Workforce and volunteers

• In 2020*, just under half (45%) of the workforce in the voluntary sector are employed by charities with fewer than 25 staff – over 405,000 people.
• Among those, 243,000 (27%) work for charities with fewer than 10 staff.
• 65,310 people (7%) work for charities with over 500 staff.

*figures from September 2020

• In 2016, on average, for every one member of staff four people volunteer for small charities.
• Smallest charities have higher numbers of volunteers per paid staff member, on average. Charities with an income under £10k have on average 36 volunteers and 2 paid members of staff.

• Since the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020*, there has been slight increases overall in the number of people working for charities of all sizes apart from the largest charities (with 500 or more employees).
• In 2020, the number of people working for charities with fewer than 25 employees has grown by 2% from 398,000 to 407,000. The number of people working for a charity with between 25 - 50 employees has increased by 5% in this time.
• Over the past six years, the size of the voluntary sector workforce has increased by 16%. In this time, number of employees working for charities with 500 or more employees has grown by 45%.

*figures up to end of September 2020

• 52% of small charities say that they can only meet their payroll costs for the next 1-3 months, with nearly 1 in 10 (9%) not being able to meet their present payroll costs.
• Around one-third (34%) of small charities intend to furlough staff, compared to 41% who did not.