Join our Charity CEO Mentoring Programme
Our CEO Mentoring Programme offers one-to-one, pro bono mentoring designed for new and aspiring charity CEOs.
Overview
This transformative initiative connects you with experienced mentors who provide invaluable guidance to help you thrive in your leadership journey.
It aims to support and foster a diverse leadership pipeline in the charity sector.
Who is this for?
- Recently started your first charity CEO role (within the last 18 months).Â
- Currently in a senior leadership position and aspiring to become a CEO.Â
- Applicants can be based anywhere in the UK, and we welcome applications from regional candidates as well as those based in London and the South East.
The programme is launching in March 2026 with regular sessions to guide mentees. We will reserve 50% of places for individuals from underrepresented groups.
Charity People are committed to fostering a supportive mentor-mentee relationship; feedback is essential. Read all about what mentors and mentees had to say about their experience.
”I felt comfortable talking to Susanette about my goals and challenges straight away. Being in an interim CEO role helped hugely as it gave me lots of working examples and areas Susanette could help me with. Susanette talked through how she managed and what type of leader she was and this really helped me identify where she might be able to help me as she is skilled in areas I feel quite challenged in ie communicating with staff around difficult things, change management, etc. Susanette offered useful and practical ways to increase my confidence in these areas.
Mentee
”Adam is an excellent and experienced mentor and structured our first session expertly - setting up an appropriate relationship and level of communication, as well as giving us a structure for our discussions moving forward. Adam helped me reframe a number of issues and think about my goals and what I needed to work on in a different way.
Mentee
”Clare is an amazing individual. Very inspirational and has a way of making me think of things differently and to start believing in myself a bit more – I can’t believe I get the time with her that I do to be honest. It’s having a transformational impact on me
Mentee
”My mentee quickly established the 5 key areas that we will focus on for the period and provided them in writing for the next meeting. The meetings every two weeks worked to establish the relationship and alongside my mentee sending me the 5 key areas they also have a recent Strategic Plan to introduce to their senior team and to get moving. There are actions that we have discussed to progress the key areas and we are starting to develop the actions needed by the organisation to progress the plan.
Mentor
”I find the sessions very rewarding. We immediately jumped into big topics and we’re working through issues/ challenges that Chloe is facing. After the first session I asked Chloe to think about what she wanted to focus on and she went through a few slides at our subsequent meeting.
Mentor
”We built a rapport easily and had some meaningful discussions really easily.  Laura was really engaged and open and actively shared her dreams and challenges We had set quite abstract goals for the next session but this has morphed into something more specific as Laura has sent me over her CV to review and give critical feedback on. This is possibly the same feedback for your third question too. We have agreed to set goals and actions as we go along.
Mentor
How it works
Who are the mentors?
Our Mentoring Network brings together experienced leaders within the charity sector – including existing and former CEOs, Board Advisors and other senior leaders.
They bring a wide variety of skills, wisdom and practical know-how from years spent across the charity sector. And they all have prior experience of mentoring, so you’ll be able to start benefiting from their knowledge right away.
