Have you ever been looking for a voluntary opportunity and seen ‘Trustee needed for small charitable organisation’ and bypassed it quickly thinking ‘I couldn’t be a trustee’ or ‘I’m not sure what a trustee even does?

Well next week (4- 10 November) is Trustee Week, a time to raise awareness and encourage opportunities for the role of trustees. It also allows us to think of our own trustees and work out what could be done differently.


But what does a trustee do? Trustees play a vital role in helping make important decisions on behalf of the charity, sharing professional skills, helping to sustain the work and planning for the future of the charity.


Being a trustee is incredibly rewarding, whilst you are providing skills you will inevitably also learn new ones, you will understand the workings of an organisation, meet new people and have the knowledge that you are supporting an important, local cause.

Oxfordshire has an enormous amount of charitable organisations, covering a wide breadth of topics and therefore has many opportunities.

According to the Trustee’s Week website it estimates that there are over 1, 000,000 charities in the UK and over half of those have at least one vacancy on their board.


One of the areas of concern currently is that there are not enough younger people involved at a Trustee level, in fact less than 1% are under 25!

If you Google ‘trustees’ and your local area then click on various results it is unlikely you will see a young face smiling back at you.

It may be young people believe they are not experienced enough to take on a trustee role. Helen Baker, Chair of Trustees for Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action explains “specialist experience is not essential, but what a board will really be looking for is a clear commitment to the cause combined with the ability to think about the organisation strategically, strong analytical skills and sound judgment”. It is believed that the average age of a trustee is 57 and one cannot argue that age brings experience but youth can offer other positives often those linked to being brought up in a digital age and understanding new markets; a different perspective of experience.


There are organisations set up to help young people interested in becoming a trustee such as Young Charity Trustees . It is also the responsibility of charities to involve young people on their board, the charity Commission covers this on their website and stating that involvement must not be “tokenistic” and they must be looked at individuals with skills to contribute and not that they just  “represent their peers”.


There is a wealth of information, events listing and links on the Trustees Week webpage at www.trusteesweek.blogspot.co.uk

If you are interested in becoming a trustee then check out opportunities at do-it.org.uk or contact Volunteer Centre Oxfordshire
If you are a charity and feel the need to refresh your Trustee’s knowledge and understanding of their roles then you can contact OCVA for Trustee training, email Hilary.Burr@ocva.org.uk more information.