Trustees’ Week is an opportunity to celebrate the hundreds of thousands of people who give their time, skills and experience to help charities thrive. This year, we wanted to shine a light on some of our own colleagues at Mills & Reeve who volunteer as charity trustees, and to hear what inspired them to take on the role.
Charity trusteeship is an extraordinary form of volunteering. Trustees have ultimate responsibility for the charities they serve: helping to set their direction, safeguard their resources and ensure that they continue to deliver their charitable purposes. As the Charity Commission’s essential trustee guidance puts it, trustees have “independent control over, and legal responsibility for, a charity’s management and administration”. It is a role which is almost always unpaid and which can demand considerable time, skill, knowledge and energy.
It isn’t just about the responsibilities though. Opening Trustees' Week last year, David Holdsworth, chief executive of the Charity Commission, described trusteeship as “an act of radical optimism”: a decision to invest your time, skills and wisdom in making a better future possible. He also described trustees as the “beating heart” of the charity sector.
That seems particularly apt when you hear from the people who actually do it.
Our trustees:
I've been interested in the hospice movement ever since Dame Cicely Saunders came to talk to us at school and we managed to raise significant amounts for St Christopher’s. I was, therefore, really excited to be asked to become a trustee of Priscilla Bacon Hospice Charity in 2024. Working collaboratively with EEC NHS Trust, the charity does amazing work supporting people affected by life-limiting illness and bereavement across Norfolk. In our wonderful Lodge and in the community, our focus is on helping people to live well. The hospice movement in the UK is facing huge challenges, and yet delivering sympathetic and loving end of life care is so important. I am also a trustee of the Mills & Reeve Charitable Trust to which all partners at the firm contribute and which, last year, made grants of £316,000 to charities across the UK and internationally, many of which are doing remarkable work in our local in communities in the seven cities in which we have offices. This year, we are hoping to make grants of up to £340,000 in support of charities supporting our charitable theme of Building a Better Society.
I’m an independent Trustee at Your City and Metropolitan Hospitals Charity, which is the charity affiliated with the newly opened Midland Met hospital in Birmingham.
I’ve worked in health for over 20 years and had been looking for a suitable opportunity to be a trustee for a health charity for a while, since my daughters went to university and my husband and I became "empty nesters". This charity appealed to me because it supports the closest hospital to all of us working in our Birmingham office, and I knew of a number of colleagues who’d been taken ill while at work and received care at this hospital. There are two particularly large hospital charities in Birmingham – the children’s hospital and UHB - and I knew Your City and Metropolitan was a small charity looking to gain independent status. I felt I could give more of my time and experience to this growing charity and be there at the start of its growth plans.
I’ve been a charity trustee for many years and I’m currently on the boards of three charities. The largest is the Norfolk Community Foundation, which is very visible in our local community and, conveniently for me, is based next door to our Norwich office. We have a very experienced trustee board and a strong team who have deep insight into the issues facing communities across Norfolk. The Foundation is able to use that local knowledge to channel the generosity of individuals and organisations to where it can make a real difference. Good governance is critical to any charity, and my legal experience led to being invited to join the Foundation’s Audit and Risk Committee. I’m also a trustee of The Rope Trust, a Suffolk charity which has a similarly strong local focus. Supported by an excellent team in Ipswich, we make many individual grants through trusted caseworkers for the relief of poverty, where speed can often be of the essence, as well as making larger grants which can have a more transformational impact. My third trusteeship, The Clan Trust, is a smaller charity. Its work supporting young people in agriculture, agricultural education and innovation, as well as older people in our community, sits right at the heart of my agricultural practice area.
One of the things I’ve particularly enjoyed about being a trustee is the opportunity to meet and work with people from different backgrounds, each bringing their own experience and perspective to the trustee board. What we all have in common is a desire to use that experience to help others and to make a positive difference in our local communities.
I am a trustee of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. As an alumni who is now a charity solicitor (better at law than singing) I felt ideally placed to help the charity and keen to give back to a charity that I owe so much to. I attend trustee meetings every few months, where we review the performance of the charity and challenge the leadership to keep the improvements coming. We also give big pats on the back, as we get to see the choirs in action at concerts and course visits. I keep an eye out for legal issues that will impact the charity and update the trustees and chief executive. This trustee role, where I get to use my legal skills for a charity which is very close to my heart, is a rewarding and inspiring experience, and is excellent hands on experience to develop my skills.
I have just finished my term as a Trustee of Manchester Camerata. The Camerata is almost certainly the UK’s most pioneering and innovative orchestra; as well as performing truly ground-breaking music across diverse settings, it is also a leader in music, health and wellbeing, hosting the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia and running the award-winning Music in Mind programme. As a lawyer on the board, as well as general trustee duties, I had a particular role in looking at the Camerata from a legal, regulatory and governance perspective, and helping us all stay on the straight and narrow (though as it is an organisation with an excellent and professional governance structure, fortunately I didn’t have to raise any alarm bells!). I remain a financial supporter of the orchestra, and go regularly to their events, though these days I sadly don’t receive any complementary tickets…
Being a trustee has been an excellent and thoroughly rewarding experience, and it was a delight to use my skills in an organisation which so closely matches my passions. If you like classical music, go onto any streaming service and check them out – their Mozart Made In Manchester recordings are particularly special. But they do a lot more than simply classical music.
I’m a trustee of a small charity based in South-West London, The Globe Players.
The Globe Players tour schools in London & the South-East, performing plays (mainly Shakespeare and GCSE set texts such as A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls). They’ve been running now for 60 years and I joined as a trustee in 2021.
I wanted to become a trustee to put some of my regulatory knowledge into practice, and to hopefully be of use to a charity. My friend who works for the Globe Players knew I was looking for a charity to support, and suggested them.
It is really rewarding to be a part of a charity that does something entirely different to my day job, and to help them (in a minor way) to carry on the brilliant work they have been doing for so long. Many of the kids they perform for have never been to a theatre or seen a play, and their casts reflect diverse backgrounds and paths into acting, enriching the experience for schools and students alike.
For anyone thinking about becoming a trustee I would say absolutely do it, but think first about what you can offer, and what sort of charity you want to support. Shop around a bit to find the right match for you and for the charity.
Giving time, skills and experience
These stories show that trustees bring enthusiasm and community experience as well as their professional expertise. The role demands time and commitment, but offers opportunities to develop skills and support a cause that matters. Mills & Reeve’s ‘Give a Day’ scheme helps colleagues make time for volunteering, including trustee meetings.
To our colleagues and readers serving as trustees, governors or in other voluntary governance roles: thank you for your time, expertise and care. Inspired by their stories? The Charity Commission’s guidance on becoming a trustee and The Essential Trustee are useful starting points.
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