Image 2023 08 08 T03 44 42

It's the 2022 Charity Softball Finals!

Search by
Search by blog tags

If you’ve sensed something missing from the last two summers – besides a social life, holidays, hope – it might be the absence of softball updates here on the Harris Hill Blog. It might also not be, perhaps the more likely scenario, but it's too hot to start splitting hairs.

Either way, there's good news: while Covid did stop play in 2020, by the following year it was clear that even a major global pandemic would ultimately prove no match for the mighty London Charity Softball League!

So after a slightly scaled-down season last summer, the league's been back in full swing for 2022, bringing London’s green spaces alive with the sound of respectable charity professionals thwacking balls around with enormous enthusiasm. And bats.

They’ve valiantly played on through the summer’s sweltering heatwaves, whittling nearly 60 teams (representing well over 80 charities) down to just six, who’ll battle it out this very Thursday in Hyde Park for the Bluestep Cup, the Shield, and the much-coveted Harris Hill Plate! Which I should clarify is an actual trophy, not a leftover from our recent office move*.

*That said, anyone with the space and an interest in winning the prestigious Harris Hill Lever Arch Files or the Harris Hill Mismatched Tupperware Items Of Unknown Origin is warmly invited to get in touch.

So who's made it all the way?

Readers - if that’s not an over-optimistic use of the plural - behold the 2022 finalists!

The Cup

Mind vs the Mighty CRUKs

The Plate

RNLI vs Independent Rage

The Shield

Wellcome Funderbolts vs Versus Arthritis

Three teams are making their first finals appearance, namely Versus Arthritis, Wellcome Trustand Independent (R)age, who’ll be playing 2018 Shield-winners RNLI for the literally unimaginable glory of hoisting the Harris Hill Plate.

All eyes will then be on the big cup final, between two teams who’ve certainly played this game before. Exactly this game, in fact, against each other in last year’s final, when 2019 cup-winners Mind were denied the double by the Mighty CRUKs of Cancer Research UK, chalking up their fifth league victory of the last fifteen years.

As for us, with temperatures set to sizzle it's just as well we're sticking with Harris Hill tradition and supplying the liquid refreshments, while there'll be plenty of support from our fellow sponsors too.

So it just remains to wish the very best of luck to all the finalists, may the best team/s win, and whether you're playing or just sipping a (possibly) cold beer on the sidelines: have a fantastic time at the finals!

Team HH x

  • Image 2022 11 26 T23 39 23

    Opportunity for all

    Find out how we’re working to deliver more diverse, equitable and inclusive recruitment…

    Find out more

  • Image 2022 11 26 T23 39 23

    Recruiting a charity CEO?

    Our executive recruitment specialists have an exceptional record of successful CEO, chair, trustee and…

    Find out more

  • The Harris Hill Salary Survey 2024

    Charity sector salaries

    Our 2025 Salary Survey has the latest rates and expert insight for roles throughout the sector.

    Find out more

News and insights

For more careers and recruitment advice: Read the Harris Hill Blog
Blogthumb Temps Min

2025 Salary Survey: temps market trends

​Tough economic times have certainly had an impact on the number of permanent hires that charities have been able to make this year, but what about temporary and interim positions?Here's what our Temps specialists had to say about the trends they're seeing in the market, in our 2025 Salary Survey.​​It says everything about the current market that this is the only one of our specialist areas to ...

Read more
Blogthumb Finance

2025 Salary Survey: finance market trends

Say you work in finance and many will imagine a world of six-figure salaries, baffling spreadsheets, detached houses in the Home Counties and a statistically inexplicable number of people called Steve. Working in charity finance however, is – baffling spreadsheets aside – a rather different story, but with their finger on the pulse and their ear to the ground at all times (we should really get ...

Read more
Business Services Blogthumb Min

2025 Salary Survey: business services market trends

The roles we group under ‘Business Services’ aren’t about raising funds or raising profile, but about delivering an organisation’s work – including operational staff at all levels, project managers, programme leaders and all the admin, data and support staff in less visible roles that are nonetheless essential to getting things done. So what’s happening in the recruitment market for those work...

Read more
Blogthumb3 Min

Charity salaries: the ten-year trends

How have charity salaries progressed in the last 10 years? Who's seen the highest and lowest increases? And how has the sector fared against others and the cost of living? Our 2025 Salary Survey gives us a tenth year of directly comparable data, so this time, along with the latest rates for third sector jobs, we look at the longer-term changes too, travelling back to 2015 to compare rates of pa...

Read more
Blogthumb Marketing

2025 Salary Survey: marketing, PR and digital trends

As a charity professional, your experience of working and job-seeking in the sector will very much depend on the type of work you do, which is why our 2025 Salary Survey looks at the trends and challenges for each specialist area in turn. You can find the figures for all departments in the full survey here, but in the meantime, here’s what we’re currently seeing in the market for those in marke...

Read more
Blogthumb Fundraising

2025 Salary Survey: fundraising market trends

Driven by high demand and short supply, fundraisers' salaries have been rising in recent years, but how have things changed in the last 12 months? What kind of roles are organisations offering and which are the most challenging to fill? Here's what our fundraising specialists had to say in our 2025 Salary Survey (available here).​​It’s not the way we might want it to happen, but a combination o...

Read more
Blogthumb1

2025 Salary Survey: market overview

​The 2025 Harris Hill Salary Survey is out now (get your copy here), reporting on charity and not-for-profit sector salaries over the last 12 months, with the latest rates and expert insight for each of our specialist areas. This year we're also looking at how pay in the sector has evolved over the last 10 years, but first, here's what we had to say about the charity recruitment market in 2025....

Read more
Blogthumb1a

Has remote working replaced human connection?

​The way we communicate at work has changed dramatically over the past few years. With an array of digital tools and social platforms at our fingertips, we're communicating and meeting more frequently and efficiently than ever. But is digital evolution at the cost of meaningful connection?If we rely too much on Teams and not enough on being a team, what do we leave behind? Freelance writer Nico...

Read more