Last week we were delighted to welcome chairs, trustees, and governance enthusiasts to our event on making charity boards better.
Generously hosted by CCLA Investment Management, we had an evening of lively and insightful discussions, with a panel of speakers, chaired by our CEO Liz Lowther:
- Malcolm John – AoC trustee, and founder of Board Racial Diversity UK
- Penny Wilson – Inclusive governance consultant
- Holly Riley – Head of Strategic Policy, Charity Commission
- And joined by our chair, Joe Saxton, who talked about the results of our consultation earlier in 2025.
Here are some of the thoughts shared by the panel about how we can improve charity boards.
What’s the single most important thing we can do to improve charity boards?
Penny – Recruit openly! Recent research by the Charity Commission and Pro Bono Economics showed only 6% of trustees responded to an advert. We have won the argument for open staff recruitment – this needs to become the standard for trustees as well.
Malcom – Inclusiveness is key. Use the skills of all trustees on board – that means co-chairing and collective leadership where the really tough, challenging chair role can be shared.
Holly – Take time to reflect on what your charity needs. Have you assessed what skills your board has and what your strategy is? Often you will get better results if you stop and reflect.
What can we do to ensure more diverse boards?
Malcolm – We’ve got to get people to reach out more widely and see the untapped talent that exists. Think about who is missing on your board and who is your board missing. Term limits are important – you can’t get new ways of thinking with the same set of people on board for years.
Penny – Recruit openly, no exceptions ever. We have all got a role in promoting trusteeship by going out there and telling people that we’re trustees and have they thought about it.
Holly – Talking about diversity in the broadest sense, not just protected characteristics. We also need to look at skills and backgrounds. Legal skills are most often missing. How can we target those professions?
Holly spoke about paid time off for employees and how large firms can surely spare their staff for a few days a month to be trustees – and the skills which they can gain will make them better employees too.
Learning and development for trustees – why is it so often overlooked and what can we do about it?
Penny – Here is the typical journey of a trustee – asked to join a board with no process and no conversation about development. Given little to no induction. No expectations set about learning and development. No development is offered except on the job learning and then there’s no regular conversation about development gaps.
Trustee training out there is limited, it’s usually aimed at larger organisations, it’s dry, it’s narrow, (it almost never focuses on behaviours), it’s expensive. There’s almost no funding available for trustee support. I wish the AoC all the luck in expanding your training programme because it’s completely critical.
Holly – We do annual research each year about trustee confidence, there is a vast amount of overconfidence among trustees. So people aren’t seeking learning and development because they feel like they are doing a great job – and most of the time they are but you can always learn more.
We have a huge amount of guidance out there for trustees, but only 40% of trustees access our guidance and that’s not high enough for a free resource.
Trustee and board behaviours
Malcolm – Chairs have such a key role to play in setting culture. It’s tough to find that all singing, all dancing chair. Apart from AoC they are not given any training for their role. If we’re looking for younger, more diverse chairs, they will be time poor. So for me, the chair role is really important in this.
Malcolm raised the issue that the traditional model of charity governance simply doesn’t work for some people – “If you’ve got someone who is on benefits, a carer, or hasn’t got much time, I don’t think you should force them in a room with 10 people largely of the same background speaking a language they don’t understand. Perhaps it’s about looking at how they can contribute in a meaningful way to the outcomes of your organisation. It’s about asking them about how they can do that and changing the organisation in a way that brings them in.”
Penny – The key part in this is working out why you want to diversify your board. How does it relate to your mission and what your charity is trying to do? Many inclusive behaviours are just good governance, not talking across people, respecting people, wanting to debate, coming into the room curious, and wanting new perspectives.
Moving forwards
We want to thank the panel, and all who attended and shared their thoughts in the discussion and in the conversations that followed during our time of networking. There were lots of useful insights and ideas about how we can make charity boards better, more inclusive, more effective, and more diverse.
In an interactive poll with attendees, we asked what their main takeaway was from the night’s discussions. Here are some of the responses:
- “Always having time on the agenda for learning and development.”
- “Only 6% recruited through adverts, we have a long way to go!”
- “[Board] behaviours clearly an issue and need more air time.”
- “I’m keen to explore collective leadership models in more depth. I can see the pros and cons and would love to learn more.”
- “Have more honest conversations on the board about behaviours, development, and contributions.”
If you would like to find out about the work Association of Chairs is doing as a result of the consultation and drawing upon the discussion themes of this event, then visit our better boards webpage.
If you are interested in becoming a member with us, and attending events like this, and training and webinars about good governance throughout the year, then find out more about becoming part of our community of chairs and trustees.
