For charities and not-for-profits

Your people are motivated by purpose.
Financial pressure should not be the reason they leave.

The Charity Wellbeing Service brings together specialist governance, independent financial guidance, and structured staff financial wellbeing — built specifically for charities and not-for-profit organisations. Not adapted from a corporate model. Built for yours.

A partnership between Adena Street & Aetas in the Workplace
£51bn
lost in UK productivity each year linked to financial stress
£6.2bn
cost of financial stress through absenteeism and presenteeism
9.4
average sickness absence days per employee — a record high
50–200%
typical cost of replacing a mid-level employee as a share of salary
What the service covers

Three areas of structured support, delivered by specialists

Every engagement begins with a diagnostic conversation. What is introduced is built around your organisation — your workforce, your culture, your constraints. Nothing is recommended from a template.

Offered by Adena Street
01

Governance

Independent governance support for trustees and boards — helping your charity meet its legal obligations, strengthen oversight structures, and operate with confidence.

  • Investment Policy Statement — drafting, review and annual update
  • Independent oversight and review of investment managers
  • Ethical investment frameworks aligned to your charitable objects
  • Trustee training and board-level education
  • Charity Commission compliance and reporting support
Learn more →
Offered by Adena Street
02

Financial Guidance

Truly independent financial guidance that helps your organisation maximise asset returns, understand what it is paying, and ensure investment decisions serve the charity — not its managers.

  • Investment performance review against recognised benchmarks
  • Fee transparency including hidden Ongoing Charges Figures
  • Cash management and short, medium and long-term asset strategy
  • Investment manager search and independent tender support
  • Ongoing portfolio monitoring and reporting to trustees
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Offered by Aetas in the Workplace
03

Financial Wellbeing

A consultancy-led financial wellbeing service for your people. Designed to reduce financial anxiety, strengthen engagement and retention, and ensure staff genuinely understand and value the support available.

  • Employee benefits consultancy — structured review and optimisation
  • Financial resilience workshops covering practical everyday concerns
  • One-to-one guidance from a regulated financial planner at no cost to staff
  • Wellbeing and incentive initiatives through the Aetas Collective
  • All employee communications managed on your behalf
Learn more →
The challenge

Doing more for your people — and your organisation — without an unlimited budget

For charities, the pressures converge from multiple directions. Staff are motivated by purpose but vulnerable to financial anxiety. Trustees carry significant legal responsibility, often without the specialist support to exercise it confidently. And assets may be working considerably less hard than they could be.

Financial anxiety among staff is driven less by a lack of benefits than by uncertainty. People do not know what support exists, whether it applies to them, or where to turn when something changes. That uncertainty affects focus, confidence, and how long people stay.

A structured review of your pension, benefits, and investment arrangements often identifies savings that more than offset the cost of an engagement. For a not-for-profit, that released resource can be redirected where it is needed most.

The cost of doing nothing
50–200%

typical cost of replacing a skilled employee as a proportion of annual salary. In a smaller organisation, this is a significant and often underestimated risk.

Funders and trustees are increasingly attentive to how organisations support their workforce. A structured, evidenced approach to staff wellbeing strengthens your governance narrative and demonstrates responsible leadership.

The Charity Wellbeing Service provides clear documentation of what has been introduced and the outcomes achieved — supporting reporting to trustees, funders, and other stakeholders.

Our partnership

Two specialist organisations. One joined-up service.

The Charity Wellbeing Service was built on a simple observation: no single firm had brought together genuine governance expertise, independent financial guidance, and structured staff wellbeing in one place — designed specifically for charities. That is what this partnership does.

Governance & Financial Guidance
Adena Street

Adena Street is an independent advisory firm specialising in governance and financial guidance for charities and philanthropic organisations. Fully independent — no commercial relationships with investment managers, no product bias, no conflicts of interest.

Adena Street acts always in the best interests of the charity: helping trustees meet their legal obligations, understand their investment arrangements, and make better financial decisions.

Services provided Governance & IPS Trustee Training Investment Benchmarking Fee Transparency Manager Search
Staff Financial Wellbeing
Aetas in the Workplace

Aetas in the Workplace is a consultancy-led financial wellbeing service for employers. Built for organisations where every employee matters — not adapted from a corporate model designed for thousands of staff.

The approach is always bespoke: a structured diagnostic is completed before anything is introduced, and delivery is managed throughout so the burden on your leadership team is minimal.

Services provided Benefits Consultancy Resilience Workshops 1-to-1 Guidance Aetas Collective Communications
An additional opportunity

Supporting your income as well as your people

For charities, an engagement can open conversations that connect directly to your income strategy. Introduced only where there is genuine appetite — not products, but conversations structured with confidence.

Legacy giving

Legacy giving programmes

Gifts in wills are one of the most significant sources of charitable income. Many supporters who would consider leaving a legacy have never been asked. We help you introduce a structured legacy giving programme — supporting the conversation with supporters and the practical planning that makes a gift in wills feel achievable.

Corporate partnerships

Corporate donation schemes

Many businesses are looking for meaningful ways to support charities. We help you build a structured corporate giving proposition — including payroll giving, matched donation schemes, and employee volunteering frameworks — that makes it straightforward for businesses to partner with your organisation.

How it works

Three stages — light on your team throughout

From first conversation to ongoing programme. Designed to be proportionate to your organisation and minimal in its demands on your leadership team.

01

Discovery conversation

A no-cost conversation to understand your organisation, your workforce, and your current arrangements across benefits, investments, and governance. No obligation beyond the conversation.

02

Diagnostic and planning

A structured diagnostic identifies which services will have the greatest impact. Nothing is recommended that does not fit your context and constraints. A clear plan is agreed before anything is introduced.

03

Managed delivery and review

We coordinate delivery, manage communications, and review impact on an ongoing basis. Your leadership team has full visibility without being required to manage providers themselves.

Get started

Two ways to take the next step

Both are provided at no cost and carry no obligation.

One-to-one conversation

Book a discovery conversation

A focused 45-minute conversation with Matthew Steiner to explore whether the Charity Wellbeing Service is the right fit. We look at what is already in place, where pressure may be showing up, and what a proportionate response could look like.

  • No obligation beyond the conversation itself
  • Designed to give you as much clarity as we gain from it
  • Available by video or phone, at a time that suits you
Book a meeting
Self-assessment

Take the 12-question diagnostic

A short self-assessment across governance, financial guidance, and staff financial wellbeing. Takes around five minutes and produces a scored picture of where your organisation's gaps may be — useful on its own or as context for a discovery conversation.

  • 12 questions across the three service areas
  • Scored results with tailored interpretation
  • No data stored — results shown only to you
Start the diagnostic