The holy grail?
Sarah King challenges the view that finding good trustees is difficult – it depends on how you look
KEY POINT
- It is not hard to find good trustees
- It’s like finding a good date
- Be clear about what you are offering
- Be clear about what you need
- Are you an attractive prospect?
- And can you keep them?
“Finding trustees is sooo hard.” The cry was so like that of a plaintive child I thought my four-year-old nephew was in the room. As the chief executive of a volunteering charity that helps find other charities trustees and who has been involved in charity governance for over 15 years, this is a remark I hear a lot. I have also found I hold an unusual point of view. I don’t agree.
Volunteers are out there
First, there are thousands of people out there willing to be trustees or take on equivalent governance roles such as school governors or non executive directorships with other non-profit organisations. I know that because we have available volunteers who have expressed an interest in being a trustee, so do School Governors One Stop Shop.1 The ‘Get on board’ campaign four years ago recruited over 2000 people interested in becoming a trustee, many of whom could not find a role at the time. Many employers want valuable volunteering roles for their staff and see a trusteeship as a great role to balance with work.
The National Union of Students has 1500 students per year who have been trustees of their students unions and received governance training, yet apparently they are not wanted by charities to take on trustee roles after university.
It’s how you sell it
Second, while many people are concerned about the responsibilities of a trustee, and rightly so, it is actually a rewarding and often exciting role. That is often forgotten when boards are looking for new trustees.
As one trustee put it; “If being a trustee is about attending endless committee meetings and wading through formal papers, forget it. But if being a trustee means children in my local community can overcome the effects of bullying then I’m in.”
Barriers
Third, and perhaps most important, the challenge rests most in how we go about finding new trustees and the effort we make to keep them. As existing trustees we often create the barriers to recruiting new trustees ourselves. Some of these include:
- making one person, often the chair, responsible for finding ‘someone’;
- using the same recruitment process we’ve always used, such as asking the people we know or seeking trustees only from those involved in the charity already;
- insisting a new trustee has a deep understanding of the work of the charity;
- limiting selection by saying they have to be ‘from the local community’;
- expecting a big time commitment or thinking that people in full time work won’t give the time;
- thinking younger people in their late teens or twenties wouldn’t know how to be a trustee or have other priorities in life;
- forgetting to talk about what the charity does and how it makes a difference; and
- being unclear about the type of people, skills and experience we need.
Recruitment nirvana
So how do we get round these and into the realms of trustee recruitment nirvana?
Finding trustees does require effort, time and a willingness to be flexible. These are just a few thoughts on practical steps that may help create that breakthrough.
What type of person are you seeking?
Sometimes the answer is a simple as writing down a profile of the type of person who is needed and being able to show this to potential trustees. Skills audits are much talked about but can sound a bit formal or limiting. There are some good resources available but it may be enough to answer a few simple questions. See Figure 1 for examples.Are you interesting and attractive?This may sound more like a dating game but that’s not a bad analogy. A single person hoping to attract the right attention may dress carefully, write a profile for a dating website that shows how lively and interesting they are or make sure a friend knows enough about them to be able to put in a good word.
Making the charity interesting and attractive to people is just as important. Strangely, when putting pen to paper we can lose the spark of the charity. A friend of mine who is a marketing professional used to say; “Go and find the person who inspires people about your product or company and just ask them to tell you about it. Write down what they say and use it.” At Reach we find this works in trustee recruitment as effectively.
Some of the best information packs are just nicely laid out on one page for a website or A4 sheet with two or three interesting photographs that reflect the work of the charity, a quote or two and some simple information. See Figure 2.
Where to look
Getting into the heads and lives of the people who could be the right new trustee will help identify some of the best places to find them. Figure 3 sets out some trustee hunting tips.
Most charities will benefit from using a number of different channels to find trustees.
Here are just a few that have worked for charities I’ve spoken to in the last few months:
- news story about the charity in the local paper including the fact they were seeking trustees;
- advertising in the national press;
- Facebook page and LinkedIn profile;
- Guardian online (www.guardian.co.uk);
- writing to local businesses where people with the skills being sought work;
- using volunteering charities that offer low- cost or free search services like the local volunteer centre, Reach or Arts and Business;
- putting the information pack on your website;
- asking trustees, staff and volunteers to speak to their friends and contacts;
- holding an open day;
- including it in online or print newsletters;
- make an ask fundraising letter as an alternative way of giving;
- getting sister or parent organisations to advertise it to their networks;
- free ads for volunteering roles in the local paper or via a charity job website; and
- search and selection services from commercial recruitment agencies.
YMCA Central Herts has recruited several new trustees over the last two years. Robin Webb, chief executive has been encouraging his board to be open to a range of options: “Some of the methods we’ve used to attract new trustees include advertising in the Evening Standard, our website, the Guardian online, NCVO’s Trusteebank, Reach, letters to local businesses, trustees and senior staff talking to people we know, editorials in the local paper and our local CVS. We also have one trustee who is elected by residents in our hostel so the board keeps close to the people the charity works with.” David Irving, retiring chair agrees. “Over the last five years the board has needed to change and develop as the charity has grown significantly. We’ve needed new skills, different views and a lot of energy. Each time we’ve ended up with good applicants and they have come through a number of different routes”, he said.
Keeping the good ones
I’ve found the three significant factors in keeping trustees involves noticing them between meetings, appreciating their contribution and cake!
Cake might seem a strange one but one of the boards I belonged to didn’t provide tea or coffee let alone think about the fact that I went straight from work to the meeting and didn’t have time to eat. The meetings were scheduled to run from 7.45pm-9.45pm and often finished later. I lasted a year. ‘Hygiene factors’ in paid work are the job factors identified by Frederick Herzberg that can cause dissatisfaction if they are missing.2 If they’re there they don’t necessarily increase motivation but without them huge challenges can emerge.
A similar principle applies to trusteeship. It may not mean you persuade a trustee to stay or make them effective but without them you’ve already lost the battle. So I commend cake!
A common factor in charities where the trustees add a lot of value, turn up to meetings and don’t disappear mid-term is that trustees are regularly re-engaged with the work of the charity, feel appreciated and know that what they contribute is noticed. Figure 4 sets out a few ideas I’ve come across for keeping trustees engaged.
An ongoing journey
I have come to appreciate that the journey starts before a new trustee is even sought and continues right the way through their tenure. That is the difficult bit – it requires continual thought and effort and I know chairs and chief executives who battle to keep it up. I do. It’s worth it though.
If we remember exactly why our charity exists in the first place and make sure we bring it alive for others, finding trustees for our boards can and will be a great deal easier.
2. www.valuebasedmanagement.net/ methods_herzberg_two_factor_theory.html
Author: Sarah King
Sarah King is chief executive of Reach, the skilled volunteering charity and is an experienced trustee and mentor.
She is currently a trustee at YMCA Central Herts Board, a mentor and member of the case committee at Elizabeth Finn Care.
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