Overview
- Over 400,000 people are employed by charities with fewer than 25 staff.
- The number of staff has increased by 10% over six years.
- There are four volunteers for every one member of staff in small charities.
- This rises to 16 volunteers to each staff member for the smallest charities, those with an income under £100k.
How many people work for small charities?
- 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
How many people volunteer for small charities?
- 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.
How has the small charity workforce changed over time?
- 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
How are small charities responding to Covid-19 as employers?
- 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.
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Further Reading
NCVO 2020 UK Civil Society Almanac 2020: Workforce
Living Wage Foundation 2017 Low Pay in the Charity Sector