A combination of financial costs, a daunting demographic of charity peers and an inward-looking recruitment system are preventing young people from becoming trustees, according to prolific young trustee Leon Ward.

Ward was speaking yesterday at the first session of a Parliamentary inquiry into growing charitable giving, chaired by MP David Blunkett.

Currently studying law at the University of Westminster, Ward is a trustee of Plan UK and Interact Worldwide and a previous trustee of Leap Confronting Conflict. He has also been a telephone fundraiser, participated in the Department for International Development’s youth working group and on the youth advisory panel at Plan UK, as well as being an ambassador for Young Charity Trustees.

Sector is often exclusive

Ward said that despite the charity sector priding itself on its inclusivity, it is “often very exclusive”:

“It’s very difficult to get your foot in the door,” he said. “The standard of entry-level jobs is actually very high: most organisations don’t have graduate access schemes, and most don’t have jobs that are available without degrees.

"We have to think about the wider scale. Trusteeship is an access into the sector that lots of young people haven’t thought about, and the flip side is also true - lots of organisations haven’t thought about having young people as trustees.”

Ward explained that this exclusivity extends into the recruitment process, pointing to a limited use of signposting opportunities for young people:

“Access to trustee roles is very limited because they are often advertised by specialist websites and organisations. And they’re called specialist because they’re exactly that - it’s only when you are in the sector that you know of them. I think charities need to become a bit more intelligent and versatile in the way that they advertise for trustees,” he said.

Young people 'don't want avocado salads'

Even when young people are made aware of roles, however, Ward advises there are many elitist elements to the sector that are off-putting to prospective trustees:

“There are certain other challenges for young people as well. It can be very daunting when you’re 18 or 19 as a new student at university and your chair has a grand old title - the right honourable Dame or whatever, which is my chair. We also have several Sirs, one of the royal family is one of our patrons, so that can be quite daunting when you’ve literally just finished your A-levels.

“Also something that is daunting is the type of food that is put on at an event. Lots of young people just want their plain sandwiches, they don’t want the avocado salads that are on offer,” he said.

Ward also advised of further significant barriers to young people once they have entered the sector. Young trustees, he said, are currently such a rarity that they are often "roped into" speaking at events, taking a great deal of time and preventing young people from working. The financial burden can be a preventative influence on trusteeship, he warned.

Expense of events

Further, Ward said that membership bodies’ fees prevent many young people from getting involved:

“Specialist organisations in the sector - the NCVO, Acevo - those kind of really big professional bodies, their entry costs to lots of big conferences automatically exclude young people and automatically, actually, small organisations.

"If you’re a small £200-300,000 charity, £300 to attend an event is probably pointless and actually I’d say return on investment for lots of those events is probably questionable. I’ve been to a couple and I’m not sure exactly what I’ve learnt,” he said.

Late last year a CAF poll revealed that there could be as many as five million young people who would consider being a trustee. Ward called for a more considered approach to encouraging young trustees into the sector, one of the stepping stones to careers in the sector. He provided a grounding statement once made to him:

“My chair is great, she was CEO of  British Youth Council a long time ago, and she said:  ‘There’s no such thing as a young trustee, you’re just a trustee who is incidentally young’. And I think that’s the key point, that when we’re thinking about this today, that we think about it a bit more intelligently.”