To become a trustee?

[Cookiecrumblepie]

I want to help out and it’s for an organisation whose goals I am passionate about, but I’m a bit concerned it will take up a lot more time than they are saying. Has anyone had experience with being a trustee? Was it rewarding?

I think it depends very much on the organisation and the other trustees; if it is a collaborative board it can be manageable or a huge amount of work. Or, if someone likes to be in control and do everything, you may just be there to rubber stamp their decisions. Either way, as a trustee you would be equally responsible for how the charity served its community.

www.gov.uk/guidance/charity-trustee-whats-involved

Do they want you for specific skills? Because if you are an accountant and they need help with their end of year reports and so on, then yes, it might take up time. But if it is just a general post, then perhaps not.

Our trustees meet bi monthly and each has an area of responsibility eg finance, safe guarding, health & safety that takes up a few hours in the other month. They all feed back to the trustees meeting so all are informed and decisions are made there. Apart from the Chair it's mostly contained to an hour a week. All are expected to be 'ambassadors' but not all at every event.

@Cookiecrumblepie is it a very large UK wide Charity?
or small local one?

I am a trustee. We are an activist board with a sub group of trustees who act as an executive. We are currently undertaking a large project so our workload has increased but people are under no pressure or obligation to put in more time than they have available. We have several trustees who have no involvement between board meetings and others who take part in meetings and tasks weekly.

I'm a trustee and can spend anything from one to three hours a week in total.

I manage the online banking, prepare monthly cashflow reports, pay the wages and other bills and do a fair amount of bid writing for funding. Occasionally I'll pop into the charity on the 'shop-floor' to show my face etc such as once a fortnight. I also manage the social media.

We have four trustees including the chair and myself and to be honest I feel like two do nothing at all so I guess you can be involved as you want to be or spare the time.

It is rewarding at times but I find it very demanding at times too.

I’ve been a trustee, I would suggest you investigate what you would be financially liable for if it all went pear shaped.

Checkout the charity’s memorandum and articles of association (if in England) to see what they say about the responsibilities of Trustees in that charity, and also look at charity commission info re Trustees. Is the charity also a registered company? If so often trustees are registered as company directors. If so ensure you also understand the role of company director. Ensure that the charity has insurance that protects you as a trustee/company director. Ensure you understand the finances. It’s extremely rewarding and great experience but shouldn’t be entered into without understanding the role, your legal responsibilities and the organisation

It can vary massively.

I am a trustee for a newly independent charity, so it is taking a fair amount of time right now, as we get everything set up - new bank account, new website, new policies etc. But once we have done all that, I don’t anticipate this will be particularly onerous. We have a paid administrator and a committee who do a lot of the day to day work.

I work part-time for a small charity. I would estimate the trustees spend between 1-3 hours per week on charity-related duties (at least that's what we put in the recruitment advert), although this will vary depending on how much is going on - sometimes they might be involved in a getting a specific project going, and at other times things are much quieter. It also varies a lot between trustees. A couple of them hardly do anything other than attend a couple of meetings a year (to be fair, one of them is 86) and rarely reply to any emails. On the other hand, the Chairman is very involved and spends several hours a week on running and overseeing the charity alongside a full-time job.

Some trustees had to take a step back due to issues such as relatives being ill, but will respond to emails and queries when necessary. Ultimately, if we had more trustees, they could spread the workload more and there would be less pressure on each person.

All organisations will be completely different as to how much work and responsibility is undertaken by their trustees. I'm a trustee for my DC's school PTA charity and honestly it's not much work, a monthly meeting and a few hours here and there outside of the meetings. My DP is a trustee for a local charity and he gives much more time than I do due to the nature of the charity's work. Look into it properly and speak to the other trustees to find out if it's right for you.

@Daydre4mer its a large charity.

Thanks for all the advice, I’m going to look into it more. If it a weekly commitment it might be too much for me

Large charities tend to have a clearer division between staff and trustees than smaller ones. For example pp mentioned getting involved in day to day finance work which would be unlikely in a larger charity as they would have dedicated finance staff. I have done both and prefer that clearer split where I’m clearly in an advisory/ governance role as opposed to a hands on role. I found that a bit confusing as I was basically overseeing my own work. Even then though it’s important to understand why they’re bringing you on board- some of our trustees are very strong on the fundraising and networking side while others, like me, are there for our expertise on the programme side of things. You don’t want to get involved and then find out that their expectations aren’t realistic- I always make it clear that I’m no good at hand wringing/ fundraising.