Many charities need to strengthen their boards if they are going to survive, says Ian Joseph, chief executive of Trustees Unlimited.

This year’s Volunteers’ Week caused me to reflect on some of the major issues that have impacted charities in the past year.

We’ve seen the media and public scrutiny of charities reaching new levels, more negative press and increased regulation – a combination of factors that have led to charities, insofar as governance is concerned, crossing the Rubicon – the point of no return.

Hitherto, many charities have got by with weak and ineffective boards in place but these charities will not survive in the future.

The Charity Commission’s new guidance on fundraising issued in December made it clear that ‘the buck stops with trustees’ in terms of fundraising practices and under the new Charity Act, the Commission will have new powers to disqualify trustees for up to 15 years.

Good governance has never been so vital and charities need to rethink the skills required in the boardroom and the individuals they bring onto their boards and this may mean taking some recruitment risks.

Charity boards need individuals who have, if not prior board experience, strong committee/team experience and this can come from any sector along with real transferrable skills and experience.  

The truth is many boards are still risk averse and are still fishing for talent in a tiny pool – their own networks. These organisations will need to think more strategically about the skills they need in the future and how to attract them.  This may involve bringing people onto boards who have no sector experience and being prepared to train and mentor them – to fill in the knowledge gaps.

Also, with the average age of a trustee being 57, younger people must be part of equation to ensure the requisite skills are in place for the future. More to Give: London Millennials Working Towards a Better World, published by City Philanthropy and Cass Business School last year, clearly highlighted the passion for volunteering amongst young people.

Over half of London workers under 35 want to volunteer more and this figure rises to 60 per cent amongst 18-24 year olds. Yet, fewer than 2 per cent of charities have a trustee the age of 24 on their board. Could charities be doing more to tap into this enthusiasm for volunteering and encourage some of these young people to think about trusteeship?

The impact of technology should be a major consideration. It is completely evolving the workplace and like all organisations, charities need to embrace it. Recruiting people with digital skills could transform fundraising and marketing and ensure an organisation stays relevant to its donors and beneficiaries.

But it can’t be about tokenism. Successfully engaging young trustees will take a complete mind set shift and potentially a change in working practices.  Whilst lunchtime trustee meetings are ideal for retired people, they may not suit busy professionals, so changes might be needed.  

Charities will also need to be more open minded about who they recruit; welcome people from more diverse backgrounds and be prepared to spend time mentoring them. They also may need to truly recognise the mutual benefits of skills sharing across the generational divide.

A terrific source of high calibre people are professionals from outside the sector who are looking to leverage their talents on a board for the first time. We run a board-level volunteering programme, Step on Board , in partnership with NCVO which facilitates just this.

Using training and one to one support, we train and place business professionals onto non-profit boards. This tailor-made volunteering programme connects business leaders with communities and has helped many charities during times of transformation.

For companies it serves as an alternative to leadership development for senior people and enables them to develop new skills and support charities in a sustainable way.  

Charities benefit from having people with different skills, often board level experience and in many cases good connections that can help boost fundraising or advocacy. Step on Board clients include Barclays, Google and Credit Suisse amongst others and a good many charities have now appointed trustees from these companies to their boards.

There is amazing talent out there; existing boards need to be the best they can be and this is partly by recruiting the willing talent that is out there.