New Voluntary Sector Workforce Survey 2025 highlights pressures and purpose
Charity Leadership Scotland, in partnership with SCVO and Volunteer Scotland, has published the findings of the 2025 Scottish Voluntary Sector Workforce Survey — alongside two complementary reports exploring leadership and volunteering.
Click here to read our FULL LEADERSHIP REPORT
Drawing on insights from over 1,000 paid staff and volunteers across Scotland, the research provides one of the most comprehensive pictures of the voluntary sector workforce to date. The findings highlight both the strengths and challenges facing the sector, including a strong sense of purpose and impact, alongside growing pressures on workload, wellbeing, and workforce sustainability.
The leadership analysis points to a sector at a critical juncture, demonstrating deep commitment while operating under increasing strain. The reports call for collective action across organisations, Boards, funders, and policymakers to ensure leadership — and the wider workforce — can remain sustainable in the long term.
Lucinda Godfrey, CEO of Charity Leadership Scotland:
“These numbers confirm now more than ever what leaders in the sector already feel: the work is vital, but the weight of it is heavy. At Charity Leadership Scotland, we remain committed to collaborating on powerful research which must now lead to meaningful action to protect and support the individuals and organisations underpinning Scotland’s voluntary sector.”
Anna Fowlie, CEO of SCVO:
“As a sector we are sustained by individuals who are deeply motivated to make a positive impact. Findings from our workforce survey point to a strong and enduring sense of purpose, with staff demonstrating unwavering dedication to their roles, day after day. Leaders across the voluntary sector remain committed to providing fair, meaningful and rewarding employment. However, that ambition is too often constrained by the way public funding is delivered. Repeated budget reductions, short-term funding models, late payments, inconsistent decisions and ineffective communication continue to create instability.
At the same time, our Workforce Survey makes clear the growing strain they are under. Persistent financial pressures — now a familiar feature of the sector’s landscape — are placing significant demands on those delivering vital services.
There is a clear need for a different approach. The next Scottish Government has an important opportunity to reform the funding environment, making it longer-term, sustainable, flexible and genuinely accessible. They must now implement Fair Funding without further delays. The workforce at the heart of Scotland’s voluntary sector, and the communities who rely on them, deserve nothing less.”
Alan Stevenson, CEO of Volunteer Scotland:
“Volunteer Scotland welcomes this new and timely insight into the experiences of Scotland’s volunteers. We are pleased to see that volunteer satisfaction remains high and that many volunteers are able to find flexible volunteering opportunities. This reflects the hard work of volunteer involving organisations across Scotland to make volunteering a positive and accessible experience. These findings underscore the importance of a healthy, reliable and professional volunteer infrastructure to support volunteers to have a positive experience and to volunteer throughout their lives.”
Together, the three reports provide vital evidence to inform future policy, funding approaches, and leadership development across Scotland’s voluntary sector.
For any press enquiries, please contact ashley@charityleadership.scot
To learn more about the survey findings, please email events@charityleadership.scot