Being proactive as a trustee

In 20 years as a charity trustee I have seen many of the challenges which can face trustees, both on a personal level and as a trustee group. Whilst being a trustee remains a rewarding experience it is far from an honorific. To get the best out of it for both yourself and the charity there are some important actions to consider from day one.

Being a trustee requires a commitment to the charity’s purpose of course. Never get involved in a charity if you don’t believe in its cause, as the commitments you will need to make will always seem a burden and you will likely fall short.

A key commitment is time

Trustees should understand from the beginning what time commitment is required. I would suggest a new trustee should always have an honest conversation with the chairman before you commit, not only as to how much time will be required (as a minimum) but also how much he or she expects of the trustees.

Then make a personal commitment to making sure you do allocate that time. This means planning your time and realising from the outset that where this commitment conflicts with your private life, the charity should usually come first. Most boards treasure trustee time and use scheduling to make giving time as easy as possible. A key relationship is the charity or board administrators – make friends with them to get a heads up on dates and events.

However, it is not just a few hours at the meetings which require your time. A commitment to being an effective trustee means ensuring you are properly prepared for those meetings. This means reading your papers - not just on the train but in a thoughtful structured way, so you can contribute fully at the meetings.

As a trustee we are there to interrogate fact and establish what is best for our charity. A quote I always remember is that “anecdote is not the plural of data” – i.e. short cuts in analysis are not good enough. We need to make decisions on established and verifiable data not on what we hear from others.

The papers won’t tell the whole story, so take the time to fill in the gaps. Keep abreast of the work of the charity, the causes that it is seeking to address and any political or economic factors. Follow what other similar charities are doing.

Refreshing your expertise

Keep your charity expertise up to date - one way to do this is to sign up to any update services offered by professionals in the sector.

From time to time re-read the Charity Commission guidance for trustees. There are a number of charities whose legal structure also makes them subject to the provisions of the Companies Act. Make sure you know exactly what governs your charity and make yourself familiar with the rules.

I would also recommend attending any training or seminars offered to your charity. However, be conscious of the interests of those hosting such sessions. Whilst much of the content is usually helpful, they are run to showcase and frame a commercial proposition as well. The same is true of the update services, but at least your will see a range of views.

The time management required can be challenging running alongside a busy career. Some employers encourage involvement and are flexible over the time involved but, in many cases, it is left to individuals to manage their time effectively. At times in my career I have worked late in the evening and at weekends and holidays to free up time for trustee meetings.

You have to be brave

Remember why you are there. It can be easy once you get to know your fellow trustees to become comfortable with the board’s procedures and customs. A trustee’s role requires constructive criticism and a constant re-focus on a charity’s aims and objectives.

It is understandable not to raise issues at your first meeting, but it is your responsibility to question and ensure the way the board functions is effective and proper. If there is an issue, it will not help you to say you knew there was one but failed to raise it because you didn’t want to “rock the boat”.

It is always worth familiarising yourself with the model governance codes and asking if your board complies and, if not, why not. In my experience, some boards believe they have special circumstances which makes some provisions inappropriate for them. It is always worth challenging this assumption.

It can be that a stable board could have blindness by familiarity and needs some fresh thinking which might challenge a comfy status quo. The governance codes are there for a reason and whilst not law or hard rules, do generally represent good practice and make trustees effective and professional.

Group actions and issues

As a trustee group you will face challenges but these can be met with appropriate responses.

There will be a lot of experience at the table – perhaps from that charity sector, the business sector or those with well established trustee skills. However, it is important to remember that trustees have a duty to take advice. There may be expertise on the board but it is usually better to use this to question the status quo and any advice given, rather than deliver the primary advice and avoid using third parties.

Third party advice can have many advantages. It is independent, impartial and comes with the latest thinking and expertise in specific areas. As a trustee’s hair gets greyer, he or she should accept that perhaps the detailed technical points aren’t perhaps what they were 20 years ago. Savings made on not paying for advice are seldom real savings. As St Luke puts it in his gospel, “the labourer is worthy of his hire”. And, although not mentioned by St Luke, a third party professional has an errors and omissions insurance policy too.

Given all the day to day activities of charities, it is sometimes difficult to find time for one of the trustees’ more important roles, monitoring and review. This necessarily involves a regular programme of reviewing strategy, policies and progress against specific goals and targets.

A trustee board cannot afford to take a “if it ain’t broke, don‘t fix it” attitude. It is only by exploring other options and providers that trustees can really know if their advisers are doing the best job possible. It is also only by setting reasonable but measurable targets that trustees can be sure of progress.

Monitoring professional advisers

The responsibility to monitor and review also extends to the trustees’ appointment of professional advisers.

However, well they are performing (or how good the relationship) these appointments should be reviewed at least every five years. It doesn’t necessarily follow that such a review will result in a change of adviser. Rather it is important because it both enables the trustees to remind themselves of what alternative providers can offer and confirms that their rationale for the original appointment is still valid.

For the same reason a significant change of personnel or an extended period of underperformance should trigger a similar exercise even if the figures for the longer term remain good. All of this takes time, but it is time well spent by a trustee body. It enables them to demonstrate they have discharged their duty of care.

This is all covered by the Charity Commission guidance CC14 which is there to help trustees discharge their legal duties. Often these things are a matter of simple common sense, but it is always helpful to refer back to the guidance.

Short cuts which might seem sensible may in fact involve regulatory or legal risk. The rules are there to protect trustees, staff and beneficiaries, and whilst compliance is time consuming, it is hardly overwhelming. Many other professions have far stricter regulation.

Charities gain specific privileges by being charities and these rightly require trustees to be worthy of them. It is not enough to simply to do good. Charity trustees need to be models of good governance, good practice and effective management, and focused on their charity’s aims and objectives above all.

What lessons have I learned as a trustee?There are a number of them.

Retaining a sense of purpose

The most important is “to thine own self be true”. A trustee should never forget why they are a trustee and what it means to be a trustee. It is better to be the stone in the trustee board’s shoe than known for your passivity. I like to think of it as being the grit in the oyster.

We become charity trustees to make a difference. Making that difference is important and is only achieved by listening, questioning and learning. If a board won’t let you do that, you should consider resigning. If a board is not open to either constructive questions or change, it is difficult to see how your presence will make a material difference and your time is precious.

To avoid this, try to work out before you start if the group of trustees will have the same approach as you. You might not be able to meet them all but do try to find out as much as you can about them and particularly the chairman. If you get into this position always let your chairman know your concerns when they arise. It might be that others share your view or that your concerns can be addressed.

We become trustees because we have ethics. Whatever the attractions of efficiency and expediency your ethics should be your guide.

Providing independent thought

We become trustees to provide independent thought. What the crowd is doing should be closely analysed but it is not a reason to follow suit.

As trustees, the commitment is not only to the work. It is to question and challenge thinking and ensure the creative dynamic of reasoned argument and debate is channelled into the successful delivery of a charity’s aims and objectives

What a challenge! Guidance is available on a number of issues from governance to policy. It is there for a good reason and it makes sense. You should therefore have a very good reason if your trustee board decides not to follow it. In the same way, if we take advice, we should follow it unless we have very good reasons not to.

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) said: “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” As trustees and as a trustee board our challenge is to try and it is only by doing so that we will achieve our charitable goals and ensure our charities survive so long as they serve a purpose.

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