The specialist recruiter’s CharityJob Salary Report 2024 is based on the 48,500 vacancies posted on the site during 2023. Total vacancies were 22% lower than in 2022 – a figure the report says is “in line with national trends”.

In fundraising specifically, vacancies dropped by 19% to 7,700.

Pay rose in most charity specialisms, with the exception of finance (down 1% to £48,800), and most significantly in operations (up 9% to £37,900) and business services (up 6%, to £40,000).

Money and location

Across the sector, working location impacted pay.

Just over half of UK charity jobs are based in London, the report notes, and fundraisers based in the capital could expect average pay of £41,600 – equivalent to €49,872 (up 3% on 2022). Fundraising pay elsewhere in the country is lower, at £37,600 – or €45,076, but during 2023 rose at a quicker rate of 9%.

Across all charity roles, salaries were significantly higher on average for hybrid (£38,200) and fully remote posts (£37,700), while pay for on-site posts dropped by 1% to £33,600.

Fundraising was the only specialism in which this was not the case, with on-site posts paying more – an average of £40,100 (€48,073).

Just 12% of roles in the sector as a whole were advertised as fully remote, compared to 44% being on-site, and the same proportion again being hybrid.

The statistics also show that at junior and mid-level, fundraising salaries are similar regardless of how big the charity is. There is however a significant difference for director roles, where charities with less than 20 staff offered average pay of £68,100, rising to £74,500 for charities with more than 100 staff, as seen in the table below:

Picture by Alaur Rahman on Pexels

The Center for Cultural Management of the ZHAW School of Management and Law surveyed the 640 members of Swissfundraising on how much they earn as well as on what else they consider to be important aspects of a job. 163 people completed the survey, 140 of which work at relief organisations, educational or cultural institutions while 23 are self-employed.

The study shows that salary levels depend on the age, experience and responsibility of the employees, rather than the area of ​​activity or the size of the charity, with salaries ranging between 79,400 and 130,700 Swiss francs.

According to the survey, few major differences were noted in salary by gender, except among fundraisers in higher management roles, where men hold the majority of senior roles.

More than a third of those surveyed work in a managerial capacity and take responsibility for employees and the budget. Two-thirds of respondents also have a university or college degree. However, attaining this level of education does not significantly affect wages, the survey found, while holding fundraising-specific qualifications does positively affect remuneration.

The majority of fundraisers receive additional benefits through their employment, which reflect some of the factors they consider to be important for job satisfaction.

Swissfundraising’s project manager and fundraising consultant Andreas Cueni explained:

“Around 90% of respondents receive additional benefits such as public transport allowances, membership of professional associations or paid further education. Above all however, salaried fundraisers stated that they would like to have an open corporate culture, flexible working hours, a say and the opportunity to continue their education.”

In terms of the most favoured benefits, 81% said they would like to have an open corporate culture, while flexible working hours were important for 79%, having a say (68%) and the opportunity to continue their education (67%). Development opportunities (64%) and being able to work from home (53%) are also important.