Charities would not exist without trustees. What can we do to improve trustee recruitment?

Charities simply would not exist without their trustees. Yet new research findings published recently suggest that charities are missing out on a huge range of perspectives, skills and experiences. This blog looks at the national and local picture and how we can improve trustee recruitment to ensure our charities are fit to serve and support our communities both now and in the future.

The Charity Commission and Pro Bono Economics have published new findings from a large survey of charity trustees. The findings reveal some insights into the make-up of trustee boards, the motivations and experiences of charity trustees.

In this blog, I want to talk more about the diversity of trustees and the updated guidance the Charity Commission has shared for charities to consider when recruiting trustees. This is one of a series of blog that will focus on charity trusteeship. The next one will look at the motivations and experiences of charity trustees.

What are charity trustees?

Trustees are the people responsible for charities and every one of England and Wales’s 170,000 registered charities and countless unregistered ones have them. They act as stewards ensuring that the charities they govern stay true to their mission, achieve their charitable purposes and support their beneficiaries not only right now, but in the medium and long-term too. Trustees make sure that the charities they look after have the people and resources in place to serve the communities they are set up to support. They are responsible for making sure the charity complies with the law and with its own rules.

It might help to think of charity trustees like school governors. They don’t do the day-to-day teaching that happens in schools, but they offer leadership and challenge to the school and its senior staff so that its pupils and their families have the best educational experience possible.

What the national research suggests

Charities simply would not exist without their trustees; they’re that crucial. The good news is that almost anyone can be a charity trustee. And yet the research reveals that

• more than half of trustees are retired
• only 8% of trustees are 44 and under
• 1% are 30 and under.

In terms of gender, the results suggest a more equitable gender split compared with 2017 when this kind of data was collected last. Now 44% of trustees are female (up from 36% in 2017).

A lower percentage of people from ethnic minority backgrounds are trustees (8%) compared with the make-up of the general population (17%). 83% of the population is white, whereas 92% of trustees are white.

The report goes into far more detail and I’d recommend giving it a read, and it seems to suggest that charities are missing huge swathes of the population (and their enormous range of skills, experience and expertise) when it comes to bringing in potential leaders. The research also hints at the reason for this. Of those surveyed:

• just 6% of trustees applied for their role via an advert
• More than half of charities relied on personal contacts to recruit trustees
• 29% of trustees were asked personally by the chair to become a trustee
• 24% were asked by another trustee to become a trustee

Our experience

From a Dudley CVS perspective, we can relate. In general, we see a shortage of charity trustees across the board. In many cases, charities have the bare minimum number of charity trustees (usually this is three but it’ll depend from charity to charity), but it’s about more than the numbers! Many trustees are trustees of multiple charities, making them very thinly spread. My gut would say that the majority of the charities I work with have trustees that have been on their boards for more than a decade; while this can offer consistency, it can also lead to stagnation, especially in an ever-changing world.

In my experience (and in the experience of others), the majority of trustee recruitment is done by asking people personally. It’s understandable; trustees get a sense of someone’s skills and quickly see how they could add great value to their board. But this can have its drawbacks and make boards less diverse than they can be. Charities risk casting their net too narrowly, in a pool in which people are already in demand or already giving time to other charities. Trustees may only ask people like themselves to become trustees. The risk here is that no-one asks the obvious questions, no-one brings different perspectives, no-one asks more difficult questions. Diverse boards make the best decisions, a principle in the Charity Governance Code.

So what can charities do to tap into this huge pool of potential skills, passion and talent? The updated Charity Commission guidance and the work we’re developing at Dudley CVS on trustee recruitment puts the focus on open recruitment for skills, a practice that should go beyond the horizon of each charity in isolation.

1. Make sure your current trustees are ready for new trustees

Think about how you will welcome, train and induct a new trustee. Make sure current trustees are open to new ideas and input.

I’ve never seen this listed in any guidance and it doesn’t really appear in the Charity Commission guidance either, but I think this will be the difference between successful trustee recruitment and failure. It’s about the mindset of current trustees and their current dynamic.

In my experience, while many charities tell me they ‘need’ new trustees, not all of them are in a position to give a new trustee the best possible start. This may be because trustees are fearful of or reluctant to share decision-making; sometimes the focus is on numbers, rather than skills; sometimes there’s a fear of new trustees ‘rocking the boat’; sometimes the established dynamic can be daunting for a new trustee to navigate. As understandable as these reasons can be, it’s crucial that trustees understand that the charity is not owned by one or two people (or a narrow interest group), but stewarded by a group of individuals who each bring their own experience, skills and backgrounds to the cause. Trustees need to be comfortable that new trustees will have as much voice, agency and responsibility as long-standing ones.

