Salary levels, roles and responsibilities

Introduction

This area of the report looks at the practicalities around how salary levels have changed over time, what factors can influence how much money comms roles are making, and how people are feeling about their role and salary.

How marcomms salary levels have changed over the past year

For 2025, the average salary across all levels, locations and roles was £43,168, which is showing a slight increase on the average of £42,174 from our reports last year.

How salary varies across specialities and level of responsibility 

As we’ve seen in previous years, comms is the main area of focus for most of our respondents, coming in at 30% this year. Another fifth of people say their role covers all areas, and 15% focus on digital and/or social media. 

Looking at the data across the past seven years, these focus concentrations have not varied greatly, with the biggest overall increase in those saying they “cover all areas”, growing from 15% in 2019 to 20% in 2025. 

While some specialised roles command higher averages, in general, communications and marketing sit in the middle, averaging between £44,000 and £45,000.  

Although they might be considered more of an external-facing role, digital and/or social media specialists appear lower in comparison, with an average of £40,824. While fundraising roles appear at the lower end of the entire scale with an average salary of £38,069. 

How salary varies across specialities and level of responsibility 

Unsurprisingly, as in previous years, organisation size can have a noticeable impact on salary.   

Larger organisations generally offer higher pay, although the difference between large and extra-large organisations is marginal, suggesting that salary levels for comms roles may plateau once an organisation reaches a certain scale. 

The most notable jump in salary is between medium and large organisations, with an average increase of approximately £4,859 (11.6%). Though we have seen that the average salary for managers (those who manage people or teams) at £48,217, is higher than non-managerial leads (£36,297), whatever the size of their organisation. 

When we look in more detail at salary by charity size and level of responsibility, there are more significant increases in pay gaps between levels within larger organisations. 

Average salaries looking at charity size, location, sector focus and role level  

Looking at charity size and location shows that London-based large organisations tend to have the highest benchmarks.

London-based: large (£49,392) and small (£44,833) 

UK-wide (including London): large (£46,222) and small (£36,630) 

Below are some of the typical findings by salary bands. The list covers the types of roles that appear in this banding, average comms salaries for different locations, and variations in pay for different charity size and sectors.   

How people are feeling about their salary levels 

To understand better how people are actually feeling about their salaries, and more widely about pay within the sector, we can review how happy people tell us they feel about their roles as an indicator, along with the comments people included when completing the survey. 

People working at small charities and freelancers tell us they are the happiest in their roles, with 81% of people at charities with between 1 and 10 employees saying they are happy or very happy in their role.  

Here’s the breakdown based on organisational size:  

• Small (1-10 employees): 82% happy 
• Medium (11-100 employees): 65% happy 
• Large (101-999 employees): 56% happy 
• Extra-large (1000+ employees): 48% happy 

Comments suggest that comms professionals in small charities feel their impact is more visible and their expertise is more respected, which may offset the lower average pay. Larger organisations report the lowest happiness, with comments citing “toxic environments”, “lack of role definition”, and/or “stagnant pay scales” as major issues in larger charity structures. 

When it comes to levels of responsibility, each end of the range of levels reports the highest satisfaction. It appears the middle is getting squeezed, as middle-management and senior officer level roles report the lowest levels of job satisfaction.   

Feedback throughout our survey suggests that these roles are expected to handle significant management stress and stretched resources without the salary compensation seen at higher levels.  

• CEO: 68% happy 
• Assistant: 67% happy 
• Director: 67% happy 
• Executive/officer: 61% happy 
• Manager/lead: 61% happy 
• Head of: 60% happy 
• Senior manager: 58% happy 
• Senior executive/officer: 40% happy 

Interestingly, salary does not always correlate with happiness in roles. Job satisfaction varies across the role vs pay scale, implying that it’s more about the work communication professionals are doing and their environment rather than what they’re being paid that drives happiness at work. This indicates there are some roles that are more at risk of burnout and retention than others.   

Fundraisers report the highest levels of job satisfaction (at 72%) despite having the lowest average salary, closely followed by the higher paid role of brand manager. Events and publications also reported higher levels of happiness, but they had comparatively lower sample sizes. Just 38.5% of internal communicators say they are happy in their role, along with half of those working in campaigns. 

There is also a general feeling of stagnation, with a recurring frustration that entry-level salaries have remained the same for years despite inflation:  

“I find it mind-blowing that when I started working decades ago, sector starting salaries were low £20,000s – and they still are! Despite massive increases in costs.” 

Comments suggest a feeling of being stuck in career progression, with a lack of viable options limiting the ability to move jobs: 

“Because of the current financial climate and that marketing is underpaid, it makes it harder for people to grow in their careers, and I feel many people are staying in their roles because there aren’t any better salaried roles out there.”

Several respondents also mention a ceiling for communications manager roles, which is felt to be unrealistic given the level of expertise expected for the job: 

“Looking at third sector jobs, they’re few and far between when it comes to comms and the salaries are awful right now, expecting comms managers at £30k!” 

There is a sense there’s a lack of appreciation for comms and marketing, with many citing these roles are the first to face cuts during financial uncertainty, leading to a general sense of feeling that this expertise is undervalued:  

“I think marketing and comms as a whole is significantly undervalued and underpaid. I understand the charity sector is going through it at the moment, and marketing is usually the first to go in financial uncertainty, but feels very short–sighted of charities to do this if they want to grow.”