Charity staff are often paid below the market for equivalent work in commercial sectors. Purpose brings people in. Financial pressure drives them out — quietly, and at a cost that rarely appears on a budget line.
Replacing an experienced charity professional typically costs between 50% and 200% of their annual salary in recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity. In a small team, one departure of the wrong person sets a programme back materially. The Audit identifies whether financial pressure is a driver before it becomes a departure.
Financial stress reduces focus, decision quality, and resilience under pressure. In a charity context, that translates directly into reduced impact: missed deadlines, weaker programme delivery, and gaps in leadership capacity that nobody connects back to the underlying cause.
Boards and major funders increasingly ask how charities support their workforce — not as a soft question, but as evidence of a well-governed, resilient organisation. A structured, evidence-led approach to workforce financial pressure is now a credibility signal in funding conversations.
Every engagement begins with the Charity Performance Audit before anything is recommended. What follows reflects your charity: your team size, your culture, your reserves position, and the specific pressures your people are carrying.
Benefits and pension review
A structured review of pension, benefits, and financial support arrangements. Most charities find this work alone identifies savings that more than cover the cost of the programme — savings that can be redirected to the mission.
Education and 1-to-1 guidance
Practical financial workshops covering budgeting, pensions, and planning. One-to-one access to a regulated Independent Financial Adviser at no cost to staff. Communications and scheduling managed entirely on your behalf.
Ongoing support and reporting
Continued access to tools and guidance. Annual review of impact with reporting suitable for trustee meetings and major funder updates. A demonstrably strong employer proposition, reinforced year after year.
Generic wellbeing platforms assume a large HR function, generous budgets, and a workforce that engages independently. A charity operates differently. This programme is built around that reality.
We coordinate delivery, manage communications, and handle the operational work. Your CEO and HR lead retain full visibility without absorbing additional time.
Fees are per-employee, agreed in writing before work begins, and presented alongside the savings identified — so trustees see the net position before approving.
Clear documentation of what has been introduced and the outcomes achieved — a meaningful, evidence-led item for trustee meetings and major funder conversations.
The pension and benefits review typically identifies recurring annual savings that can be returned to programme delivery — not just absorbed as cost reduction.
From first conversation to ongoing programme — designed to be proportionate to your charity and minimal in its demands on your senior team.
A structured, no-cost two-part conversation to identify whether financial pressure is affecting performance in your charity and what a proportionate response would look like.
Where action is justified, a programme is designed around your specific charity. Fees are presented alongside identified savings, so trustees see the net position before approving.
Workshops, one-to-one guidance, pension and benefits changes — coordinated and delivered. Communications drafted for your approval. Impact reviewed annually with reporting suitable for trustees and major funders.
The programme is designed to scale down as readily as it scales up. For smaller charities (10 to 50 staff), the engagement is typically concentrated on the Clarity pillar plus a focused programme of workshops. The Audit is always free, so the first step costs nothing regardless of size.
Per-employee pricing, agreed in writing before delivery. The Audit identifies savings in your existing pension and benefits arrangements, and fees are presented alongside those findings. Most charities find that the savings identified more than offset the programme cost in year one.
Yes. Through Aetas Wealth (FCA registration 458421), employees can access qualified, regulated Independent Financial Advisers as a workplace benefit. The introduction happens through the programme, but the regulated engagement sits separately and confidentially with the adviser.
A written summary of the Audit at the outset, suitable for board discussion. Quarterly engagement updates throughout the programme. An annual impact review with reporting designed for trustee meetings and major funder updates — aggregate engagement, financial savings identified and realised, and workforce indicators where they are measured.
Both are free and carry no obligation.
A focused conversation with Matthew Steiner to identify whether financial pressure is affecting performance in your charity — and what it may be costing in retention, focus, and mission delivery.
A short scored self-assessment for charity leaders. Gives you an immediate picture of where the organisational gaps may be — with a personalised report delivered to your inbox.
