Trustees’ Week – Recruiting trustees to your charity
4th November 2021
Recruitment, selection and induction of trustees is very important in the activities of a charity. It is important that the trustee board of a charity is varied and provides the charity with a mix of skills and experience it needs.
The responsibility for recruitment of new trustees rests with the existing trustee board, who may delegate that responsibility to staff, but they still have overall responsibility and control of the process.
The Charity Commission recommends that trustees go through a 4 step process in recruiting new trustees:
- Identify the need for a new trustee, the skills required and responsibilities the role will cover
- Find potential trustees, shortlisting and interviewing
- Vetting potential trustees, ensure they meet the minimum requirements to be a trustee, consider conflicts of interest, other legal checks
- Making the appointment including induction and information packs
Finding potential trustees can be difficult. The Charity Commission believe the most popular method is personal recommendation and word of mouth. Other charities also use advertising as a way of accessing a wider range of applicants.
The Charity Commission specific guidance can be found here – Finding new trustees – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.
