From volunteer to charity leader

The path to charity leadership can be varied. Some leaders move from junior level roles in the sector, onto management posts, director level roles, and eventually promotion to chief executive or managing director.

Others hold senior roles within completely different organisations, such as in finance and pharmaceutical industries, and are looking for a career change into the charity sector. 

Increasingly charities are turning to leaders with personal experience of the work, who often joined the organisation as a volunteer worker or trustee.

These leaders in waiting can offer unique insight into the charity through their experience of the issues and challenges beneficiaries deal with each day. They also have first-hand knowledge of how frontline support is successfully helping, as well as what needs to improve.

Volunteers who become chief executives also have a commitment to the charity’s cause, having initially given up their time to support its work.

Here we look at the pathways to charity leadership and profile two chief executives who started working for the organisation they lead as a volunteer.

Volunteer pathways to leadership

Becoming a trustee is an excellent way for an aspiring leader to gain a good understanding of a charity’s work and prepare them for one day running the organisation.

Former Reach Volunteering Chief Executive Sarah Gosling says a trustee role is a must for an aspiring CEO or senior charity leader. “If you want to lead a charity, then you’ll be working with a trustee board – the hidden influence on positive charity health. They are an incredible resource and can add greatly to the impact of your charity’s work.”

Another route to charity leadership is as a frontline volunteer in the charity sector. This can lead to a staff role and progression into management and eventually the top job.

This is a pathway that Paul Townsley, Chief Executive of the charity Humankind, took in his career. “Starting life as a volunteer, I have worked in caring services for the vast majority of my working life from front line practitioner to manager to CEO.

“I always try to learn and improve my skills and have done community work, social work, and management qualifications to help with this.”

Graeme Luke, Chief Executive, Scouts Scotland

In 2021, Scouts Scotland announced that Graeme Luke was to be its next Chief Executive.

The announcement marked a new chapter in Luke’s career, as a charity leader, that started 20 years ago when he was a teenage volunteer for the charity.

He joined the organisation when he was just 16 as one of its young volunteer leaders, later becoming an adult leader at 18, then taking further voluntary roles at local, regional and Scotland wide levels for the charity.

Staff roles followed and in 2015 he was appointed as Head of Scouting Operations and Deputy Chief Executive.

“Thanks to Scouts I have developed skills and achieved in ways I never could have imagined,” says Luke.

“I am committed to making sure that as many young people as possible can access the amazing opportunities that I’ve had through Scouts.”

His experience is also ensuring that the current crop of volunteers is a priority for his leadership.

“My focus will be working with our staff and volunteer teams on recovery and re-growth and making sure that our amazing volunteers have what they need to support our members.”

Christine Roxburgh, Chief Executive, Eczema Outreach Support

The importance of ‘lived experience’ is among key buzz-phrases in the charity sector in recent years. It focuses on how those with personal experience of a charity’s work can be best place for leadership, as well as frontline roles.

This is certainly the case for Christine Roxburgh, who in February was appointed Chief Executive of Eczema Outreach Support, a decade after she first joined the charity as a volunteer to help people like her who live with the condition.

“I can’t remember not having eczema, so I completely understand and empathise with our members and what they are going through,” she says. “I know how difficult it can be to access dermatology specialists and the emotional, as well as physical, pain the condition can cause the entire family.”

After working as a volunteer, she became a charity worker at Eczema Outreach Support and progressed to roles including Head of Services and interim Chief Executive. She has also spent two years at Prostate Scotland.

“I’m thrilled to be back at Eczema Outreach Support, it feels like returning home,” she says.

“It’s going to be a big step up and challenge but I’m excited to get started and hit the ground running. I have lots of new ideas and will also take forward many of our current plans.”