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Time to Celebrate Trustees

Time to celebrate trustees... Trustees' Week

It's Trustees' Week, and as a long-serving trustee myself, I'd like to focus on celebrating the enormous skill, lived experience, energy, passion, and time that trustees of charities give for the benefit of their communities and causes.

In my 20+ years working in the sector, I've met barely any individual trustees who didn't approach their trusteeship responsibilities with absolute passion, rigour, integrity, and honesty.

Trustees bring a wide range of attributes to the role. Some bring deep professional skill and expertise, while others keep boards and executives grounded in lived experience, maintaining a strong focus on outcomes for beneficiaries. Some bring insight, connections, and partnerships that enrich strategic thinking. Many are great advocates for their causes.

Of course, trustees are not perfect. Like everyone else, they make mistakes. Sometimes they can get stuck on personal preferences, or fail to challenge executive views rigorously enough. And some may struggle to understand the parameters of their role, straying into operational territory that belongs to managers.

But overall, the almost 1 million trustees in the UK make an immeasurably important contribution to civil society. They drive strategy and ensure that charities remain accountable and trusted.

One of the most important roles that trustees play is bringing lived experience into the heart of strategic decision-making. It would be so easy for charity executives to assume they know what is best without hearing from those affected by their work. I'd love to see more trustees championing more co-production with beneficiaries and supporters in all levels of charity decision-making.

Charities are often communities of people aligned to a cause. Trustees often play a great role as leaders of those communities.

Trusteeship is also a skill that benefits from training. NCVO and others provide excellent onboarding training for trustees, which I'd recommend all new trustees attend. Additionally, I'd recommend the development of a programme of collective ongoing development for boards, to help them continually improve their effectiveness. Please contact me to discuss Board Development Days.

Make sure you take the opportunituy this week to thank yoiur Trustees for the volunteering they do to drive our charities' success.

Chris Wade, 6th November 2023