How to Recruit a Charity CEO on a Tight Budget

Recruiting a charity CEO on a tight budget is rarely straightforward. When the available salary sits at £45,000 to £50,000, the challenge grows. Many smaller charities cannot raise the salary further, yet boards still need someone who can manage funding uncertainty, handle stakeholders and make difficult strategic calls. 

The tension is rarely about the number itself, it’s about a fixed budget meeting expectations that haven’t scaled back. Boards often want a candidate who has solved an identical problem before, but the salary on offer may not stretch that far. So, what can trustees do when leadership needs and budget don’t align? 

Redefining the Ideal Candidate 

This tension surfaces often in senior recruitment conversations. One charity faced funding uncertainty over the next 12 months. It needed a CEO who could assess organisational strength and lead a small team through a difficult period. The budget was around £50,000. Another needed maternity cover during major change, with 85% of its income tied to one contract. Its salary sat at £45,000 to £50,000. Neither board was undervaluing the role, both worked within genuine financial constraints. Neither could expect £50,000 to attract candidates whose experience commands £70,000 elsewhere. 

Before rewriting the person specification, it helps to list the levers available to a board: 

• Consider a candidate stepping into their first CEO role 

• Reconsider what counts as a “safe” hire 

• Trade full-time hours for a more experienced part-time leader 

• Stop loading every unowned task onto the CEO 

• Agree what’s non-negotiable before advertising the role 

The Case for a First-Time CEO 

Widening the brief is worth taking seriously. Excellent Deputy CEOs, Directors, COOs and Fundraising Directors are ready for their first CEO role. Many already have experience of strategy, governance and stakeholder management. What they lack is a CV listing previous CEO titles, however, that shouldn’t rule them out. 

Recruiting a first-time CEO means the board must recognise what it’s doing. It is choosing someone with the capability to step up. That may call for more support in the first year, particularly from the Chair. Done well, it can secure an ambitious, capable leader. 

Reassessing the “Safe” Hire 

Boards are understandably risk conscious. Appointing a CEO ranks among the most important decisions trustees make. When uncertainty is already high, the instinct is to search for the familiar, which means someone who is already a CEO. It could be someone from the same corner of the sector, or with an identical funding model. 

There’s nothing wrong with valuing relevant experience, but a narrower definition of “safe” shrinks the candidate pool and raises its cost. If the budget is tight, that person may be unaffordable. Would a first-time CEO with most capabilities work instead? Could someone from an adjacent sector bring transferable skills? Would an experienced interim, working fewer days, carry less risk than a less experienced full-timer? 

Fewer Days for More Experienced Leadership 

This option is often overlooked. Suppose £50,000 is available, the obvious approach is a full-time role at that salary. Yet the same budget could buy a more experienced leader for three or four days a week. For charities in transition, that trade-off can work well. Experienced interim leaders often want three or four-day assignments, and they may combine this with consultancy or non-executive work. 

Reducing the days can raise the calibre of interested candidates. Instead of asking how to replace the outgoing CEO, ask what leadership the organisation needs next. These two questions can produce very different briefs. 

Avoiding the “Chief Everything Officer” Model 

This phrase came up in a recent conversation. It will sound familiar to many small charity leaders. Finance, HR, communications, recruitment, strategy and board reporting can all land on the CEO’s desk, which happens simply because nothing else has an obvious owner. 

If a charity cannot afford strategic leadership, it’s worth checking how the CEO budget is spent. Could finance be outsourced? Could HR support be bought in? Could an existing team member take on more day-to-day work? One charity outsourced finance and HR and brought in separate communications support. That change let it reduce the CEO role from five days to four, therefore shifting the whole recruitment proposition. 

Establishing Non-Negotiable Requirements 

Before writing the person specification, agree the two or three must-haves, not the twenty things that would be nice to have. If financial sustainability is the concern, prioritise financial decision-making experience. If commissioners matter most, prioritise stakeholder credibility. If culture has suffered, prioritise people leadership. 

Not everything can be the top priority, which matters more when the salary is constrained. Every extra “essential” narrows the candidate pool. A long wish list with a below-market salary doesn’t help, it just makes the search harder. 

Evaluating the Full Recruitment Package 

Sector benchmarks help put a tight budget into perspective. ACEVO’s 2025 Pay and Equalities Survey put the median CEO salary at £59,850. Research from the Association of Charitable Organisations found an average of £98,000, falling to £77,000 below £1 million income. This doesn’t mean every charity must raise its salary. Charities differ in structure, income and geography, but a board needs an honest view of where its offer sits. 

Once that’s clear, other factors shape whether an offer is competitive. 

• What the wider package includes beyond base pay 

• Whether flexibility or a shorter week is on the table 

• How much autonomy the role carries 

• Whether purpose can offset a below-market salary 

• What changes if the salary cannot move 

The Limits of Purpose-Driven Recruitment 

People choose charity careers for many reasons. Connection to a cause can be genuinely powerful and plenty of candidates will earn less for the right opportunity. One CEO took a £25,000 pay cut to move into a new field, which brought her closer to family. She hadn’t become worth £25,000 less, and the wider opportunity made the cut worthwhile for her, at that point in her career. 

Boards shouldn’t assume every candidate will think the same way. Someone can love a mission and still feel the salary doesn’t match the responsibility. Purpose matters, but so do mortgages, pensions and childcare. 

Recognising the CEO’s Professional Commitment 

This is a sensitive point, but an important one. Trustees give time and expertise without pay. Good trustees make a real contribution to their charities. The CEO makes a different kind of commitment, which is their job, career and income. In some roles, they also take on real professional risk. 

Volunteering by trustees doesn’t mean staff should accept below-market pay. This is harder for smaller charities, where senior pay is a bigger share of spending. Research shows average CEO pay is 15% of income below £1 million. That falls to 1.6% above £5 million. There isn’t an easy answer, what matters is being honest about what follows. 

Assessing the Wider Recruitment Package 

Salary matters, but it’s rarely the only reason someone accepts a role. Smaller charities can offer things larger ones can’t match; think real flexibility, a four-day week, autonomy and a closer connection to the cause. Flexibility on location can open a role to more candidates. 

None of this should excuse an unrealistic salary, but when the number can’t move, look at everything else on offer. 

Adjusting the Proposition When Salary Is Fixed 

There’s no magic figure for recruiting a good CEO, every organisation is different. Boards need to recognise the link between salary, expectations and risk. Without more budget, several options remain. Consider a first-time CEO, broaden the search beyond an identical career path and prioritise transferable skills over familiarity. Use the same money for a more experienced leader working fewer days and redistribute responsibilities so the CEO isn’t expected to do everything. 

Holding everything fixed rarely works, that includes the salary, the hours and every existing responsibility. Trustees shouldn’t expect a proven CEO to accept much less purely for the cause and having this conversation early can save months of searching. 

In Summary 

A tight budget doesn’t rule out strong CEO recruitment, but it demands honesty about trade-offs. Boards can widen the candidate pool, rethink what “safe” means and trade full-time hours for more experience. Salary is one part of the proposition, not the whole of it. The charities that recruit well are usually willing to change more than just the job title.