I've been a trustee of at least one charity, continuously, since I was 22. Across that time I've sat on 11 boards and committees. So I wanted to share a few reflections on what I've learned, and on my personal mantra: trustees are volunteers too.
A charity at the end of my road
Being a trustee of a charity in my own community, with a site quite literally at the end of my road, made its everyday impact so visible. Most weeks I'd see the minibuses from my home-office window, collecting my neighbours and taking them to activities, on trips, and even to the Yorkshire seaside.
Over my five years on the board, volunteering really flourished. With support from The National Lottery Community Fund and a generous legacy from a past volunteer, the charity invested in a brilliant volunteering team and a volunteer management system, and recently achieved local Volunteer Centre accreditation.
It was also an organisation that lived my mantra. The team always worked hard to make sure trustees felt valued for the time and expertise they gave, and part of a wider volunteer community. My final AGM was a joyful afternoon of tea and cake with other volunteers in a packed community centre hall.
How the role has changed
When I started out, being a trustee felt like the perfect micro-volunteering role. I could use my strategic skills for a few hours a month and help make a difference.
That's changed. Greater need and a much harder funding environment have made trustees more important than ever, but they've also made the role more demanding. Most of the trustees I know are now giving far more time, overseeing restructures, redundancies and strategy refreshes, getting more involved in fundraising and, most sadly, overseeing charity closures.
Where are the inductions?
Of the 11 boards and committees I've been part of, none came with a comprehensive, well thought-through induction. That leaves me with a lot of questions:
Isn't that very inaccessible for first-time trustees?
Why aren't we involving volunteer managers, with all their skills, in trustee recruitment and induction?
Are larger charities better at this because they have the resources?
Do we fall into the trap of recruiting senior private sector trustees and assuming they already know charity law and our causes inside out?
Recruiting trustees like volunteers
I first started digging into this in 2020, through a research project with Getting On Board exploring why we recruit trustees so differently from other volunteers. At the time, there were more trustees in the UK called David than trustees who were people of colour. It made me wonder what would happen if leaders of volunteering were more involved in how boards are recruited.
What boards can do
From my own experience, a few things make a real difference to whether trustees feel like part of the volunteer community:
a proper induction, planned with the same care as any other volunteer role
involving your volunteering team in trustee recruitment
being honest about the time the role really takes now
including trustees in volunteer thank-yous, events and Volunteers' Week
To every trustee reading this
I'm having a little break from being a trustee at the moment. It feels odd, and I know it won't be forever. In the meantime I'll keep championing boards that value volunteering, and charities that value trustees as volunteers themselves.
To everyone who gives their time, energy and expertise as a trustee: thank you, and keep going. The sector simply wouldn't work without you.