Trustees Unlimited has launched a new trustee recruitment service costing a one-off fee of £750 for small charities.

The new service will be available to civil society organisations with a turnover of less than £500,000 and include a briefing conversation with the selection committee of the recruiting organisation to ensure clarity on the type of trustee required and a search of suitable candidates from the Trustees Unlimited database of around one thousand people.

Ben Kernighan, deputy chief executive, NCVO said, “Leadership is a crucial area that all charities, regardless of their size, must get right if they want to ensure their long-term success so finding and recruiting the right trustees is a hugely important task. Trustees Unlimited has already successfully placed trustees in larger organisations and I’m delighted we are expanding the service so smaller charities can access high calibre candidates at affordable prices.”

Trustees Unlimited is a joint venture trustee recruitment company from  NCVO, Bates Wells & Braithwaite and Russam GMS, set up in November 2009 to help not for profit organisations solve the difficult challenge of trustee recruitment and recruit talented and professional trustees more easily.

Research from NCVO highlighted that 43% of boards find it more difficult to recruit trustees today than five years ago; 81% of charities rely on word of mouth recommendations to recruit trustees which can limit the talent pool, and 76% of trustees are over 45 years old which means that charities need to think about succession planning to replace them when they retire.