Shelter hires voluntary sector membership organisation boss as new chief executive

Shelter has appointed the chief executive of a membership organisation for the voluntary sector as its new chief executive.

Sarah Elliott will join the housing and homelessness charity in September 2025 after five years at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), four of them as chief executive.

Elliott led policy and public affairs work at NCVO, England’s largest membership organisation for the voluntary sector, during the COVID pandemic, which helped secure more than £950 million for the voluntary sector.

She has more than 15 years of senior leadership experience in the non-profit sector, including as chief executive of The Neurological Alliance and Director of Strategy and External Affairs at the Epilepsy Society, and has served on the board at Trussell.

Prior to that, Elliott worked in local government and for the Mayor of London. 

She succeeds Tim Gutteridge, who has been interim CEO of Shelter since Polly Neate’s departure in March 2025.

Neate cited personal reasons for deciding to leave after seven years in the role, including a desire to pursue new challenges.

Helen MacNamara, chair of trustees at Shelter, said: “After a highly competitive recruitment process, I am delighted that Sarah will be joining us to lead Shelter’s fight for home.”

Elliott herself said: “Fighting social injustice has been my driving force throughout my two-decade career in the charity sector. 

“It is crucial that we tackle the root causes head on - we need political will and system-wide change to fix the broken housing system”.