Experimentation in trusteeship

Written by Laura Lowther, Vision for Volunteering Lead

To mark Small Charity Week, we got together with the good people at Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland and Getting On Board to shine a light on the theme of experimentation, through the lens of Trusteeship. Trustees have such a unique role – as volunteers and as leaders who can influence the involvement and experience of others through volunteering.  

We define experimentation in this context as “A future where people aren’t afraid to try new things to develop their own, innovative solutions to engaging and supporting volunteers.” If experimentation is embedded well, we might expect to hear the following statements or similar, from volunteers (in this case, Trustees!) or volunteer-involving environments:

“If I give feedback or share ideas, I know I will be listened to.”

 “We’re focused on learning and improving, not on doing things the way we always have.”

“I’m confident and able to try new things. We’re not afraid of things going wrong.”

We heard from Penny Wilson (CEO, Getting On Board) who shared what, in her view, needed fixing about Trusteeship:

  1. Small boards with one or two people carrying most of the workload

  2. Making decisions without the full picture

  3. Boards which don’t debate problems/new ideas

  4. Trustees focusing on the wrong things

  5. Uninformed trustees

  6. Lack of engagement by trustees & trustees who speak too much

We heard from Jumara Stone about her experiences of being both a trustee for a small charity (Norwich Pride) and a chief executive for UEA Students Union. She shared her story of making significant change – the pros, the cons and everything in between (and the value of bringing people with you along the way).  

Next up was Shaminder Rai, Vice Chair at Nishkam Civic Association. Sham spoke about taking small experimental steps to tackle low engagement with trustees and the benefits of doing so, bringing it back to people’s motivation for involvement. He also posed the question: How do you measure goodness? 

Cate Hemingway from Gloucester VCS Alliance had us all gripped with their experimentation with Artificial Intelligence. She shared details about how her organisation had used AI tools to generate photos, take minutes for meetings, and produce prompts for new ideas within the charity. The main takeaway is: give it a go! Embrace experimenting to make practical efficiencies but keep the human stuff human.

We rounded off the session with Penny revealing her top tips for Trustees (and crowdsourcing a few more) – small, experimental ideas to shake things up and make an impact on board experience, inclusion, cohesion and effectiveness.  

  • Recruit trustees through an open, professional recruitment process 

  • Analyse your board composition - what's missing for you to be able to deliver your strategy? 

  • Induct well and set expectations clearly 

  • Offer to pay out of pocket expenses as standard, e.g. travel expenses to meetings 

  • Expect trustees to keep learning, including through formal training 

  • Ask trustees to upskill each other, e.g. in finance, DEI 

  • Provide refreshments at meetings 

  • Agree a code of conduct for trustees 

  • Put the most important decisions at the top of the agenda

  • Take papers as read 

  • Send the papers a week in advance 

  • Be imaginative about “updates”, e.g. video updates 

  • Use AI to write minutes. 

  • Set meetings a long time in advance – and make sure times/dates suit (vary if no one time suits everyone) 

  • Vary the meeting location (great example of a funder using grantee locations) 

  • Have a good chair (easier said than done!) 

  • Consider having co-chairs 

  • Welcome and expect debate 

  • Keep strict trustee terms 

  • Keep trustees excited, e.g. service visits/involvement 

  • Thank trustees 

Host Colette Harrison (Development Officer at Community Foundation) said:

“We were delighted to host this event to celebrate Small Charity Week. When boards continue to operate in the same way, they will always achieve the same results. Sometimes a few small changes can reenergise conversation and the effectiveness of decision-making. Our speakers brough this to life brilliantly and hopefully inspired fresh thinking and action.” 

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