UK 300: top charity and not-for-profit employers

…as voted for by students and graduates

The UK 300 features the most comprehensive annual survey of student opinion on graduate careers, employers and their own job hunts; more than 71,000 students and graduates took part. The survey determines not only the most popular 300 graduate employers in the UK overall, but also the most popular graduate employers in a range of career sectors, including charity and not-for-profit.

The top graduate charity and not-for-profit employers are listed in the table below. You can see that Amnesty International holds on to its spot as the most popular charity again this year, but there has been considerable movement elsewhere. Notably, Save the Children has climbed four places to take the number two slot and there have been two new entrants to the list: Action for Children and the British Heart Foundation.

Students interested in employers in this sector…

are the most likely of students across all sectors in our survey to value ‘interesting work’ and a ‘chance to make a difference’ as ‘very important’ factors when choosing an employer (77% and 66% did respectively)
are least likely of students across all sectors to value a ‘high starting salary’ as ‘very important’ when choosing an employer (19%) and the least likely to cite ‘earning potential of future role’ as the most influential factor on their chosen career – but they may have unrealistic expectations of salary, as respondents expected around £25,000, which is a little high according to the starting salary data collected by TARGETjobs
are, unsurprisingly, much more likely than the average students across all year groups to have undertaken voluntary/charity work (eg 64% of finalists had compared to a 50% average) – but were less likely to have done an internship (eg 30% of finalists had versus a 39% average).

NB: Percentages have been rounded.