Trends in UK charity salary and organisational culture released

Howard Lake | 14 May 2026 | News

• Tagged with:
• charity communications
• CharityComms
• salary

The CharityComms Salary and Organisational Culture Survey 2025 has been published, revealing trends in compensation, satisfaction and pressure points among communications and marketing salaries in the UK charity sector.

Published for 12 years, the report includes data on fundraising, management and leadership roles and issues.

Fundraising and job satisfaction

Fundraisers report the highest job satisfaction (72%) amongst those surveyed, despite ranking lowest on the sector’s pay scale. The average salary for a fundraising specialist is £38,069, placing it at the lower end of specialisms. This high satisfaction among fundraisers contrasts with the general sector finding that 63% of comms professionals overall are happy.

Leadership and management trends

The survey highlights a significant pay gap, with managers (34% of respondents) earning an average of £48,217, substantially higher than the £36,297 average for non-managerial staff.

However, satisfaction drops at the top. The report identifies a “squeezed middle” where middle management and senior officer roles report the lowest job satisfaction. Only 40% of senior executives or officers say they are happy in their roles. This low satisfaction is attributed to handling significant management stress and stretched resources without the salary compensation seen at the highest levels.

Sector-wide concerns

Burnout is a major issue, with one in three (33%) charity comms professionals reporting they are currently burned out, and an equal proportion planning a career move in the next year. The widespread frustration over salary is compounded by the fact that 63% of professionals have no training or development opportunities planned for the next year.

The average salary across all comms roles saw a slight rise from the previous year to £43,168.

The survey received 325 responses from people ” who responded to the survey, “who work across a range of comms roles and levels, from charities of all sizes and causes throughout the UK”.

Of respondents, 36% work at healthcare and health-related charities, with 8.6% in education and 7% in environment or conservation.  

Most have one to three years of experience in their current organisation (42%) and 7-10 years in communications (21%). 

You can read the full survey at CharityComms. CharityComms is the membership network for communications professionals working in and with UK charities.

• Fundraiser salaries increase just 1% overall but big swings in some categories, survey shows (29 January 2019)
  
• Average fundraiser salary shows real terms pay cut (18 July 2023)
  

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.