Ever wondered what is really involved in being a charity trustee or Chair? Rebecca Sumner Smith, the Lab’s COO, shares some insights.
In May this year, we said goodbye to our wonderful Chair, Kit Beazley, who stepped down after six years on our board of trustees. You can read his reflections on his time with the Lab here. For the next nine months we’re rotating the position of Chair, with three of our existing trustees taking it in turns to step up into the role. A big thank you to Thobeka Ngcobo, Nuria Molina and Alice Merry for agreeing to take on this responsibility.
But what does it really mean to be a trustee of a charity like the Lab? And what does it mean to be a Chair of our board?
Trustee board? Or board of directors? Or both?
Firstly, let’s clarify the terminology. What do we actually mean when we talk about boards, trustees, and directors?
While we use these terms interchangeably at times, they do have slightly different meanings. Taking the Lab as an example, we’re a registered charity but, as is common, we’re also a company limited by guarantee. This means our trustees are trustees of the charity and also directors of the company.
Taken together the trustees/directors form our board and have responsibility for strategic oversight and governance of the organisation. Specific responsibilities are determined by the Charity Commission for trustees (here, opens in new tab) and Companies House for directors (here, opens in new tab) – as well as by the governing documents of the Lab itself.
Every board is different – because every organisation is different
The role of a trustee can look very different from organisation to organisation.
According to the most recent Civil Society Almanac (available here, opens in new tab) around half of all UK voluntary sector organisations have an income of under £10,000 per year, and a further 30% have income of less than £100,000. Often such organisations will have no or few employees, and board members may have day-to-day operational responsibilities.
At the other end of the scale are the less than 1% of voluntary sector organisations with annual income over £10m. Joining one of those boards will be a very different experience, with a very different set of expectations.
Trustees at the Lab
At the Lab we are somewhere in-between these extremes. The day-to-day running of the organisation is the responsibility of the Chief Executive supported by the Executive Team, with the board providing oversight and input in a variety of areas. At the Lab, as in most non-profit organisations, the role of trustee is a voluntary one. The debate about whether charity trustees should be paid is a complex one, and we won’t get into it now. It’s enough here for us to note that we know it’s a huge commitment. That’s why we’re so grateful to everyone past or present who has stepped up to take this on.
Since I joined the Lab in 2019 the Lab has more than doubled in size. We’ve evolved our strategy and priority areas, now tackling our focus areas of economic and environmental justice through a mixture of campaigning, collaboration, and catalysing change (read more about our work on our website here). While that evolution hasn’t led to radical change in the board-team relationship it has led to some shifts in the types of expertise we need on our board, and how and when trustees get more directly involved in our work.
The role of Lab Chair today
In preparation for the previous Chair’s departure we spent some time renewing the role descriptions for the Chair, Vice Chair and general trustee positions. We’ve clarified what we expect of all our trustees, and we’ve thought hard about how the Chair’s role differs, highlighting the key areas of supporting the CEO, ensuring the board is inclusive and effective, and working collaboratively with the CEO and exec to ensure the team-board relationship is as productive as possible. (If you’re interested, you can read more about each role’s responsibilities here.)
We don’t see this as looking different whether that’s a rotating Chair role or the longer-term role we’re aiming to fill next year, and having this renewed clarity means everyone knows what they are getting into! In future we may also explore the possibility of having co-Chairs, to help remove some of the time-related barriers to taking on this kind of role. We’ll share more on that as and when this develops.
Getting involved
Interested in becoming a trustee? We’ll be opening our annual recruitment process in the autumn, sign up to our newsletter to hear more.You can find out more about our current trustees on our website here.