The proportion of women holding top finance jobs at the UK’s largest charities has fallen after years of increases, according to new research.
The Charity Finance Directors Survey 2024, published this month by Charity Finance, finds that 38% of the finance directors at the UK’s largest 100 charities are females.
When Charity Finance first surveyed the sector’s finance directors in 2008, just over 20% were women.
By 2020, the figure had more than doubled to 41%, with gender parity looking likely to be on the horizon.
And in 2022, when the survey was last conducted, the proportion of female finance directors increased again to 44%.
However, this year’s data indicates that after a rapid increase, the trend has somehow begun reversing.
Cost-of-living crisis remains challenging
Respondents to the survey said that the cost-of-living crisis is still challenging for their charities and beneficiaries, despite inflation remaining at 4% in the 12 months to January.
At Macmillan Cancer Support, the combined effect of Covid-19, challenges in the NHS and the cost-of-living crisis “have made things harder for people with cancer, changing the type and amount of support that people need”.
Chief finance and operations officer Karen Watson said that between January and mid-November 2023, the charity’s support line answered over 64,000 telephone queries about people’s money worries, a 12% increase on the same period in 2022 and a 31% increase on 2021.
“To respond to this, we have invested more in services and support for people with cancer. For example, we expanded our Bupa counselling service and increased the overall amount we spend on direct grants for people with cancer,” she said.
Kirsten Stevens, chief financial officer at Sue Ryder, said: “Inflation and the high cost of overheads and consumables continue to have a negative knock-on impact on the charity’s costs and the pressure that our colleagues are under with their own household expenses. This in turn leads to additional pay pressures.
“Utilities were forward purchased at fixed rates in prior years, which have proved favourable to prevailing market rates, so the charity has to an extent been protected from the rises in utility costs. This however expires later in 2024.”
The Charity Finance Directors Survey is a biennial research project that profiles the most senior finance people at the UK’s 100 largest charities based on their average income over the last three years.
Not all charities disclose staff information on their websites, while others either do not have a dedicated finance person or are still looking to recruit one, meaning that the picture is not complete.
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