Guiding the Ship; Becoming a Trustee
What is a trustee?
A trustee is a volunteer who, as part of a team, guides and support a charity or voluntary organisation to make sure it does what it is meant to. Trustees ensure that their organisations meet their legal requirements and deliver on their mission and aims.
If you picture a charity as a sailing ship, trustees set its destination and make sure that it is running well, while the chief executive and senior managers set the course, run the crew, and are responsible for getting to the destination on time and budget.
What does being a trustee involve?
Trustee boards typically meet every two or three months and as a trustee you should attend all the meetings where possible. Each organisation will have different arrangements, so do check how often their board meets, whether it is in the day or the evening (this is common to ensure that members don’t have to take time off work) and so on.
There may be sub-committees of the board that meet in-between the main meetings, and there may be some work associated with this – research, reports or similar projects.
Do I need particular skills or experience?
In general, organisations want a trustee board that brings a range of qualities, knowledge and understanding. This can include particular backgrounds – e.g. management or HR experience – or knowledge/experience that might be useful to the organisation such as having been a service-user, an understanding of the voluntary sector or of the particular area of work the organisation specialises in.
Is anyone barred from being a trustee?
There is a lower age limit – 16 for charitable incorporated organisations or charities who are also companies, and 18 for other forms of charity.
Some people are disqualified from being a trustee under the Charity Act. They include people:
- with an unspent conviction for dishonesty or deception (e.g. fraud)
- who are an undischarged bankrupt
- who have been disqualified from being a company director
- who have been removed as a trustee from another charity by the Charity Commission or a court judgement.
Charities who wish to claim tax relief (e.g. Gift Aid) are required to have ‘fit and proper persons’ in management and trustee positions.
Organisations who work with children or vulnerable adults are likely to carry out criminal record checks on their trustees, and would not accept trustees with convictions that suggested they presented a danger to their service-users.
How do I find out more?
You can download our full Trustee factsheet to give you more information or contact us to discuss in more detail.
I want to become a trustee - how do I do it?
You can search for trustee roles using our website or contact us to find out more about organisations that need trustees.