Average fundraiser salary shows real-terms pay cut
Melanie May | 18 July 2023 | News
The average salary for fundraisers has not kept pace with inflation, reaching £37,700 in 2022 – a 4% increase on the average salary in 2019 which was £36,300, according to a report from CharityJob for the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.
The figures come from analysis of around 9,000 fundraising jobs that are posted on CharityJob and cover all areas of fundraising.
Average salaries fall
The report shows that at senior levels, some salaries have seen an average salary reduction, with jobs at Director level in 2022 advertised at £66,800 compared with a pre-pandemic average of £72,700 in 2019.
Advertisement
Looking beyond fundraising at all types of jobs posted on CharityJob in the sector – the average salary has seen a 3% decrease in the last three years. The average salary across 45,000 jobs in 2019 was £35,700. In 2022, the average salary for 61,900 jobs was £34,800.
Daniel Fluskey, Director of Policy and Communications at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising said:
“Fundraisers do an incredibly important job, and one that is skilled, challenging, and immensely rewarding.
“The figures published today show that, like so many across the charity sector, fundraisers’ salaries are simply not keeping pace with the cost-of-living crisis and inflation that we are seeing across the UK. On average, fundraising jobs posted during 2022 had an average salary cut of more than £3,000 in real-terms from 2019. With the economic performance during 2023, that figure will have only got worse.
“For fundraising to make the best returns for their charities and cause, as well as continue to deliver the best experience for the public and supporters, it is essential that fundraisers are properly recognised, appreciated, and supported. While for many charities, matching salaries to inflation is simply not possible, I would urge all Boards, CEOs, and senior teams to think about how they can best support fundraisers through a challenging time where many will be feeling burnt out as well as experiencing the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis themselves.”
Raya Wexler, Co-Founder of CharityJob added:
“Offering a fair salary is not only essential for attracting and retaining top talent, but also for promoting diversity, equality and inclusion in the sector. However, we know that in this tricky climate, it isn’t always practical for charities to increase fundraisers’ salaries to better align with inflation. In this case, we recommend you look at other ways to make roles more attractive, such as flexible working, benefits and training and development opportunities.”
Job growth
Other figures in the report show that for some sectors, there is growth in fundraising jobs, with Arts, Culture, and Heritage, Education, and Environment all showing a 25% or more increase in numbers of jobs posted between 2019-22.
And, looking at candidate demand, fundraising jobs in the Human Rights sector had the highest average number of clicks on the apply button in both 2019 and 2022.
Working arrangements
The report also looks at working arrangements and reveals that 53% of all roles posted were on-site, 35% were hybrid, and 12% were remote in 2022. This is compared to 2019, where 96% of roles posted were on-site.
CharityJob found that the average salary for hybrid working jobs increased by 18% to £36,800. This, it says, is largely due to the huge increase in the number of hybrid working jobs—200 in 2019 to 3,900 in 2022. There was a 4% increase in average salary for on-site roles, despite the number of these jobs decreasing by 50% from 8,200 to 4,100.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.