Charities which have no ability to pay trustees risk lacking diversity on their boards, Alice Maynard, the former chair of Scope, said yesterday.

Speaking in a panel discussion on the diversity of boards at the Charity Chairs Conference held yesterday at the Mansion House, Maynard said that chairing a charity had a significant financial cost, and that charities should have a provision to pay trustees who could not afford to give time freely.

She said she estimates the cost to her consultancy business of her donating two days a week to Scope was around £70,000 a year.

She told delegates that she herself was in a position to take the financial hit, as she has no one dependent on her and almost no mortgage, but said that not everyone is in the same situation.

Maynard said she could not ask the rest of the board to make that same sacrifice. She said: “I can’t look at my colleagues and say ‘you need to do that too’ when I know they have got a mortgage.”

She said many people could not take on the role of a chair of a charity because employers often will not let their staff take off the time they would need to fulfil the role, without taking it as annual leave or unpaid leave.

Maynard also spoke about the recruitment process of the new chair of Scope. She told delegates that they had put in a provision into the process to say that Scope could pay the chair if it was necessary.

Maynard also said chairs do not need to donate their own money to a charity, when they are already donating their time.

She said: “I have not actually ever put my hand in my pocket and taken out a £5 note and given it to Scope in my time as chair. I actually don’t think I should. I give Scope two days a week. I don’t see why I should stick my hand in my pocket.”

In addition to Maynard, the panel consisted of Ian Edwards, the chair of diabetes charity JDRF, and Alex Swallow, the founder of Young Charity Trustees.

Swallow spoke about the need for more young people on trustee boards, but said he had never heard a young person say that they would only consider becoming a trustee if it was a paid role.

He said the main barriers to young people joining trustee boards are that they do not know it is a possibility or they do not believe they have the suitable skills. However, he added that this is not just the case for young people.

The panel said it was vital not to solve the question of diversity with tokenism. Maynard said diversity of “thought and approach” and “identity and courage” are potentially more important than skin colour, gender and disability.

‘The public couldn’t care less about social enterprise’

Speaking at the event on a panel for governance and board effectiveness was Sir Tom Hughes Hallett, the chair of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and the former chief executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

In response to a question on social enterprises, Hughes Hallett said that the public “could not care less about social enterprises”, and said that the majority of them were just part of a fashion that would pass.

He said: “There are people who write in great lengths about social enterprise, social investment and social impact bonds but the public does not care, and nor do I”.

Hughes Hallett is the chair of Cause4, a social enterprise which was launched in May 2009 to support charities, social enterprises and philanthropists in development and fundraising across the charity, arts, sports and educational sectors.