worked for a charity that has lots of companies as members rather than a fundraising charity per se… provided consultancy to the companies on a range of issues and how they could improve their corporate responsibility. Got headhunted to move into a large corporate company and increased my salary by 45%.
It’s doable but you need to cater your experience and CV and use the buzzwords that the big manager consultancies are using

Worked in Charities for a couple of decades, got fed up with awful pay, chaos, and delusional expectations of what could be done in the working week. Bids were being put in which realistically couldn’t be achieved unless you had some time machines going spare.
Moved over to a similar role in the Local council, better pay, progression, pensions, realistic workload and clear boundaries. Much happier.