Every charity is governed by a board of trustees, who are responsible for making sure it’s doing what it was set up to do. Almost anyone can be a trustee, and it can take as little as 30 hours per year.
Charities need trustees with a huge range of skills and experience that the King’s community have in abundance: finance, legal, HR, marketing, PR, technology, digital, fundraising, analysis, to name just a few.
Charity boards are often not representative of their community and service users, for example, in terms of age, gender or ethnicity. It’s important that trustees bring different perspectives and lived experiences to the governance of the organisation.
Serving as a trustee is a great way to channel your passion towards supporting a cause, but it also has real benefits, including
- Gaining skills and experience like decision making, dealing with uncertainty, risk awareness, stakeholder management, negotiation and influencing
- Discovering a different work environment and broadening your understanding of the challenges others face
- Applying research and learning in the real world.
Gov.uk has an overview of trusteeship and links to (often free) resources from the Charity Commission and others.
Women on Boards offer great free resources, run events and also publish vacancy listings.
The National Governance Association has free resources in its knowledge centre available to non-members.
The Charity Governance Code is a practical tool to help charities and their trustees develop high standards of governance.
The Young Trustees Movement runs events and a networking platform with the aim of doubling the number of trustees aged 30 and under by 2024.
Think about the kind of charity you want to join as a trustee – relatively new or well established, what size, what kind of activities it delivers and, of course, what cause it focusses on.
Reach Volunteering, Trustee Finder and Trustees Unlimited are good places to look for trustee vacancies.
Academy Ambassadors is a recruiting body for Education Board opportunities, and Education Board members can obtain fully funded course places from organisations such as Ambition Institute.
Link UP London connects local skilled volunteers with charities, community groups and social enterprises for flexible, short-term, outcome-focused projects. They also recruit trustees to help build the capacity and sustainability of local charitable organisations in Wandsworth and Lambeth.
There are an estimated 90,000 vacancies for charity trustee roles at any one time in England and Wales – but smaller organisations often don’t have the resource to advertise them. So it’s worth approaching a charity that interests you, even if they aren’t advertising a role.
Whether you apply for a vacancy or approach a charity speculatively, you will probably be asked to submit a tailored cover letter and CV. Think about what you can bring in your role as a trustee – not only your professional skills and knowledge, but also your personal experiences and passions.
It’s important to do some research on the charity you’re interested in working with, for example checking that they are incorporated, which means that they exist an independent entity and trustees aren’t personally liable. You can do this by searching for the charity on the Companies House register. You can also look at the charity’s annual report, accounts and existing board members via the Charity Commission website. The NCVO website has a guide to charity governance.
It’s a good idea to get in touch with the charity before applying. You might ask to have a meeting or phone conversation to ask any questions you have, for example about the work of the charity, how they are funded, their expectations of trustees etc.
You might also want to consider becoming a school governor. Through the School Governor Network, King’s offers training and resources to support you, as well as the opportunity to meet and network with other school governors who work at the university.