Just 30 per cent of charities expect to hire more staff

Finance | Tania Mason | 27 Apr 2009

Seventy per cent of charity leaders expect their staffing levels to stay static or decline over the coming year, new research suggests.

The NCVO's Charity Forecast Survey, which was completed by 144 senior managers in the sector, showed that 19 per cent planned to reduce the numbers of paid staff, while 51 per cent expected to maintain staffing levels.

These results suggest a loss of confidence since the last survey (October to December 2008) when 56 per cent said they planned to hire more paid staff.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents expected to collaborate more with other organisations over the coming 12 months – a result that is in stark contrast to a Charity Commission survey of more than 1,000 charities released last month, which revealed that just 3 per cent were considering merging or collaborating with another organisation to help them through the recession.

For the first time since the Survey was launched in March 2008, none of the respondents expect the UK economy will improve over the next year. And 97 per cent believe it will get worse.

The outlook is little better for the sector itself: 88 per cent predicted that economic conditions in the sector would be negative over the next 12 months, but only 50 per cent thought their own organisation’s financial situation would suffer as a result.

Who's Who: Tania Mason

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.