Charities Struggling with Incomplete Trustee Boards

Recent research from the eighth quarterly VCSE Sector Barometer from Pro Bono Economics has found that only 37% of charities have what they consider to be a complete board of trustees. This means that 63% of charities have an incomplete board of trustees at the time of writing.

In this article, we are going to highlight some of the issues that incomplete trustee boards can cause such as:

• Risk of burnout
• Lack of representation
• Insufficient blend of skills at trustee level

Risk of burnout among trustees

Charities are now becoming more reliant on smaller teams which increases the risk of burnout for trustees due to excessive and / or burdensome time expectations. This is becoming a concern for charities as almost 10% of smaller charities fear that their board of trustees may become depleted due to burnout and increased workloads. Trustees should be wary of becoming too involved or ‘close’ to every day operational matters. This may present a real and long-term threat to the future of many small charities.

Charity board of trustees are underrepresented

Not only are many charity board of trustees incomplete but they are lacking representation of young people, ethnic minorities, and disabilities among their trustees. The lack of individual representation does not only create a skills gap but can also limit charities’ ability to understand and meet the needs of those that they support.

Charities concerned they don’t have the right blend of skills

Less than 60% of smaller charities believe that they have the right blend of skills among their board of trustees. Whilst smaller charities are confident that their board have the skills to carry out traditional tasks such as financial management and budgeting, many believe that they do not have the right blend of skills in other areas such as HR, IT and Marketing. Therefore, it is very important for charities to try and have a balanced blend of skills at trustee level.

How can small charities find trustees?

If you are struggling to find the appropriate trustees to fill your vacancies you may want to consider the following if you have not already:

• Recruit a trustee from within your charity: If you have a volunteer within your charity who possesses the correct attributes and skills you may want to consider them as a potential trustee.
• Use a trustee brokerage service such as Trustees Unlimited
• Consider recruiting from users or beneficiaries: When recruiting from a user or beneficiary there are legal requirements to consider and they will be known as user trustees. However, user trustees can help improve the management and service delivery of the charity.

How can we help?

At Hawsons our accountants recognise that not-for-profit organisations have very different requirements from other businesses and are currently exposed to a challenging economic climate.

Our dedicated team of charity accountants fully understands the complex, ever-changing regulatory requirements of the charity and not-for-profit sector. Irrespective of your size we wish to support you to maximise the benefits you could achieve through our specialist professional advice.

Charities & not-for-profit organisations are currently facing extensive changes in their regulatory and legal framework. Given the additional pressures on fundraising, complex tax regimes, internal risk exposure, and stakeholder demands, it has never been more important to obtain specialist professional advice.