Becoming a Trustee...

The voluntary sector across the UK has over 180,000 registered charities and each has their own board of trustees.  Being a trustee means making decisions that will impact on people’s lives.  The decision to become a Trustee of a charity means that you are able to use the skill set that you’ve acquired over your career to assist in the smooth running of an organisation across any number of skilled verticals, including finance/accountancy, marketing, digital, HR, treasury, community engagement, IT/technology and many more.

To be most effective and rewarding, you’ll have a shared passion and values with the charitable cause you’d like to offer your services to. 

At all times the charity’s values or objects will be used as a guide to work together to ensure that all the resources and assets of the charity are used to deliver the vision as set out in the charity’s governing document. 

The key parts to a trustee role include being the ‘critical friend’ to the Executive Team. You'll utilise your expertise to guide and advise, holding a legal responsibility to ensure that the charity is managed effectively and acting as an active ambassador and supporter of the charity. 

A Trustee’s core responsibilities are to: 

1.  Ensure your charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit
2. Comply with your charity’s governing document and the law
3. Act in your charity’s best interests
4. Manage your charity’s resources responsibly 
5.  Act with reasonable care and skill
6.  Ensure your charity is accountable   

You can find out more here: 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/866947/CC3_feb20.pdf 

The benefits…

You have the opportunity to use your skills and experience within the boardroom to help guide a charity in a better direction. It’s ok to share that you may also be looking to pick up additional experience and/or increase your network to help your own professional development. 

We have a lot of questions from people wondering how they can acquire their first commercial non-executive director role and we always say that having experience as a trustee can be incredibly beneficial because it gives you a really great base to start from.