How to open your board up to more diverse trustees

During Trustee Week a lot of my contacts have been celebrating the amazing work being done by trustees across the sector, but also lamenting the number of charities that have consistent trustee vacancies. 4 out 5 organisations!

This had me thinking about ways we could do more to open up the role of trustee to feel more accessible to people who might feel like they don’t fit the bill. 

An Inclusive Boards report from 2022 found that:

• 29% of charities have all white boards compared
• 51% of charities do not have a woman of the global majority on their board
• Only 16% of trustees are from the global majority.
• Women represent 40% of trustees while making up 90% of the workforce
• And the average age for a trustee in the UK is 60 years-old

So do we have a vacant chair problem or do we have an inclusion problem??

Here is a list of things your organisations can do to build a trustee board that is diverse and brings in a variety of lived experiences. 

If you want to read more about how having a diverse board of trustees can positively impact your organisation read our blog here.

Trainee Trustees

If you are looking to the future of your organisation and building talent consider a trainee trustee programme. Welcome younger or less experienced passionate people onto your board to learn as they go. You can find them a mentor on your board, invite them to board meetings and organisational events. Then once they feel confident, can move into a full trustee position. 

Development opportunities

Trustees are volunteers, and it’s weird we don’t always treat them as such. We never expect a volunteer to come into a role knowing everything. They get induction training, support from a volunteer manager and often get upskilling throughout their volunteer journey. So why don’t we do the same for trustees?

What’s better having a board with empty chairs or having a passionate trustee who can learn along the way?

Meet and mingle events for prospective trustees (virtual too)

Consider hosting a trustee open event or community forum. Invite people to an event promoting the work you do and use it as an advert for trustee positions. You can host Q&As with existing trustees and even host problem solving workshops to ask for attendee inputs on issues.

Reach out to your volunteer and beneficiary alumni

A lot of people who have experience of your charity as volunteers or beneficiaries would be ideal to have a voice on the direction or the organisation, most just wouldn’t have thought that the position is available to them. Make some specific marketing materials showing that their time with the organisation is experience enough.

Partnering with smaller by and for organisations

The charity sector has shifted a lot in the past 6 years, we are far better at sharing resources and seeing each other as partners, not competition. Reach out to other organisations that are tackling the same issues as you. Look to organisations that are supporting minoritised groups within the cause you support and welcome their experts onto your boards.

Recruit an EDIA trustee

You’ve probably got a trustee who specialises in risk, maybe someone with a safeguarding background and I see tonnes of adverts for fundraising trustees. If you want to show your commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility at board level then create a role there that can advise you to do better. Having an EDIA trustee shows that inclusion isn’t just talk but something that you are invested in at all levels.

Try out some of our tips and let us know if this approach to Inclusive Volunteering worked for you!