How to Make Your Leadership Board Stand Out and Add Value to Your Proposal

In the UK, charities Trustees (or Leadership Board) play a very important role, almost always unpaid, in a sector that contributes significantly to the character and wellbeing of the country.

Trusteeship can be rewarding for many reasons – from a sense of making a difference to the charitable cause, to new experiences and relationships. It is also likely to be demanding of your time, skills, knowledge, and abilities. Being aware of these duties and responsibilities will help your Trustees carry out their role in a way that serves your charity well and can be helpful when pulling together proposals or looking for funding. 

Unfortunately, there is no one complete set of agreed definitions for terms like equality, diversity, and inclusion, but here are some commonly used definitions:

Effective governance by the board of a charity should harness the collective efforts of the accomplished individuals on your board to advance your organisations mission and long-term welfare. A board’s contribution is meant to be strategic, the joint product of talented people brought together to apply their knowledge and experience to the major challenges facing the institution, which very much includes helping with funding.

Entire books have been written about the art of cultivating, identifying, asking, and nurturing a strong charity board but there are some basic things to consider when recruiting Trustees. The UK Government via the Charity Commission suggest you take the following into account: 

• That the skills and experience the current trustees have, and whether there are any gaps.
  • For example: do you need a board member with financial expertise; funding connections; strong community ties?
• Ensuring new trustees do not have serious conflicts of interest
• Ensuring that the organisation understands if it needs Charity Commission consent for new trustees and that procedures are in place to manage any conflicts of interest
• That all trustees are interested in the charity’s work, understand their commitment, and are willing to give their time to help.
  •  Remember accepting your invitation means they become an ambassador and advocate for your organisation.

What makes a good Trustee/Board Member?

This will vary from organisation to organisation depending on your needs, but some questions you should to ask yourself would be:

• Are your current board members engaged with the work of your organisation? If not, what do you need to do to ensure any new members are?
• Do your board members currently attend meetings regularly? If not, what can you do to remedy this and do you need to recruit new members that you can guarantee will attend?
• Are the outcomes of your Board meetings useful and if not why, and how can you remedy this?
• Does your board support the work of your staff and the needs of your organization?
• Does your board represent the diversity of your organisation? (Learn more about the importance of diversity here)

Your board should consist of driven individuals who are working for your organisation’s success. They must work together with management to determine the important issues and the agenda of your organisation.

Trustees/Leadership Boards and Fundraising

There are many areas of a charities work that Trustees can be involved in. For example, they can help the Senior Management with the ‘big picture’ such as reviewing the organization’s strategic challenges, targeting the priority issues that the organisation needs to address.

In terms of fundraising. Trustees have a key role to play in ensuring that their organisation’s approach to fundraising is in keeping with its purpose, values, and culture. A successful fundraising programme will secure the resources that a charity needs to deliver its aim/services, as well as establishing long-term supporter relationships. Most importantly, a trustee needs to ensure that their charity has an appropriate approach to fundraising and that it is meeting its legal and ethical responsibilities. As a Trustee, it can be incredibly rewarding to be a part of that.

But remember, fundraising is about much more than bringing in the money. As one of the most visible aspects of a charity’s work, fundraising activity can shape opinion, embody the values of your charity, and set the tone for your public image and brand.

Being on a trustee board can vary hugely depending on the size of the organisation, and this can bring with it several challenging strategic and operational decisions. For example, trusteeship at a smaller charity can often mean little or no staff and minimal financial resources, so there is a need for a more hands-on approach. 

In this case, you might find it even more important to ensure that the trustee board has the right skills mix that the organisation needs to grow and develop. A Trustee may be drawn into the day-to-day operational issues, fundraising plans, and strategy, coordinating volunteers etc., while still fulfilling their overall strategic responsibilities

How Trustees/Leadership Contribute to a Successful Fundraising Strategy

A fundraising strategy is a lot more than the consideration of one technique over another – it outlines your organisation’s approach to fundraising, sets goals, and outlines a clear pathway for achieving them. While Trustees may not need to write the strategy, their opinions and objectivity will help guide your organisation in working towards and achieving the goals. 

Getting this right requires time, attention, and the involvement and expertise of people both inside and outside your organisation. Trustees, as part of their responsibilities will need to review the organisation’s plans for income generation and how your fundraising fits into your organisation’s full funding picture. For example: how dependent is your organisation on each income stream and is your current fundraising capacity sufficient to secure funds on an ongoing basis? Does your charity need to expand its fundraising team or train existing fundraisers in new techniques.

How Trustees/Leadership Boards Actively Help with fundraising

They can ensure that fundraising is an organisational priority, and that your organisation has clear policies so that everyone in the organisation understands the importance of fundraising and supports your organisations approach.

It is important that fundraising issues are on the agenda of all Board and relevant sub-committee meetings on a regular basis and that outcomes from these meetings are actioned and monitored by your Trustees.

It is your Boards job to ensure that fundraising is sufficiently well resourced (in terms of staffing, volunteers, budgets etc.)

Trustees in partnership with your organisations senior staff should be looking out for changes in the external environment (whether political, economic, regulatory) and share that knowledge and information with staff and other trustees, taking appropriate action as needed. Trustees must be willing to offer their professional skills, expertise, and contacts to guide fundraising approaches both in terms of current strategy and new fundraising channels. This can cover a variety of areas including: Statutory Funding, High Net Worth (HNW) individuals, Grant applications, Legacies, Events, Tax Effective Giving etc,

Trustees should be encouraged to take part in fundraising, such as organising an event or taking part in a sponsored challenge.

Finally, as ambassadors and advocates, your Trustees should where suitable be talking to their colleagues, clients, friends, and family about the charity’s work, sharing their enthusiasm for your organisation and encouraging support/donations.

NPG is here to help you

Combining ROI-oriented grant fundraising with story driven proposals, NPG creates fundraising campaigns with compelling narratives that exceed fundraising and growth goals. NPG begins each project with a full understanding and firm commitment to your strategic objectives.