Working for a charity has many rewarding aspects, such as knowing you’re making a difference, supporting a cause and working with people with similar values. But what can charities offer as material compensation alongside your salary?
It’s true that you might have to take a small pay cut if you move to work at a charity. But many people don’t factor in the benefits that make up part of the package on offer. While these can of course vary by charity, some of the most-valued benefits are offered widely throughout the sector. Here are six perks and benefits of working for a charity that might just surprise you…
1. Time off
Charities can’t always compete with the corporate sector in terms of salary. But they make up for it in time off. Not only do they offer a very generous holiday allowance, often a minimum of 25 days and rising as high as 30 (and we’ve even seen some as high as 34!) plus bank holidays. Most charities also close their offices over Christmas, offering employees additional days off.
Depending on your role at the charity, some out-of-hours working may be required in addition to your standard hours. While paid overtime can be scarce, time off in lieu is usually given. Days off for volunteering, early finish on Friday or even a paid sabbatical (usually after a few years’ service) are also benefits you may come across.
2. Flexible working
Charities practically invented flexible working. Flexible hours, often with some ‘core’ hours in the middle of the day, tends to be the norm. And working from home at least every so often was common practice even before the pandemic. Since then, many charities have adopted a hybrid strategy and others have gone completely remote, giving up their office space.
Charities are usually much more open to part-time hours, or alternative working patterns such as job shares or compressed hours. And they’re often very flexible when it comes to time off for childcare or family emergencies. Several charities are even moving to a four-day week, with no loss of pay.
3. Career development
While expensive external training courses may be less common in this sector, that doesn’t mean charities won’t invest in you. In fact, they’re experts at finding innovative ways to do this on a budget. You’ll often find comprehensive online learning and development resources available to you.
They also use their not-for-profit status to their advantage by negotiating cheap and pro-bono training from businesses who want to give back and support them. And organisations that support charities, like NCVO, offer a great range of training for their members to access for free.
Charities also frequently run cross-charity mentoring and buddying schemes, offering bespoke support for developing your career.
4. Wellbeing
Due to the nature of the work, it’s very important that charities look after the wellbeing of their staff. So it’s lucky that most are very good at it!
Many offer an employee assistance programme as a minimum. This is an online portal and helpline offering practical advice and emotional support (including counselling) for any issues that employees experience, whether work-related or not.
Many charities go further than this and offer more direct support by training staff as wellbeing champions or mental health first aiders, so there are team members you can approach directly for support.
5. Financial
A workplace pension scheme is now a legal requirement. But many charities, especially larger ones, will offer more generous contributions than you might expect. The average enhanced employer pension contribution is 8%.
Some larger charities will also offer life insurance or an income protection scheme should you become unable to work.
6. Money-saving
Love a bargain? There are a wide variety of money-saving benefits offered by charities, often in partnership with other programmes and providers. Many offer discount schemes such as Staff Treats or Perkbox, offering savings on everything from groceries to holidays. Other money-saving perks and benefits can include:
- season ticket loan
- cycle to work scheme
- car allowance scheme
- free parking
- free eye tests
- subsidised gym membership
- subsidised meals/canteen.
Some larger charities, particularly health charities, may also offer a cash healthcare or vouchers scheme or private medical insurance.
There’s no shortage of perks and benefits on offer when you work for a charity. And particularly if you’re someone who values time over money and you’re looking for a better work-life balance, you might just find the right package for you.
Want to see what’s out there? Browse the latest charity jobs.
This post was originally published in 2021. We’ve updated it to ensure relevance and to reflect the current job seeker experience.
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