Finance teams should ‘lead on’ tackling class disadvantage in charities

Finance leaders are best placed to address social class disadvantage in their charities, the chief executive officer of the Social Mobility Foundation has said. Sarah Atkinson was speaking at the Charity Finance Summit, Civil Society Media’s annual conference, last week. In her closing keynote, Atkinson told delegates that although social class disadvantage is a feature of every sector in every major economy in the world, charities might be “more vulnerable” to the issue. She said: “We know there’s a strong likelihood that charities struggle as much as every other sector when it comes to social class disadvantage, just as we do with every other aspect of inclusion and belonging. We also know the evidence that we do have support that. “In fact, high status jobs – that’s us – which are relatively low paid – that’s us – are often the worst for social class disadvantage, just as they are for all other forms of inclusion because they favour people with elite qualifications and excellent professional experience who can also afford to work for low pay or unpaid. We’re looking a bit more vulnerable, perhaps.” Go to the Civil Society web page for more information.