Recently, the Charity Commission published findings from its 2023 research into public trust in charities and trustees' experience of their role. While trustee confidence and public trust in charities remain high, simple changes to trustee recruitment and induction processes could improve governance.
The quality of board recruitment and induction processes depends on size
In our recent guide ‘Dispelling common myths about charities’, we encouraged charities to adopt strong procedures to recruit, induct and train trustees and to foster a culture of inclusion, attracting new recruits with additional perspectives, insights and skills to the board.
The Charity Commission’s report, however, shows that only 53% of charities reflect on the existing board’s gaps in skills, backgrounds and experience when they recruit new trustees. The larger the charity, the more likely it is to conduct such a review, with 84% of large charities (income above £500k) identifying required skills to help recruitment.
Charities still predominantly rely on existing networks of members, supporters or the existing trustees’ friends and family to find new trustees. Less than a quarter of smaller charities (income below £500k) find new trustees by advertising vacancies on their website and social media or advertising trustee roles to the wider community. Larger charities are also more likely to recruit new trustees from their own service users and benefit from their insights and experiences of the charity’s programmes.
During board recruitment, many charities could also improve their processes to help applicants understand the role and responsibilities better and to ensure that charities find out enough about the applicant to assess their potential contribution to the board:
- Only 15% of charities invite written applications from prospective trustees and only 32% of charities interview prospective trustees
- Less than half of charities give prospective trustees the opportunity to ask questions before the application deadline or invite them to shadow a board meeting
- Only around half of charities provide information about the legal responsibilities of trustees or share important information such as the charity’s governing document and accounts
- Less than 1 in 10 charities offers a shadowing or mentoring programme to new trustees
Unsurprisingly, larger charities tend to have more formal recruitment and induction processes, but smaller charities can implement many of these cost-free. While cost may be a factor in larger charities offering better access to training for new trustees (only offered by 22% of surveyed charities), small charities can take advantage of free training, such as ICAEW’s free Trustee Training Modules to help new board recruits understand their role and responsibilities from the get-go.
Public trust in charities remains high, particularly for local, volunteer-run charities
Public trust in charities remains stable and significantly higher than public trust in private companies, banks, politicians or the ordinary person in the street. Only doctors consistently attract higher levels of trust than charities.
The survey found that the public, particularly the less well-off part of the population, is more inclined to trust smaller, local, volunteer-run charities because they can see the link between donations and impact more clearly than if they gave to larger, international, and professionalised charities. That’s because the pandemic and current economic challenges have made the work of local charities more important and visible to the public, especially to those who received their support.
Small charities without employees cannot rely on the public’s trust, even if their work may have bolstered some people’s existing belief in the value and impact that charities can bring. The public still expect charities to manage their funds with caution and want to see the impact of the charity’s spending. For many frontline charities, their work has become more visible during the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, which presents an opportunity for charities, their supporters and public servants to raise the sector’s profile. This may also attract new interest in the sector and charities of all sizes can take advantage of this by casting their net for trustee recruitment wider and helping first-time trustees gain confidence with a helpful induction programme.
Less than half of the public are aware of the Charity Commission
Less than half of the people surveyed had heard of the Charity Commission and researchers found that that the public continue to have little real knowledge or understanding of the Charity Commission. Those who are aware of the regulator, think that the Commission’s focus should be split between giving support to charities and dealing with wrongdoing in the sector. They also hope that tolerance is shown when dealing with honest mistakes, particularly with smaller, volunteer-run charities.
The survey shows that the Charity Commission’s purpose of ensuring that charity can thrive and inspire trust may require more awareness of the regulator’s work among the public.
Our guide ‘Dispelling common myths about charities’ aims to tackle some of the common misconceptions about how charities are run and offers tips to help build confidence in the sector, explaining why investment in a charity’s infrastructure and a professional approach can create greater impact in the long term. It also contains recommendations for trustee recruitment by busting the myth that people need to have professional qualifications to become a charity trustee.