Is summer a good time to recruit in the charity sector?

Every year, around this time, I find myself having the same conversation with clients.

“We’re thinking of waiting until September.”

It’s an understandable view. Summer can feel like an awkward time to recruit. Annual leave is booked, interview panels become harder to coordinate and there’s often a perception that candidates have mentally switched off until the autumn.

On the face of it, waiting seems like the sensible option.

But is it?

Looking at the market in 2026, I’m not convinced there’s a straightforward answer.

The charity sector continues to operate in a challenging environment. Organisations are balancing rising employment costs, continued pressure on voluntary income, increasing demand for services and the reality that many teams have been working at full stretch for several years.

Naturally, that has made recruitment decisions more considered. Vacancies are scrutinised more carefully, organisational structures are reviewed more regularly and many charities are asking whether a role still looks the same as it did two or three years ago.

Personally, I think that’s healthy.

Recruitment shouldn’t be about replacing people simply because somebody leaves. It should be an opportunity to ask whether the organisation needs the same skills, the same experience or even the same structure.

Summer, perhaps more than any other point in the year, gives organisations the opportunity to pause and ask those questions.

That doesn’t necessarily mean delaying recruitment.

It means making better decisions about recruitment.

A different kind of candidate market

One of the biggest misconceptions is that candidates disappear during July and August.

Some undoubtedly do. Everyone deserves the opportunity to properly switch off and spend time with family, particularly after what has been another demanding year for so many in the sector.

But that isn’t the whole picture.

Interestingly, many of the conversations we have with candidates during the summer are often more reflective than at any other time of year.

Without the constant pressure of meetings, deadlines and operational issues, they begin asking themselves questions that rarely get asked during a busy February or October.

Am I still challenged?

Is my organisation heading in the right direction?

Do I still believe in where we’re going?

If I was going to make a move, what would I actually be looking for?

Those aren’t the questions of someone frantically searching job boards. They’re the questions of someone beginning to think differently about the next stage of their career.

That’s an important distinction. The strongest candidates aren’t always actively looking.

Often, they’re simply open to the right conversation. For organisations with a compelling opportunity, that can make summer a surprisingly effective time to engage talent.

Where summer recruitment succeeds—or fails

Where I do think charities need to be careful is their own process. In my experience, recruitment rarely struggles during the summer because candidates aren’t available. It struggles because organisations aren’t:

• A hiring manager is away for two weeks.
• The CEO has annual leave booked.
• A trustee panel can’t meet until September.
• HR are covering for colleagues.

None of those things are unusual. The problem is when nobody has planned for them.

Momentum is one of the most underestimated parts of any recruitment process. Candidates interpret momentum as confidence. If communication is clear, interview dates are agreed in advance and decisions are made promptly, candidates naturally feel positive about an organisation.

When a process pauses for three weeks without explanation, people inevitably begin to question how decisions are made internally. That doesn’t mean organisations should rush recruitment.

Quite the opposite.

It means planning before the role goes live. The charities that recruit well during the summer tend to have done the preparation early. The brief has been properly challenged. The salary has been agreed. Decision-makers know when they’ll need to be available. Interview dates are already protected in diaries. Candidates know exactly what to expect.

By the time the advert is published, everyone understands the plan.

Looking beyond the vacancy

There’s another aspect of summer that I don’t think receives enough attention.

For many leaders, it’s one of the few opportunities during the year to observe their organisation from a slightly different perspective:

• Annual leave naturally changes team dynamics.
• People take on additional responsibilities.
• Others step into leadership roles temporarily.
• Different parts of the organisation experience varying levels of pressure.

For CEOs and senior leadership teams, those few weeks can be incredibly revealing. You quickly begin to see where knowledge sits with one individual. Which teams collaborate naturally. Where decision-making slows down. Who steps up when opportunities arise.

Equally, you see where people may have been carrying too much responsibility for too long. Those observations are invaluable. Sometimes they reinforce the need to recruit. Sometimes they highlight the need to redistribute responsibilities. Occasionally, they suggest investing in leadership development rather than adding another headcount.

None of those conclusions are obvious if we’re moving at full pace throughout the year.

A chance to reset, not just recruit

The summer also creates an opportunity to have slightly different conversations with existing teams. For many charities, the first half of the year is relentless. Budget planning, fundraising activity, governance, service delivery and organisational change leave very little room to pause.

The quieter weeks of summer can become an opportunity to ask questions that often get pushed into the background:

• How are people really feeling?
• What’s working well?
• What’s becoming more difficult?
• Have priorities shifted since January?
• If we were designing this team today, would it look the same?

They’re deceptively simple questions, but they often reveal far more than a quarterly performance review.

They also create a stronger foundation for any recruitment decisions made later in the year.

So, is summer a good time to recruit?

My answer is probably less exciting than people expect.

Sometimes yes.

Sometimes no.

The calendar itself isn’t really the deciding factor. Readiness is.

If the organisation has a genuine need, a well-defined brief and the capacity to run an efficient recruitment process, summer can be an excellent time to hire.

There may be fewer competing campaigns, candidates often have more time to reflect and organisations willing to move decisively can secure excellent people before the busy autumn market begins.

On the other hand, if you know the process is likely to drift because key decision-makers are unavailable, there is nothing wrong with taking a few weeks to prepare properly:

• Refine the brief.
• Review the structure.
• Challenge whether the role still reflects the organisation’s future needs.
• Agree the process before you go to market.
• That preparation is rarely wasted.

Ultimately, I don’t think the question is whether charities should recruit during the summer.

The better question is whether they’re ready to. Because every recruitment process says something about an organisation. Not just the role it’s trying to fill, but how it communicates, how it makes decisions and how it values people’s time.

Perhaps that’s the real opportunity the summer presents.

Not simply to recruit.

But to pause, reflect and make better decisions—for the organisation, for existing teams and for the people who may become part of them next.

Stuart Milliner – Head of Merrifield Consultants