Charity & NGOs Graduate Jobs

Charity & NGOs Graduate Jobs overview

The charity and NGO sector in Australia is extraordinarily diverse and includes a wide variety of over 600,000 organisations and institutions.

Types of graduate job jobs/roles

Graduates can contribute in a range of different capacities, including:

Fundraising
Marketing
Community Development
Emergency and relief services
Consulting
Public health
Project Management
Administration
Management
Technical Advice
Research
Advocacy
Telecommunications
Public Relations

How to find work and apply

Volunteering and internships are a great way to gain access to job opportunities, as many organisations prefer to recruit existing unpaid employees who already know and understand the cause. Small organisations are more likely to recruit generalists, people who can fulfill a number of jobs, whereas larger organisations have the resources to employ people with specialist skills.

Few organisations in the charity and NGO sector provide training or graduate programs, so an internship or volunteer position can be a good way to gain these skills.

Competitiveness

Graduate positions within the charity and NGO sector can be very competitive as most funding is spent on the cause. It is therefore important to build experience through volunteering and internships as many organisations will later employ previous volunteers and interns, or look for this experience when recruiting.

Location

Since charities and NGOs are generally reliant on funding it is important for them to have their head offices located in major commercial hubs. As a result, the majority of graduate jobs within this sector are located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

The biggest graduate employers include:

World Vision
The Salvation Army
Australian Red Cross
Compassion Australia
Oxfam
Care Australia
The Fred Hollows Foundation
Save the Children Australia
Tear Australia.

Average graduate salaries

Salaries in the charity and NGO sector tend to be lower than other areas as funds are used to benefit the community, with the median graduate salary around $40,000.

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Videos for Charity & NGOs Graduate Jobs

Meet Aaran

Aaran was at a crossroads when he left university. He had a Maths degree, and wanted to do something meaningful. “I’d been involved with a lot of community initiatives at university, and I wanted to give back,” he says. So he joined Teach For Australia.

Meet Dan

Dan spent twenty-five years in the wine industry – and he loved every minute of it. “But after twenty-five years, perhaps I’d done as much as I could really achieve. I was really proud of what I’d done. As a family, we were looking for a change and were keen to move to Melbourne. Our kids were in their mid-teens and were beginning to get a little hemmed-in by country life. I was expecting to pick up a winemaker role somewhere in the Yarra, but Teach For Australia came knocking instead. In my late forties, with perhaps twenty years of work ahead, the prospect of doing something really valuable with that time was an easy choice.”

Meet Christie

Christie had inspiring maths teachers back when she was in school, who had encouraged her to pursue further study – even though she didn’t really think she had the knack for maths herself. She didn’t have academic help at home, and felt that she was struggling in the subject – but it was her teachers who changed her perception. “I wanted to pay it forward to students, and help them overcome the unfounded idea that ‘I’m just not a maths person’,” she says.

Meet Celia

Celia had an established career as a horticulturist, but now she’s a science teacher. “I wasn’t necessarily looking for an entire career change, but as soon as I heard about TFA it seemed like a perfect fit,” she says. She realised that she was drawn to teaching, but felt that she couldn’t afford to pause her life in order to study. “My partner and I had a mortgage; I was working in a completely different industry and didn’t feel my employer would be supportive of my taking time off for placements. TFA provided me with a realistic opportunity to work, learn and earn, all while experiencing the sense of fulfilment that arises from engaging in something meaningful.”

Meet Jun

Jun wanted to do something meaningful and impactful in his life. Originally from Brisbane, he was considering his career options in law and diplomacy, but teaching wasn’t on his list… until he learned about Teach For Australia. “I wanted to do something meaningful and impactful with my life,” Jun says. “I never intended to be a teacher until I found Teach For Australia, where I could work towards a bigger goal of systemic change and impact.”

Meet Brenden

Brenden didn’t travel very far for his placement. In fact, he’s teaching at the very secondary school he had attended. “Returning to my old school through TFA has been interesting,” Brendan says. “Maybe awkward for a week or so, but really beautiful. I feel a lot of connection to the community, and a lot of connection to the students… who have the same handshakes!”