Running a small charity is a labour of love, but it’s also a huge burden - one that is taking a serious toll on the mental health of those leading these organisations. Having worked in the charity sector for 20 years, I have never seen the funding landscape as dire as it is now.
As founder and chief executive of First Days Children's Charity for the past 12 years, I have experienced the overwhelming stress, anxiety, and exhaustion that come with trying to keep an organisation, so vital to the people it serves, afloat while demand for our services continues to soar.
If you ask any small charity leader what causes them the most stress in the sector, I guarantee it’ll be funding, or rather, the lack of it. We are being asked, and expected, to do more with less, and the financial pressures have never been greater.
With the cost-of-living crisis deepening, people simply don’t have as much disposable income to donate. Meanwhile, grant funding has imploded over the past 18 months, and other funding sources are becoming increasingly competitive. For anti-poverty charities like ours, the need for our services has skyrocketed, yet the resources to meet that demand are shrinking.
A knife-edge
Unlike larger charities with diverse income streams, small charities operate on a knife-edge. The responsibility of ensuring our team gets paid and that our services continue to exist falls squarely on the shoulders of small charity leaders, which can have a huge impact on their mental health.
Recent research by Fair Collective found 85% of small charity leaders in England experienced poor mental health due to their role. Of this, 20% reported a severe impact with incidences of suicidal thoughts, hospitalisation and burn out.
I employ 15 people, with many having lived experience of the issues we support. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on our ability to secure funding, and that pressure is relentless.
Beyond financial stress, the emotional weight of leading a small charity is all-encompassing and it can feel impossible to switch off. The people we support are often in desperate situations.
I can be in my office and there can be families in the next room that are going through awful things. As a small team we are exposed daily to heartbreaking stories of struggle and hardship, and as a leader, I carry not just my own stress but also the emotional burden of my team and the families we serve.
The stress of funding
Compounding this struggle is a frustrating lack of understanding from funders, businesses, local authorities, and the public about what small charities actually do. There is a persistent misconception that small charities run on goodwill alone, rather than being recognised as professional organisations, like bigger charities, providing essential services.
This perception means we are constantly forced to justify our existence, explaining why we need funding to pay staff, keep the lights on, and deliver life-changing work. This battle to be valued and understood adds yet another layer of stress and exhaustion.
For many small charity leaders, there is no real workplace support system. Unlike larger organisations, we do not have HR departments or employee assistance programmes. Many of us protect our teams from the full weight of financial and operational challenges, absorbing that stress ourselves.
Over the years, I have had to seek private therapy to cope with my role. Therapy has helped, but it is a cost that many in the sector simply cannot afford. Mentoring and coaching can also be valuable, but they are ultimately just sticking plasters, which do not address the underlying issue – the stress of funding.
Leaders must come together
We need to see a shift in public and government perception of small charities, it’s long overdue. We are not simply a “nice to have” – we provide critical services that fill gaps left by an inadequate welfare state.
If public services functioned as they should, many charities addressing poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity wouldn’t need to exist at all. But until that systemic change happens, small charities must be properly supported, funded, and valued.
Leaders in the sector also need to come together and speak with a collective voice. There are pockets of collective action, but real change will only happen when we unite and advocate more openly for ourselves and our sector. We must be honest about the toll this work takes and demand better support and recognition.
Despite the struggles, I’m hugely proud of what we’ve built at First Days. There have been moments when I’ve questioned whether I can continue in this sector, but my daughter recently gave me a powerful perspective. When I asked her if she thought I had failed, she replied: “Every single day that you have a success, you’re doing the opposite of failing, because everything in this system is designed for you to fail.”
Her words capture the reality of leading a small charity – we are fighting against a tide of indifference, yet we keep going because the work matters.
If we’re going to prevent burnout and breakdowns among small charity leaders, we need real, lasting change. That starts with proper funding, recognition, and a commitment to valuing the incredible, life-changing and vital work that small charities do every single day.
