In Scotland, 82% of charities have frozen or reduced staff salaries over the past year, according to the findings of our Scottish Charity Workforce Survey, published last week.

And it's not just happening north of the border. In the 2013 Managing in a Downturn survey report from PwC, Charity Finance Group and the Institute of Fundraising, half of UK charity respondents said that they had taken steps to reduce wage and salary costs during the year.

Bearing in mind the troubled economy and rising cost of living, this is not that surprising and the truth of the matter is that things could be a great deal worse.

Although charities are cutting back on salaries, most are maintaining staff numbers and many are growing their employee base, particularly in fundraising. In fact, more than a third of Scottish charities have increased their staff resource in fundraising in 2012.

They know that an investment in fundraising is vital and this in itself is significant, but I would argue that more still needs to be done to develop the skills of the nation's fundraisers and ensure that the marketplace does not stagnate.

Currently, fundraising and marketing roles have the highest turnover of all charity staff, with management and service delivery at the opposite end of the scale. And yet, charities find fundraising roles the hardest to recruit for. This shouldn't be the case - fundraising is often the most exciting, innovative and varied job around.

Charities should be scooping up more top graduates from Universities and attracting professionals with transferrable skills from other sectors, but this isn't happening enough at the moment. Charities are brilliant at marketing their cause, but some of that energy and passion needs to be put into marketing the organisation itself and the critical role of fundraising to potential applicants within and beyond the sector.

Salaries are often cited as a problem both in recruiting staff and retaining them. Good fundraisers do what they do with an undeniable passion for the cause and commitment to the role. Money is rarely their key motivator. But, if the sector is to continue to nurture high calibre fundraisers, to attract quality entrants to the sector and to breed a sense of pride in the profession, charities must reward and encourage strong performance where possible.

Charities need to get better at motivating, retaining and developing the fundraisers they currently have, rewarding those that do it well and nurturing their talent. Greater investment in fundraising training is needed to develop staff, boost retention and address the sector-wide issue of a skills shortage in senior level fundraisers.

From training like the IoF's Certificate in Fundraising Management and events to mentoring schemes, professional development is widely varied. It does not have to be expensive, but it has huge potential to bring the charity new skills, new thinking and to empower and inspire staff. And there are few things more valuable to an charity than a passionate, committed and inspired fundraising team!

Of course, charities can't do it all; pay rises, upping the training budget and programmes to address retention They must strive to be an efficient, streamlined organisation, but - particularly now - when funds are so hard to come by, charities must be wary of cutting back on pay, rewards, progression or professional development opportunities for fundraisers for fear of devaluing the profession and turning away the fundraising talent of the future.