Trustees’ Week has landed again and I wanted to share some of the great resources out there that can help you become a better trustee, as well as invite you to an informal Trustees Week chat that we’re hosting alongside our colleagues from SCVO. Many of these resources will help you all year long, whether you’re thinking of become a trustee, you’re new to the role or you want to build upon your experience.

Trustees are the people in charge of a charity. They often give their time in the background, making sure their charity operates properly, safeguarding its staff and the people it supports and making sure the charity fulfils its purposes.

Trustees’ Week is an annual campaign to showcase the wonderful work trustees do and to open up opportunities for more people to become trustees from all walks of life.

The Trustees’ Week website is a great starting point for information about trustees and the events and resources open to them. Here are some of my picks from the big programme of guidance, events and activities happening across the country, many of which you can access online.

Events during Trustees Week

Getting on Board’s Festival of Trusteeship

“It’s for people who want to become trustees, trustees who want to keep learning and developing, and for charity leaders who want to understand best practice in trustee recruitment and diversity.

We’ll have an action-packed week of events, with workshops, Ted-style talks, networking events, Q&A clinics, and more.

If you want to learn about: youth leadership, anti-racism in the boardroom, anti-ageism, charity finances, ableism, how to recruit amazing candidates, anti-sexism, how to manage volunteers, diversity & inclusion, safeguarding for trustees, how to be a strategic force for change, what charitable impact is and how to drive it forwards as a trustee, and even more… join us at the Festival of Trusteeship!“

There’s also lots of webinars, workshops and discussions covering topics such as board diversity, governance in challenging times, recruiting new trustees and more. Find the full list here.

On Friday, we’re jointly hosting a Trustees’ Week chat with our colleagues from SCVO. Intentionally without an agenda, you’ll be free to join us to learn more about trusteeship, ask specific questions or share your experience and expertise. If you’d like to join us on this Zoom call, please register here.

Resources for trustees

The Charity Commission’s new ‘take 5’ guides

The Charity Commission has written new 5 minute guides, covering the top 5 areas of trustee responsibilities:

• financial oversight
• achieving a charity’s purposes
• good decision making
• addressing conflicts of interest
• what to file with the Commission and what support is available

The Essential Trustee

The Charity Commission’s core guidance for charity trustees, which covers the legal duties and responsibilities of charity trustees.

The Charity Governance Code

A practical tool for charities and their trustees to develop high standards of governance.

NCVO Good Trustee Guide

Primarily for new trustees. This guide is available to NCVO members and has been made available to non-members until 9 November.

NCVO Trustee Recruitment Pack

A toolkit for small charities looking to recruit new trustees. This is available to NCVO members and has been made available to non-members until 9 November.

NCVO also has great resources and tools available all year round to help you to improve your governance. Visit https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/ for more.

Finally, we offer training to any Dudley-based charity on the roles and responsibilities of trustees using The Essential Trustee and the Charity Governance Code. This training takes boards through the principles of trusteeship and helps you to identify gaps, providing you with support, guidance and knowhow to improve your board’s performance. Please get in touch if you’d like this training.