This is the first year that NCVO has included data on charity vacancies and salary levels, produced in partnership with CharityJob. Voluntary organisations carry out a range of different types of work. Social services – a relatively broad category – is the largest voluntary subsector, representing just under a fifth of the sector by size. In 2020/21 there were 163,959 voluntary organisations, a very small decrease since 2019/2020. The vast majority of voluntary organisations are micro and small. As this report only covers the first full year of the covid-19 pandemic period, the next Almanac edition will provide further evidence of the ongoing impact. Almost half of voluntary sector income is from the public (the largest source) followed by close to a third from the government.

In the same year, the income of smaller organisations is shrinking at a much faster rate than that of larger organisations. Major and super-major organisations are responsible for over half the sector’s expenditure, similar to their share of income. These calendars have the traditional horse race design with a modern twist. They contain information like public holidays, school holidays and important festivals. The dates also include Hijri dates for the Muslims, Chinese Lunar dates for the Chinese and Tamil dates. Other than that, Chinese Zodiacs are also available at the bottom portion of each calendar.While levels of formal volunteering had remained largely unchanged from 2015/16 to 2019/20, they dropped sharply at the start of the pandemic in 2020/21, but the rate of decline has now slowed. Around a third work at least partially remotely: 28% work from their own home and 10% work from different places with home as a base. Over a third of the voluntary sector workforce are employed in social work. Women make up the majority of the voluntary sector workforce at 67%. After a dip in 2018, the number of men working in the voluntary sector has remained stable at 33%. People aged between 65 and 74 are the age group most likely to volunteer, both formally and informally, on a regular basis. Formal volunteering for this age group is twice the rate of those aged between 25 and 34. An estimated 14.2m people (27% of people) volunteered through a group, club or organisation in 2021/22. This is down from 16.3 (30%) million in 2020/21, and 20m (37%) in 2019/20.

Income and spending had increased consistently since 2000/01, but the rate of growth had slowed by 2019/20, and both fell in 2020/21, the first full year of the pandemic: income fell by 6% with spend decreasing by 8%. Voluntary organisations that focus on social services, research and international development make up most of the top 10 voluntary organisations by income. Just under half of all voluntary organisations rely on the public for the majority of their income.Medium charities pay the least on average at all experience levels, even when compared to micro and small charities, although there has been a slight decrease in salaries for micro and small charities since 2019. In 2021/22, 46% of the population (an estimated 25m) volunteered informally at least once and 26% (14.2m) did so at least once a month. People aged over 65 have maintained their levels of formal volunteering since 2020/21, while participation in all other age groups has dropped. Chinese Lunar Calendar 24 Solar Terms Five Elements Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches China Holidays Even though the number of all micro organisations declined in 2020/21, over the longer term, larger organisations have received an increasing amount and share of the sector’s total income.