#NonGraduatesWelcome, a group that campaigns for charities to remove degree level education as a job requirement, has reported a decline in organisations listing it for fundraising roles.
In October 2019, the campaign group surveyed every job posted on Fundraising Chat, a Facebook group with a free jobs board, to see how many required a degree.
In 2019, 34% of fundraising jobs advertised on the platform mentioned being educated to degree level (45 out of 132). Three years later, this has fallen by half to 17% (26 out of 157).
Three years ago, 27% of jobs listed a degree as essential for a fundraising role (35 out of 132), compared to just 8% this year (12 out of 157).
Meanwhile, three out of 157 jobs (2%) did not show the salary in 2022, compared to nine out of 132 jobs (7%) in 2019.
#NonGraduatesWelcome argue that listing a degree as a requirement into a fundraising role is “slamming the door in the faces of talented fundraisers simply because – for whatever reason – they didn’t go to university.”
This can be discriminatory and classist to those who were not afforded the opportunity to attend university, the group says.
While the group’s analysis shows a positive decline in the amount of fundraising roles requiring a degree, the campaigners wrote “those numbers are both still higher than we’d like.”
“We can't see how many are still silently using degrees as a factor in making job offers, and it obviously doesn't measure the difference this has made to diversity within the sector. But for those impacted it's a significant change”, #NonGraduatesWelcome wrote.
CIoF: ‘We must remove unnecessary barriers to entry’
The Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIoF), thanked the contributions of campaign groups like #ShowTheSalary and #NonGraduatesWelcome in transforming the sector into a more equitable place over the past few years.
Daniel Fluskey, director of policy and communications at CIoF, said: “We believe that all jobs advertised in fundraising should display the salary, and that organisations should not include unnecessary degree requirements in job descriptions and role specifications.
“These are clear and tangible steps to remove unnecessary barriers to entry and progression which are central to the chartered institute’s work on EDI and that we promote to our members.
“The work of campaigns like #ShowTheSalary and #NonGraduatesWelcome have consistently highlighted instances where organisations, membership bodies, and recruiters can improve, and a big part of the positive change in the figures shared about the decline of jobs asking for a degree is down to their success.”
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