A charity’s long-term survival hinges on a commitment to succession-planning.

2. Check the rules in your charity’s governing document

Your charity’s governing document (known as its constitution, articles or trust deed) may tell you:

• The minimum number of trustees needed, and whether there is a maximum number you must not exceed
• The process to follow for bringing trustees onto the board. This may include one, two or a combination of the following:
  • Election by the charity’s members
  • Appointment by current trustees
  • Nomination by specifically-named organisations
• Any eligibility criteria, such as residing in a particular area
• How many trustees need to be present in meetings for the charity to make valid decisions (this is known as the quorum). It’s wise to have more trustees than your quorum to help manage absences of vacancies.

Your governing document is a legal document, so if you don’t follow its rules, the appointment and decisions that the trustees make could be invalid. For most charities, these rules won’t prevent charities from using an open, advertised recruitment drive.

• We can help you to understand your governing document and to update it if that’s necessary

3. Think about the skills, experience and knowledge your charity needs its trustees to have both now and in the future

This could be related to your current work, the people that your charity supports and your future plans. Once you’ve understood what skills your charity needs, you can begin to understand which of those skills your board currently has. A skills audit is a useful tool for trustees to rate their individual skills and to build a picture of the collective skills on the board, and it’s useful to do this periodically. This will help you to spotlight the skills gaps you have, which in turn will inform how you’ll target and recruit new trustees.

The Charity Commission also urges charities to explore mix of backgrounds and perspectives currently on your board of trustees. This is important because having a diverse range of backgrounds, ages and perspectives can help you to explore issues from a range of viewpoints, avoid ‘groupthink’ and better reflect the community your charity supports and society as a whole.

• We can help with this and have some template skills audits we can share. Getting on Board also has some free resources that may help

Your skills audit and your exploration of the backgrounds and perspectives on your board will help you to develop a portrait of the trustee(s) you’re looking for, as well as your role description and person specification. It will also help you to promote your vacancy in targeted places.

4. Think about the barriers that might put people off becoming a trustee and develop ways to remove or lower them

The things that might make it hard for new people to become charity trustees could include:

• Lack of awareness of the role
• When and where meetings take place
• Nervousness about the role or a belief they don’t have the skills or experience
• Time constraints
• Financial constraints

So think about ways you could make it easier for people. This could include:

• Promoting your trustee opportunity as widely as possible
• Using friendly and accessible language about your charity and the opportunity
• Consider the time of day you hold meetings, whether some of them could be held online
• Having a friendly person to be your point of contact for anyone that might have questions
• Having an informal chat with anyone interested and offering them a chance to come to a couple of trustee meetings, if appropriate
• Only asking for previous trustee experience if you’re sure you need it
• Thinking about how you will welcome and induct your new trustee, such as buddying them up with someone
• Offering out-of-pocket expenses for things like travel and childcare, if appropriate
• Exploring what reasonable adjustments you could make to become more accessible, such as translators or interpreters

5. Develop a trustee role description and person specification

Your portrait of your ideal new trustee(s) will help you to do this. The trick here is to balance information on the role and duties of trustees with information about your charity specifically in language that’s friendly and jargon-free.

• Reach Volunteering provides a template and we can support you with this too

6. Advertise your trustee vacancy

If you’re looking for people with specific skills, think about:

• Where they might work
• What publications / websites they might read
• How you will target them.

Promote your vacancy as widely as possible, not just in your own networks.

Remember that your advert should:

• Inspire people – tell them about your cause and what makes it special. You could include the difference you make to the people you support
• Inform people – tell them about the role and the skills you’re looking for
• Be clear – try not to use jargon; use plain language instead. Be clear that you’re open to all and say if you would like to engage first-time trustees
• We can help you to develop your advert and think about where to promote it. We can also promote opportunities on our platforms and within our networks.

We’re here to help

Dudley CVS is keen to help charities to expand their trustee boards and we can help with every step of the process.

• Join our online session on Recruiting trustees for your charity on Thursday 7^th June, 6pm-8pm for a more in depth look at the strategies you could use
• Get in touch if you’d like us to give your charity one-to-one support through the process
• Let us know if you have vacancies on your board. We’re working with our partners in health, education and the local authority to encourage their staff to consider becoming charity trustees. We’re now hearing from people who want to become charity trustees and we’re starting to connect them with charities whose work resonates with them. If you’d like to become part of this, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.
• Promote your trustee roles through the Dudley Volunteer Centre, hosted by Dudley CVS. Share information about your organisation and your role, and we can share this across our volunteering network.