Best job in the world

Fundraising | Suzie Who | 5 Mar 2010

It is encouraging to see so many charities make it into the line up of best companies to work for.

Particularly impressive is the performance of Christians Against Poverty, a small Bradford based charity, who have been in the top two for three years.

Reading this article made me ponder why more of our charities did not feature in this list (apart from the obvious fact that some charities are too large to count as a small or medium business).

Surely charity jobs should dominate any survey of best jobs in the world?

We get paid to make the world a better place.

Our job satisfaction should be through the roof - many of my real-world (as opposed to charity-type) friends volunteer for charities in their spare time to feel that they are making a difference.

I can get that feeling just by coming into the office on a Monday morning and I still have my evenings free for fun.

But although this is the dream – over the course of my career I have found the reality of working in some charities incredibly disappointing.

I have moved on from jobs where I felt bogged down in bureaucracy, confused about the contribution I was making to the mission or disappointed by the limited impact our work was actually making.

The levels of turnover among fundraisers in particular seem to indicate that my experiences were not isolated, and that fundraisers are particularly prone to this kind of disillusionment.

Obviously some charities are getting it right but others have a lot to learn.

Perhaps Fundraising magazine can get some top tips from Christians against Poverty to help us all find ways to make our workplaces more inspiring places to be?

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Leadership and strategy

Charities perform well in Best Small Companies poll

Charities feature on Sunday Times Best Companies list

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