Yesterday, two reports were published with headline figures to suggest the British charity sector is disproportionately led by people from privileged educational backgrounds and blocks entry to those less fortunate by offering low pay.
The first of these was published by social mobility charity the Sutton Trust, which found that more than one in three leaders of the most famous charities in the UK (according to YouGov) went to private school, compared to around 7% of the general population.
It also found that nearly all of the well-known charity chief executives were university-educated and almost one in five went to Oxbridge, compared to 1% of the general population.
These findings feed into the enduring Victorian perception of a charity sector run by the wealthy generously donating their time and money to the needy poor.
Commenting on research, Social Mobility Foundation CEO Sarah Atkinson, said: “Charity leaders and staff should reflect the rich and diverse communities we serve.
“Yet as a sector we’re clearly shutting talented people out because of the type of school they went to and if they went to university – this data shows the evidence, and reflects what colleagues in the sector from working class backgrounds sometimes experience.”
It is important to note that the Sutton Trust figures only relate to the biggest charities in the country but ACEVO’s broader annual study of sector leaders also shows an overrepresentation of privately-educated people of around one in four.
Low-paid jobs
The second study, an analysis of Office for National Statistics data by the Living Wage Foundation, found that around one in eight charity sector jobs pay below the real living wage, a rate which is based on the cost of living.
Essentially, this means one in eight charity employees are unable to cover their living costs without another source of income.
Concerningly, this proportion has increased from around one in 10 charity jobs a year earlier and is more than double the share of low-paid roles in the public sector (5%).
However, there are fewer charity roles paid below the real living wage than in the private sector (20%) or across the UK overall (16%), according to the research.
Living Wage Foundation found care workers and charity shop staff are particularly low-paid while CharityJob’s annual salary report earlier this year reported that a quarter of entry-level and junior roles pay below the real living wage.
Reflecting on the findings, Living Wage Foundation Katherine Chapman said: “Low pay in the third sector means that many charities may be perpetuating the very problems that they were set up to solve.
“Staff from working class backgrounds continue to be underrepresented in the charity sector, and the real living wage helps to ensure that no one has to turn down a job because they don’t have access to savings or to financial help from family.”
Reasons for stagnation
So why does such inequality persist, despite charities repeatedly stating their aims to be inclusive of people from all backgrounds and to address imbalances within their workforces?
Tight resources is clearly one issue. In April, NCVO warned that 2025 would be the “year of the big squeeze” for charities as staff costs rise due to increases in employer national insurance contributions while income is limited and demand for services increases amid government spending cuts.
This has played out through a swathe of larger charities restructuring and cutting staff while several smaller organisations have folded.
There also remains pressure from members of the public for charities to limit the amount they spend on anything other than “the cause”, with some outside the sector not considering fair salary costs a part of this.
Some funders also play a part in this unhelpful narrative by requiring applicant charities to spend no more than an arbitrary proportion of their expenditure on overheads or by refusing to offer unrestricted funding.
Meanwhile, some public sector commissioners, themselves under the cosh financially, are resistant to offering inflation-linked pay increases to the charities they fund.
Need to push back
It is important, therefore, for charity sector organisations with a public platform (including sector press) and those with any influence in government to advocate for the importance of charity staff being paid well.
As a sector, we must continue to push back on moral grounds against the notion that charity services should be run on the cheap out of a false sense of duty to donors, whether individuals or institutions.
There is also a recruitment challenge for all charities, particularly when it comes to selecting their leaders.
While a qualified person should not be excluded from a senior role due to their privileged education, it is incumbent on charities to ensure that those without such advantages get a fair shot.
More charities with the resources could also monitor the class pay gap within their workforce to monitor how people from working-class backgrounds are being remunerated.
It is not easy to achieve but the goal of making the sector more representative of the people it serves is worth the effort.
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