I Want to Work for a Charity

 

The first thing to think about is what work you would do – the range of job roles in charities is vast, from accountancy to zookeeping. There are over 170,000 registered charities in the UK, whose fields of activity cover everything from human rights campaigning to animal welfare; from medical research to child care and from sports to religious affairs.

Many of these overlap with job roles in the commercial sector, such as marketing, finance, public relations, retail management. IT services and personnel management.

PROFILE: Charity Fundraiser

A typical starting job for graduates.
INVOLVES: Raising money - planning & coordinating fundraising activities, from flag weeks to sporting events; liaising with potential donors (corporate or individuals) through talks, bulletins or one-to-one contacts.
EMPLOYERS: There are over 170,000 registered charities in the UK, whose fields of activity cover everything from human rights campaigning to animal welfare; from medical research to childcare & from sports to religious affairs.
RELATED JOBS: public relations, charity administration, and marketing.
SATISFACTIONS: Working for something that you believe in; variety, responsibility.
NEGATIVES: Lack of a 'professional' career development structure.
SKILLS: written & verbal communication, persuasion, negotiating, organising, determination.
ADVANCEMENT: Start as a volunteer - progress to planning fundraising campaigns, motivating staff, managing relationships with major sponsors/supporters. May be necessary to move into larger organisations for career development.
DEGREE: Any. Business/finance/numerate degrees very useful but not often found. Some charities may find degrees relevant to their work helpful, e.g. environment, music, education.
POSTGRADUATE STUDY: None essential
TIPS: Start as a volunteer; get involved in University Rag or similar. Experience in private sector useful.

 

PROFILE: Charity Officer

INVOLVES: administration; report/proposal writing, budgeting, project appraisal, evaluation.
EMPLOYERS: There are over 170,000 registered charities in the UK, whose fields of activity cover everything from human rights campaigning to animal welfare; from medical research to child care & from sports to religious affairs.
RELATED JOBS: social work, public sector administration, charity fundraising.
SATISFACTIONS: Working for something that you believe in, variety, responsibility.
NEGATIVES: Lack of a 'professional' career development structure, bureaucracy, pressure, low pay.
SKILLS: written communication, organising, flexibility, listening, cooperating.
ADVANCEMENT: Start as a volunteer - project assistant - assistant project officer - project officer
DEGREE: Any. Business/finance/numerate degrees very useful but not often found.
POSTGRADUATE STUDY: Masters in development subject useful but not essential for overseas aid charities.
TIPS: Start as a volunteer or get experience in the private sector first.

 

Detailed job profiles for all the above roles and Volunteer Work Organiser can be found at www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Occupations

It can be difficult for new graduates to break into the charity sector: those who succeed are likely to have gained experience through voluntary work and to have useful business, fundraising, computing or similar skills to offer.

Finding Job and Volunteering Opportunities

“Passion for a cause is vital but not enough. People need to offer the right mix of skills and experience. They’ll be expected to work as hard and to meet as many targets and deadlines as in any commercial company”
Chief executive of small development charity, quoted in The Independent.

Graduate Recruitment Schemes

Few charities offer any kind of “graduate training scheme” and those that do are highly competitive, attracting at least 100 applications for every one vacancy. The charities listed below have run graduate recruitment schemes in the past.

Try a few internships for students with disabilities/ethnic minorities etc at the link below:
www.uwe.ac.uk/careers/students/job_apply/diversity.shtml

Charities offering Volunteer Internships

"To successfully secure corporate donations fundraisers need to know their audience and communicate with them in a way that appeals to their wants and needs.

With this in mind, it’s vital that fundraisers have a commercial awareness of the pressures faced by and aims of any companies being targeted for support."

These are unpaid but normally offer lunch and travel expenses

International Volunteer Internships

"Knowledge of quantitative data collection; statistical analysis; financial modelling and analysis & reporting of quantitative data, a good business and commercial awareness plus previous experience of working in a charity or social enterprise (paid or voluntary), is desirable."

Advert for charity marketing post

Specialist Charity Recruitment Agencies

Further Information

See also our pages on Volunteering www.kent.ac.uk/careers/vacwork.htm#volwork

Last fully updated 2012